Building a new house

[heathen]

Ahhhhhhhh finally my parents and I are building a new house in Allambie Hts, we are having the old house totally demolished, which will be sad as it was my grans house.

Anyway the home theatre which comes in the design will be my new studio, in the original plans the room was 4.5x4.0m, now changed to 4.5x5.5m roughly. Hopefully this will be enough room, I dont have too much gear so don't need too much room. So I'm wondering if you guys could give me any links to info which will help me decide how to treat the room when finished, such as how much wood and carpet to do the flooring with.

I don't want to go berserk and spend as much money as Rick just has. But it would be good to get some ideas on overhead and wall paneling to stop reflections and the like, bass trap design and the like, best position and stands for monitors.

Nothing will be able to be recessed back into walls so everything will have to be within the actual room boundary. So space and effectiveness are my main concerns.

The room will; have double inward opening doors which will be solid and somewhat noise proof I'm told by the builder and they offered to fill the walls around the room with rockwool or a similar material for only $600. I'll get more info on that, but they reckon it cuts sound level considerably, though I'm sure not as good as purpose built rooms. I don't actually need to have too much isolation, but anything is better than where I'm mixing now.

Also the old house I tried to have removed for someone else to have for free but....... my street is tooo small. The wood in the frame work is 50 year old North Coast hardwood, massive beams of the stuff underneath, but the work involved in removing the stuff is pretty daunting. The stuff bends nails when you try to hammer anything into it. Shame to waste it. I'm going to call some recyclers today. The old house is asbestos sooooo its like 15 grand just to get that removed.

Anyway if anyone can give me any ideas that would be great. The house will hopefully be completed by late next year so when it's done it would be good to hire someone to check out the room and write up a small acoustics plan or the like. I'm more than happy to pay for the right advice, this will be a mixing room only and I may add a vocal booth at a later date.

Cheers

[Kurt]

www.johnlsayers.com has a forum with lots of ideas on treatment/soundproofing

[TimS]

I go there alot too for advice...
Some really good info there..
I was going to post the link, but Kurt got there before me..
Cheers for that Kurt.
Tim..

[Ausrock]

Yep, John's forum.

Heath,

You really should start with the structure itself. One trend in domestic building is to have "quite areas", consequently there is considerable information available, contact gyprock suppliers and they should have CSR's publications free and from memory, I think you may also find the info on CSR-Bradford's website.......google "Bradford Isulation"

The better the "foundation" you have to work on, the better and more satisfying the end result will be.

[rick]

before you start get the builders to agree spend an extra 1000 dollars on a extra layer of gyprock fixed to the inner walls and roof wall with green glue only ( no srews) and then the builders ( rockwool soundproofing ) will work and you wife won't hear you work . rockwall is not a soundproofing treatment it is a wall cavity damping device which is a totally different thing ( but nobody seems to unstand that )

after the build is done acoustic treatment in a room that size easy enough / cheap enough .
call me if you get stuck and i will walk you through thebestwayto do things err .... for $70 hr :)

i have a bunch of studios on the go at the moment and more then half of them have " nearly no budget"

so my fee pays for its self on day one

[Ausrock]

before you start get the builders to agree spend an extra 1000 dollars on a extra layer of gyprock fixed to the inner walls and roof wall with green glue only ( no srews) and then the builders ( rockwool soundproofing ) will work and you wife won't hear you work . rockwall is not a soundproofing treatment it is a wall cavity damping device which is a totally different thing ( but nobody seems to unstand that )

What Rick said. This info and more is available from CSR-Bradford.

[mfdu]

what ausrock says rick said.

no, really. i'm in a 1930 weatherboard, and i long to glue down an extra layer of gyprock and float a floor over the existing. after $4,000 on 6.8mm thick secondary glazing (with minimum 15cm air gaps), and the sound comes through the walls clearer than through the windows.
not that i think i wasted my money. but the job is only half done.

and then there's the tin roof . . . you'd be going for tiles, i hope!!!!

chris
mfdu

[NYMo]

Hi Heathen,

Enjoy at least the next 6 months on the Sayers site (i spent 9 out of the last 12 months there!)

Alternatively go to Rick.. maybe a lot easier and cheaper.
My little room, about the same size as yours cost me around $22K all said and done (and a lot of f....ing heartache from the *tradesmen*..and i use that term loosely !)

Cheers
N
Y
M
O

[Kurt]

Tiles have lots of gaps, would they be any more effective than iron? I think that a heavy ceiling and lots of insulation would be equally effective with both roofing materials.

what ausrock says rick said.

no, really. i'm in a 1930 weatherboard, and i long to glue down an extra layer of gyprock and float a floor over the existing. after $4,000 on 6.8mm thick secondary glazing (with minimum 15cm air gaps), and the sound comes through the walls clearer than through the windows.
not that i think i wasted my money. but the job is only half done.

and then there's the tin roof . . . you'd be going for tiles, i hope!!!!

chris
mfdu

[mfdu]

yeah Kurt, i reckon you would be right. there'd be major air gaps with tiles, whereas a tin roof can be a bit more airtight (if there can be a sliding scale on such things!!) - but our roof is just good ole' tin, not steel.

a floating ceiling would certainly help mitigate the problem, regardless of the external materials.

chris.

[heathen]

Thanks for all the info guys I'll check it all out.

I think I'll consult with Rick too, I'm sure he'll save me a lot of time and worries.

The house will be 2 levels, the mixing room on the ground floor, so no roofing troubles there. It's only a small room but I want to get it right the first time cause there won't be a 2nd go at it (unless I start getting heaps of work), I'll add a vocal booth later, as I'm mainly mixing.

I know I can get a pretty serious sound from my small rig and the main thing buggering things at the moment is my room and monitoring. So I'm keen to have a reasonable environment for sound.

$1000 extra gyprock and glue now would save 10 grand later I guess, cheers Rick.

Great help all of you! Thanks.

[jkhuri44]

hope this doesnt change the subject much...but where are you mixing at the moment? at home? or in another studio??


-Jamil.

[heathen]

Hi Heathen,

Enjoy at least the next 6 months on the Sayers site (i spent 9 out of the last 12 months there!)

Alternatively go to Rick.. maybe a lot easier and cheaper.
My little room, about the same size as yours cost me around $22K all said and done (and a lot of f....ing heartache from the *tradesmen*..and i use that term loosely !)

Cheers
N
Y
M
O

Bummer man, yep I'm goin to Rick. I was thinking that, doing stuff in the building process is actually cheap, to do it later is a lot of messing around, I guess. $22k thats a fair bit. Hmmmm some tradesmen are a worry.

I reckon hopefully I'll need maybe 5 - 8k, I'll see what Rick says. We're on a tight ship but everything should work out,

Hmmmm I'll have to start collecting milk crates for funiture. :)

[heathen]

hope this doesnt change the subject much...but where are you mixing at the moment? at home? or in another studio??


-Jamil.

In my lounge room Jamil. Sort of my den, has a nice view but no acoustic treatment or anything except my lounges. For bass traps haha get this, I open my doors at each end of the room, go on laugh hard, hehe , get it outta your system, lol.

But yeah I've seen worse, still mine is not good. The new place will be better, geez I'll have retrain my ears again.

[heathen]

Ok I now have a pretty good Idea of what needs to be done at the build stage. All walls and roof in the mixing room will have a 2nd layer of gyprock with Green Glue as to Ricks specs (the green stuff is amazing) :) , the floor will be floated now as in the building process this will not cost much at all.

The walls will be sealed all around at the bottom and the windows will probably be double glazed. The room is on the ground floor so all cool there. Also will have solid sealed doors though I think thats already in the plan.

The builders have been so helpful with the design of the house (which is rare), with all these new house designs pretty much anything can be done with them as no internal walls are used for structural support integrity, so any can be changed. We removed 3 rooms and turned them into 1 big room upstairs for a lounge room which gave me a bit extra space for my room downstairs (extra 1.6m) , moving the front wall forward into the dining area.

I'm going to book time with Rick asap and just get the build and room costing sorted first then the acoustic stuff can be sorted next year. Should be done by this time next year. It may go a little over budget but thats ok. I've already spent a fair bit on gear so the next bit of gear is the room, which will be about as much as 1 really great eq or comp.

When its done guys come round for a beer and bring your fav cd's for test listen if your keen.

Cheers
Heath

[Kris]

This is a good thread... I have just moved into a small studio space in Mona Vale inside an existing facility. While it is primarily a video editing suite there's a vocal booth and I have been doing some tracking there. I will be talking to Rick soon enough as well I think. Needs some help and is very limited as to what I can physically do to the room, ie, no walls can move.

As for where I was before.... the sounds of the ocean almost masked the sound of my old G4. (but my new mac pro is sweeeeeet. so quiet).

[Aearth]

Congats Heath
Wow new room......get wooden floors for sure.

nIC

[heathen]

Hey thanks Nic, yeah wooden floors for sure, if its too bright or reflective I'll get a heavy rug. Man you've seen that original 60's shagpile carpet in my house(scary I know), maybe it could be useful, hehe, on 2nd thoughts maybe not. hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Actually I'd have a house wrecking party, bring your own sledgie but... with all the asbestos in this place.......... not a good idea.

[heathen]

This is a good thread... I have just moved into a small studio space in Mona Vale inside an existing facility. While it is primarily a video editing suite there's a vocal booth and I have been doing some tracking there. I will be talking to Rick soon enough as well I think. Needs some help and is very limited as to what I can physically do to the room, ie, no walls can move.

As for where I was before.... the sounds of the ocean almost masked the sound of my old G4. (but my new mac pro is sweeeeeet. so quiet).

Hey cool Kris, good stuff.

My main noise issue is my neighbours, there are 14 kids and 4 pools all within say 60 metres of my room now, so end of school holidays is always a blessing.

The neighbours next door rebuilt/reno a few years back and the builders were the dodgy bros, no insulation under thier wooden flooring at all and its an open split level so you can just imaging the LF thumps when they are even just walking around thier house, it drives me mad, but its not thier fault. The house is on bearers and joists, so is mine so the sound just comes straight through my floor.

I remember when the building started, there were guys cutting through fibro sheets with angle grinders, I could not believe my eyes, so I could,nt even open my windows for 5 months in the back room. Then when I say something to the owners about it they say , "you did well out of of your Nan dying, why are you complaining", aha. Neighbours from Hell.

Anyway I've had my revenge by mixing hiphop for the last 3 years. Boom chika boom boom, . Oh yeah :) .

Anyway I'm sick of them and they must be sick of me (or thier totally mad). So a decent audio room should benefit both of us, hmmmmm should hit up for some moolah toward it, heh.

[heathen]

Hey nic ya missed the new addition to my lunchbox in the photo, Buzz Tonic eq. Very very tasty. I'll have to lend it to you if you want, I may need a 525 for a few days.

[heathen]

http://www.solid-state-logic.com/shed/

[chris p]

Hmmm - I bet the price tag does not include the council development application. That's $2.5k alone for a gazebo where I live, goodness knows what they'd charge for this.

[TimS]

Hmmm SSL HQ is in Oxford UK!!!
I've just applied for a great job in Oxford too..

Could be interesting... or very expensive :)

Tim..

[heathen]

I wonder if it has a dunny?

[heathen]

Hmmm - I bet the price tag does not include the council development application. That's $2.5k alone for a gazebo where I live, goodness knows what they'd charge for this.

Yeah farout, damn councils, I think you need a DA to put up a letterbox around here.

[scott]

6 thousand for our building consent
5 1/2 thousand for 'developer contribution' (it's a new suburb we are not developers)
5 1/2 thousand for 'waste water system upgrade contribution'
Merry Christmas Manukau city council ho ho ho

[heathen]

6 thousand for our building consent
5 1/2 thousand for 'developer contribution' (it's a new suburb we are not developers)
5 1/2 thousand for 'waste water system upgrade contribution'
Merry Christmas Manukau city council ho ho ho

Hey thats nice of them.

Yeah same here, $10,000 for storm water retention pit, $10,000 just to get them to build in my area, certificates for this and f'ing everything, 1 good thing was my house is the first house away from the bushfire zone which would have meant more special approvals and certificates.

I also reckon the best thing to stick between the layers of gyprock is'nt "green glue" but actually a "tender presenter", just get a few of them, flatten em out and stick em between the 2 layers, theres nothing as dense I'm absolutely certain!

That was a joke. The first guy was great but he went on holiday for christmas.

Just trying now to get them to put "Green Glue" in between the layers of "soundcheck gyprock", of course because of occupational health and safety laws I can't supply it, but rest assured if they do it will be an extra 20%, oh well still better they do it.

Double glazing "oh no council won't allow a window not to open". Not even if I hang a firemans axe next to it? Who knows? I'll just double glaze it after they are gone, gotta get me a firemans axe for laughs, heh.

Also getting them to write into the tender that no holes for ducting or power outlets be made in the room, then if they stuff it they can fix it, I've got a good mate who works at "fairtrading" who'll help there if anything is screwed up.

Is'nt building a house fun fun fun.