SOUND ON SOUND

[Fishnish]

.....................
Oh, it turns out I may well be able to get the glazing in the velux windows replaced with acoustic laminated glass as well. This I've put on the back burner for now but will come back to later.

Good news that you could have an option on that, as a just in case.

Hope your back is behaving better. Here we've been trying to complete the re-cladding of an outbuilding before the winter storms really kick in, and moving a poorly placed pile of boulders that was blocking a gateway from one end of the croft to the other, so mine has been suffering similarly.

Looks like it's all coming together in the loft, Nice job! I'm enjoying watching the progress thanks for the updates.

[Eddy Deegan]

Hope your back is behaving better. Here we've been trying to complete the re-cladding of an outbuilding before the winter storms really kick in, and moving a poorly placed pile of boulders that was blocking a gateway from one end of the croft to the other, so mine has been suffering similarly.

Thanks :) ... I had to back off (hehe) for a few days during which I was rather 'crook', but luckily as I suspected it's nothing fundamental just the temporary aggravation of an injury I suffered through youthful ignorance/exuberance when I was about five years old!

[Eddy Deegan]

Subsequent to the interruption caused by my back issues, I'm definitely on the mend and as such I've been pushing things forward as best I can.

My lovely wife put down some of the Green Glue joist isolation tape for me as I'm starting to have to juggle things around for the time being until the floor is fully laid:



This required some manoeuvres as I still have some bales of Rockwool floating about, as well as the other 22mm chipboard flooring. 22mm chipboard flooring is heavy stuff, and a pain to move.

After the builders had cut it to size and left, I numbered each piece before commencing insulation as it would only reassemble in a specific order:



Today, in an hour's intermission between heavy rainstorms I managed to hop up on to the scaffolding and cut some 2x4 for the secondary stud wall at the party end, using the roof of the house as as saw-horse:



In the above image I've also extracted the party-wall-end sections of the flooring from the piles and laid them, albeit separated in the meantime (pending final confirmation from the electrician tomorrow morning that he won't need sub-floor access), for something to walk on as well as to start diminishing the piles of heavy boards that had accumulated at the other end of the room.

Finally, I've built the majority of the secondary stud wall which will cover the party wall. Tomorrow I'll finish that and do the studwork over the stairs, as well as start to lay the floor proper, which involves finishing the laying of the joist tape and glueing the boards on the floor to each other such that they are a coherent surface.

I'm also confident that there will be no need to screw into the joists at any point - the floor will be a 'floating plane' in that sense.



Out of shot I've insulated more of the vertical walls. I know this is all preliminary to the 'proper' studio work but as it's all the same project I'm documenting it from start to finish :-)

[Watchmaker]

This is amazing :-)

some built in bass trapping, fun angles, discontiguous floor!...problems to solve, and some pain because the gods like us to suffer for our good works. What more could you ask for?

[Eddy Deegan]

As an interim update, I'm still working on the fabric of the space insofar as there is an huge amount of insulation ongoing which in conjunction with the aforementioned back injury (improving though it is) is proving time consuming.

However, things are progressing, in no small part due to my wife getting stuck in with gusto and doing many eaves-related things, which is brilliant as she is a 'proper grafter', getting loads done and significantly smaller than I am which facilitates under-roof matters considerably. On my part, the floor has been relaid (glued this time) over the rockwool and isolated joists...



... on her part, the walls are pretty much insulated ...



... also on her part, the floor under the eaves has been completely cleared of the old cruddy insulation ...



... and she's rapidly installing rockwool, with a view to finishing tomorrow.



Back to my part; the rear-most stud wall on the party wall has been backed with breathable membrane and insulation has started on that also although I'm down to my last 2 bales and the eaves floor is taking priority.

Next up, and hopefully completed by the end of Sunday, is the the studwork over the stairs and the 'battening out' of the roof joists, which need thickening to accomodate 125mm of rockwool with a 50mm gap behind it.

This involves some logistics as there are stacks of 2-by-4 and battening on the scaffolding outside which need to be cut to length up high on the scaffold and shipped into the space via the window apertures so it should be a fun day, especially if it's raining :lol:

I've also measured up the ceiling. Inner (ridge to the inside of the outer wall) and outer (ridge to the breathable soffit) dimensions as well as the skeiling and will be ordering the 50+75mm rockwool for the ceiling, the additional 2x2 battening and 100mm rockwool for the skeiling during the day tomorrow. Also the 100mm rockwool for the stair-walls below, the short wall in the eaves, the walls of the storage area at the stair-end of the room, the double thickness party wall, and the enclosure over the stairs.

There is also some framing to be done in the access stairway. An order of acoustic and normal plasterboard will follow along with the resilience bars for mounting the former.

One thing I would mention for anyone doing the same or similar is that there is a slight vibration of nearby objects if I jump up and down in the center of the room. I weigh 17+ stones (107Kg/238lb) but I'd rather it wasn't there and if I'd known beforehand I'd have got the builders to sandwich some additional bars of steel between some of the double floor-joists. I can live with it.

Will - spoke to the sparky yesterday and he too recommended poking holes in the plasterboard for the lighting wires, so consider that a given (I was going to anyway in light of your comment). On a related note I'll also be creating some story-poles/strings for identifying locations of timber studs going forward.

The next order of rockwool and other supplies will be quite a big one, but at least there is a floor to put it on now.

Soldiering on and for any who are wondering, much studio-specific stuff will follow. This is all the foundational stuff, mainly concerned with soundproofing, which precedes talk of acoustic treatment/dispersion, ceiling clouds, bass traps and so forth ;-)

[Martin Walker]

Wow, you two HAVE been busy - bravo the team! :clap:


Martin

[Folderol]

On a related note I'll also be creating some story-poles/strings for identifying locations of timber studs going forward.

The way I handled this was to put marks on the walls lined up with the centers of the joists, then as you have a reference both sides of a board you can quickly do the edges. Snap a chalked string across when you come to the centers. It's remarkably easy to go out of line when you're looking up - especially with the full size boards.

[Eddy Deegan]

Wow, you two HAVE been busy - bravo the team! :clap:

Thanks Martin - yes, definitely a team effort and this has continued insofar as this lot turned up yesterday afternoon ...



... and as of today a bale and a half is already installed. In other news, the roof joists are now battened out with an extra 25mm of wood in readiness for the installation of 50mm + 75mm Rockwool RW3 slabs commencing during the coming day.

Transporting 20 bales of rockwool from drive to second floor is no fun, but I'm sure it did me good even though I needed a cold shower afterwards to cool off :D

I've also been in touch with the builders, who have given me access to their trade account with the supplier and through which channel I'll be ordering the standard (non-acoustic) plasterboard, alumiflex wrap, battens for the skeiling and celotex insulation for the eaves (outside of the bounds of the acoustic compartment).

Turns out that one of their number was after a recommendation for a synth for their son and having seen my project they asked me to make some suggestions, which is fair trade in my book given they have been accomodating on the materials front :-)

So we now have 3-4 days of more insulation, during which I'll be sorting out the plasterboard, celotex and alumiflex order and also sourcing some decent acoustic plasterboard (along with the requisite resilience bars) from an as-yet-to-be-determined supplier.

As all that's going on, I have a bit more framing to do over the stairs as well as installing the door frames at top and bottom of same.

I love hitting things with a hammer so much of the above is no chore, truth be told :-)

[Eddy Deegan]

On a related note I'll also be creating some story-poles/strings for identifying locations of timber studs going forward.

The way I handled this was to put marks on the walls lined up with the centers of the joists, then as you have a reference both sides of a board you can quickly do the edges.

Definitely a good plan. Until the plasterboard turns up I have no point of reference but once it does then I'll be marking it with gusto!

[Luke W]

:thumbup: Centred marks on the floor and ceiling are always a big help. Screwing in plasterboard and feeling no resistance whatsoever is an annoying feeling at best...

Thats an encouraging stack of Rockwool as well, it’s all looking great, Eddy.

[Martin Walker]

You do realise though Eddy that with all this constructional acoustic excellence, our expectations for this album you're working on (and mastering to vinyl) have now risen appreciably?

In other words, we're expecting GREAT things! 8-) 8-) 8-)

Can't wait!


Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

You do realise though Eddy that with all this constructional acoustic excellence, our expectations for this album you're working on (and mastering to vinyl) have now risen appreciably?

Haha, thanks Martin :) ... I'm not sure I'd call it acoustical excellence (and I know Max wouldn't) but I'm certainly endeavouring to implement best practice where possible with a view to maximising the soundproofing and minimising (or at least assisting) the additional internal treatment once the room is completed.

I'm looking forward to getting the musical works going in the new space more than I can say, and I'm very excited about the prospect!

In a shorter term progression update, the windows are now in:





The acoustic glass works rather well. All outside noise now appears to be emanating from above one's head as it's entering the space through the ventilation slots in the soffit outside.

This weekend will all be about insulation again. The aim is to get a 125mm thick double layer, comprised of 50mm + 75mm RW3, installed in the ceiling (with a 50mm air gap above it) which will not only make the place warmer (it's pretty chilly up there due to the open soffits) but clear the majority of the space currently occupied by bales of Rockwool, enabling delivery of plasterboard and related supplies mid-late next week.

We'll also be replacing some of the Rockwool in the thin vertical wall between the windows as it's rather patchy in places due to access restrictions caused by the temporary shuttering over the apertures prior to the proper frames going in. The stuff that's in there now will be easily dispensed elsewhere in the space to pack various crevices here and there.

As confirmed by the discussion on the last SOS Virtual Meet, throughout the acoustic space I'll be doing a double layer of acoustic plasterboard, on resilience bars, with green glue in between the plasterboard sheets.

I've also been progressing the framing over the stairs, and should have that completed by the end of the weekend also (there will be an enclosed area at the top of the steps and a door through which the room is entered).





As the neighbours have small children I've slowed down the framing this week to avoid disturbing them after about 7pm but will be pushing hard this weekend to finish the timber work.

Oh, I've also got to finally make an accurate-ish reckoning on the quantities of plasterboard and related supplies to order so there will be a fair amount of measuring and calculating going on too.

Now that the glazing is done we're also anticipating losing the scaffolding soon. The builders were waiting on the window company before completing the external tiling and once that's finished there will be no need for scaffolding any more. Having had it around the house for 2 months the novelty has worn off and we're sick of it :lol:

[blinddrew]

Those windows may not do much for the acoustics but they will make it a lovely place to be. :thumbup:

P.s. I'm still pretty impressed with the acoustic glass in my shed. I get the low frequency of the trains if they idle over the fence, but nothing else.

[Martin Walker]

With those windows in place, the end is in sight (after lots and lots of work by both you and your builders).

Looking really good!


Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

Those windows may not do much for the acoustics but they will make it a lovely place to be. :thumbup:

Definitely :-)

It's a strange thing to juggle ... on the one hand, glass and acoustics don't mix well but on the other hand the reason for having acoustics in mind in the first place is entwined with a need to be creative and the view, for me, is a huge boost to the creativity.

It's also a consideration that the space will serve as a home office as well as a studio and there are environmental benefits there also.

Interestingly, the window frames are surprisingly non-rigid and can be flexed in and out a few mm with moderate pressure which I think might help also. At the same time they exhibit a quiet confidence in their strength and I have no concerns about their robustness in a 'falling-against-them' accident.

I'm still pretty impressed with the acoustic glass in my shed. I get the low frequency of the trains if they idle over the fence, but nothing else.

Sounds good to me! Fortunately, I live on a quiet street and the nearest real source of noise is the A27 which runs across the top of the far side of the valley (the horizon outside the windows). As that's not really an issue at the best of times the real purpose of the glass is to keep out the sound of people mowing their lawns etc.

I am going to follow up on Will's suggestion about theatre curtains - I've warmed to the idea of some extra-super-thick velvet (or similar) floor-to-ceiling affairs and will be looking into that properly in short order.

With those windows in place, the end is in sight (after lots and lots of work by both you and your builders).

Looking really good!

Thanks Martin - the windows going in is a huge step forward and really pave the way for the next huge step which will be the plasterboard. All being well I hope that should be starting to go up properly by the end of next week :thumbup: