As I mentioned before, the builders are building the whole studio except for the Acoustic Treatment which I will do later myself. I have some concerns about how, where, and how far from the wall surface I should have the mini-split AC, lighting, light switches, outlets, and ventilations attached.
I’m planning on building the treatment directly on the walls and not hanging a bunch of panels. The reasons are it’s probably easier to build that way, it’ll look nicer, and I’m afraid of things falling down with earthquakes, etc. But as of now, I don’t know how thick the treatments are going to be or how much of the walls are going to be covered (probably a pretty large percentage). I also want the ceiling treatment “built-in/on” if possible.
For outlets and light switches, instead of doing this
and this
I’m thinking of doing something like this (except it'll be on drywall).
By using surface-mounted electrical boxes and conduits I can have all the electrical brought into the studio from one area of a wall, and once inside, they can branch off through conduits to different locations without all the wires running inside the walls. This will also eliminate the need to use putty pads for the boxes. Generally speaking, does this sound like a good idea?
If so, how should the boxes and conduit be attached to the walls Directly onto the drywall, or put some wooden strips, studs or something first? If using wooden strips, how should the wood be attached to the walls? Screws, staples, adhesive, etc. I’m just paranoid about making bunch of holes and compromising the isolation.
I saw someone saying “You can also mount electrical boxes in your Acoustic Treatment. Example if you need outlets where the bass trap is, you can have an electrical box in the trap itself.” I suppose if I can built these electrical boxes into the treatment then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about how far away from the walls I need to have them attached.
The same person mentioned “You can also use track lighting or other surface mount options.” This will allow me to keep things simple, and I like the idea. But if I was to have most or all of the ceiling treated, using track lighting (instead of having lights built into the treatment), I would need the tracks mounted away from the ceiling or the treatment might interfere with the lights. Since I don’t know how big the treatment is going to be, I’m not sure how to best approach this. I was thinking of using flexible conduit instead of the rigid kind right by the lighting fixture so I can later adjust or change the placement of the tracks and lights as I install the ceiling treatment. What do you all think of this? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Ventilation: I’m going to have 2 intake and 2 exhaust on the ceiling. I assume I would just work around these with the treatment since they need to be sealed right at the ceiling? They look like the picture below.
Here’s my biggest question (of the day). Where to place the mini-split AC unit. And do I just not have any treatment around the ac unit, or do I have them installed away from the wall by say 12”-14” or something so that the treatment wouldn’t block the air flow? Is there a typical approach that’s taken for this?
Looking at the image below, considering where the door(s) are located, do the location/direction of the speakers seem ok? I was thinking it’s better this way for treating the first reflection area. Or should the setup be turned around?
Thank you all as always!
Keith