Soundman2020 - Studio Design Forum

Greetings all,

Finally about to enter Phase 1: The permit for the demolition has come through! The process will happen 8-10 July!

If the permit for the concrete pad (Phase 2) takes as long, a coronavirus vaccine might come first!

All the best,

Paul

SoWhat wrote:Source of the postThe permit for the demolition has come through! The process will happen 8-10 July!

Woohoo!

SoWhat wrote:Source of the postIf the permit for the concrete pad (Phase 2) takes as long, a coronavirus vaccine might come first!

I have had those sort of delays, both in my previous place and the one I am building now. On the one hand, they are frustrating, while on the other they provide time to spend on details, planning, studying or something else.

Since we started on 18th November the calendar has whizzed through about 220 days yet only 33 of those have had a contractor of one flavour or another come to do some work, an average of one day a week, although the first few weeks flew by so fast with the builder here 5 days a week I was sure we would be finished in 6 months. After 7 months I am about half way.

Don't let it get you down, Paul, and here's hoping that the demolition goes well and you get your concrete pad in pretty quick.

Greetings Starlight,

Something about your description of the timeline of your project leads me to believe that there must be some sort of "half-life of construction theory"...
...perhaps Stuart can supply us with that formula as he's much better at math than I am.

Thanks for encouragement, but it's not getting me down at all (except for the budget). We are also building an art studio for my wife, which requires fewer permits, and will go very quickly once the pad is poured. That project will keep me busy during the interminable waiting.

Thank you again.

All the best,

Paul

SoWhat wrote:Source of the postSomething about your description of the timeline of your project leads me to believe that there must be some sort of "half-life of construction theory"...

Sounds like something Cyril Northcote Parkinson may have had thoughts on, were he here today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

Seriously exciting times ahead, totally buzzing for you!

Cheers,
Jennifer

Greetings Jennifer,

Yes, love Parkinson's Law. And it's corollary:

"As the availability of flat surfaces increase, so does the amount of stuff to fill them."

All the best,

Paul

Greetings once again Jennifer,

I meant to say in my last post that I've worked my way through your plan/build. Excellent details. I really like the non-traditional space, although it's clearly been a lot of work thus far.

All the best,

Paul

Thank you, it has been a lot of work, but so worthwhile. And it's great that you can build your place from the ground up, gives you the opportunity to get it correct in the first place. A significant amount of work in my place has been mending details that are not so important in a standard house setting, but crucial in a studio.

Cheers,
Jennifer

SoWhat wrote:Source of the post leads me to believe that there must be some sort of "half-life of construction theory"...
...perhaps Stuart can supply us with that formula as he's much better at math than I am.

Absolutely! That's very easy, actually. The basic rule is simple:
1) "Building a studio always takes way longer than you ever believed it would, even in your darkest nightmare!"
(That's "Stuart's First Law of Studio Construction"... )

Stuart's Second Law of Studio Construction:
2) "Building a studio is far more complicated than building a rocket to get to Mars, and the complexity increases with every passing hour".

Third law:
3) "It costs way more than you ever dreamed it could. Shockingly more!"....



More seriously, I haven't really put together any numbers, but at a rough guesstimate I'd say that on average it takes about two to three years for a typical home studio builder to get from start to finish. The fastest I've ever seen it happen was with a client in LA, who absolutely needed it done "right now", and hired a team of 8 builders to work on his garage conversion. It took just over three months from start to finish, and it was CRAZY! The client contacted me on March 25 and wanted the place finished by May 16... That was a bit unrealistic (!), but it was actually finished enough for the first recording session on Jun 29... and fully completed in mid July (this was back in 2013).

It was really nuts.... The construction crew started ripping out stuff while I started designing, and it was a "just in time" process: for each stage, I managed to complete that part of the design "just in time" for them to build it. This included rebuilding the entire roof truss system from the inside, without taking off the roof, modifying them to have a load-bearing ridge-beam and collar-tie trusses, so we could have higher ceilings, as well as the complete two-room studio (CR, plus a mini "live room", with one stone wall!), all with high isolation, and the bathroom, and entrance lobby. Totally crazy. I hardly slept during those three months, and I'm pretty sure the construction crew didn't either! Here's how it turned out:

Control room (complete with Hammond organ along with a true Leslie box, plus an upright piano!):

"Mini Live Room" with stone wall:

But that's an exceptional case! VERY Exceptional. With non-stop design going on at the same time as a complete team of 8 professional builders, all working at once. Four months, and exhausting for everyone. And a sensible budget.

Now, unfortunately, that's what most first-time builders seem to imagine it will be! Typically, folks figure they can sketch out a few lines on the back of a bar napkin tonight, go buy some drywall, studs and nails tomorrow, start building the next day, and be finished by the end of next week!.... It's great to be enthusiastic, but you also have to be realistic. And 2 to 3 years is realistic, for a typical home studio build.

But far more important than planning time for the construction, is planning time for the design! That's where most first-time studio builders greatly underestimate things: the time and effort involved in design. Even if you already have a good background in acoustics, and a good background in construction, and a good background in design, it still takes time. If you don't have those skills, then you also need to account for the time to learn them, before you actually start the design process. I would estimate that, for someone starting from scratch, such as a musician, mix engineer, home movie buff, audiophile, etc. who understands what they want but doesn't have much background in acoustics or construction, it will take about 3 to 6 months of learning about those, to become proficient enough to do the design. Probably more.

Of course, if you start reading trough the new series here on the forum, How to design and build your own studio Then you can cut down on that time a bit! (Well, you will be able to once I finish writing it.... )

And do take note of Andre's signature block... (and I think Andre is an optimist here: he should maybe add a few extra points for design...).

Sorry to hijack the thread, but it is definitely a subject worth discussing!

- Stuart -

Greetings Stuart,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, this echoes what has been written by those in the know. Awesome pics! I love the stone wall. I will say that the truss rebuild without removing the roof made me think about the Faulty Towers episode where Basil has some remodeling done during Sybil's absence, and things didn't go very well.

I feel fortunate that mine will be primarily a (solo) practice space, rather than a recording space, so the room treatment portion of the program can continue even after my instruments are in. Also fortunate that this is NOT a conversion of an existing space, but a ground-up build, which should help it move along more quickly (notice I didn't say "smoothly'), since the outer structure should, if permit approvals cooperate, ("HAH!" - my best Edna Krabapel) be up by mid-September.

All the best,

Paul

Greetings all,

It's started. Pool demolition in progress.

All the best,

Paul

Hey Paul,

Just read through your thread. Nice to see it getting started! Corona virus has made a long journey even longer. I started in October and now it's July. I am close to done but still have some work to do. My build is similar. One room for practice and rehearsing mainly. Even so it has taken a long time. Best of luck and I look forward to seeing your progress.

You must be a contender for the most impressive start to a studio build with the pool demolition.

Greetings Howiedrum and Starlight,

Thanks.

The pool demolition is being done by a company that specializes in it, so it's going rather quickly. We had a fiberglass structure around the pool (it was an indoor pool), which was removed on Wednesday. Yesterday, the pool liner was removed, as well as the deck, and the concrete was crushed. Today was supposed to be the backfill with clean crushed stone, but we are supposed to get 1"-3" of rain, so that will not happen until tomorrow. Not really a problem since everyday is the same in the wacky world of COVID...

All the best,

Paul

Will be submitting the first step (read: form) towards getting approval from the local zoning authority on Monday. This is essentially a permit to get a permit. Apparently, this takes between 15 and 30 days under NORMAL conditions. I'm betting on an extra two weeks (which was how much extra time before our pool demolition permit came through.

Will drown my sorrows with an Indian takeaway for dinner tonight.

Pool demolition complete!!! Whoo Hoo!!!