Studio Build: Garage Conversion in Los Angeles

#46

Starlight wrote:Source of the post Gregwor's design shows that the width of the box is 2X+3 + 2 duct liners (2 * 1") + 2 wood thicknesses (2 * 1" MDF).

You decided that your X is 10.5".

So, 2 * 10.5" + 3 + 2 * 1" + 2 * 1" = 21 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 28". At least I agree with your 28" width.

Height, then, will be X + 2 duct liners (2 * 1") + 2 wood thicknesses (2 * 1" MDF) = 10.5" + 2 + 2 = 14.5".

x + 4 = 14.5, so I am in agreement with your calculation. Great! Thanks for the feedback.

#47

Status update.

Since lifting the isolation wall in front of the garage door, I installed another layer of drywall in the new garage door wall, backer rod around the perimeter, and caulked. I secured them in place with wooden cleats.

I forgot to take a picture of this, but you can see it in a picture coming up.

Next up was starting to build the interior frame... FINALLY!

I thought I was going to be doing this months ago, but the exterior beef up took ****ing forever.

I didn't take as many pictures of this as I should have. I'll take more once all 4 walls are stood up and put in place. Right now, all 4 walls are built, 3 of them are standing, and the east wall (where the entry door will be) is still on the floor because I can't lift it by myself. A buddy is coming in a few days to help.

You can see the drywall added to the garage door beef-up wall here (as well as the other interior frame walls standing)...

The current entry way door is only 28" wide. If you've ever carried any piece of musical gear into a doorway, you know how annoying narrow doorways are. So I have added studs wider than the current frame, built a new frame, and will be cutting the stucco to open the doorway. I haven't taken pictures of this yet, but I will and add them after I cut the stucco (which I'm not looking forward to, even though i bought a nice new Makita angle grinder!).

The rough opening of the new interior frame matches the new wider/taller frame on the exterior, so both doors will be the exact same size. This was tricky, but I think I did a pretty good job of getting the measurements right. I'll post more pictures once I stand up that wall.

I hired Rod Gervais to consult on my HVAC system that I've been asking hundreds of questions about on all these forums. I used all the information I learned/gathered over the last 4 months (thanks to all of you) and created a design. He hasn't gotten back to me yet, but hopefully he doesn't tell me it's all wrong and I have to start over.

As soon as we finalize the plan, I'll start putting the necessary holes in the exterior wall for the ducting.

After that will be getting the rough electrical plans, and making sure i have all the proper wires coming in and exiting the exterior. Once I place the interior frame and bolt it in place, it's going to be a lot harder to poke holes and work with the exterior... so I want that all done first. I'm hopeful that I can start sheathing the interior in the next couple of weeks (OSB > Green Glue > 5/8" drywall > Green Glue > 5/8" Drywall). I feel like I'm getting close... like I can't see the light yet, but I know it's there. I'll try to do a better job of updating as I go.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. The hot roof has been installed. It looks great, and it's already much cooler in the room!

#48

Greetings Jag94,

Looking good! Thanks for the update.

Very interested to hear what Rod has to say about the HVAC plan.

I think I did a pretty good job of getting the measurements right.

I certainly hope so.

36" for the new doors?

All the best,

Paul

#49

SoWhat wrote:
Very interested to hear what Rod has to say about the HVAC plan.

I'm equally excited and scared. I really hope it's not a disaster. He wanted a lot of money to do the design, and I simply couldn't afford it. I'm way over budget as is. So he offered an hourly consulting fee to basically give it a look and tell me if I'm close. I think it's worth it.

36" for the new doors?

All the best,

Paul

Yup. I could have gone bigger, but the room is so small, i think any larger would have looked weird. Plus 36" is most definitely big enough.

#50

Greetings Jag94,

Plus 36" is most definitely big enough.

It's also a standard door size, so your budget won't be adversely affected.

All the best,

Paul

#51

So I'm currently waiting on a few HVAC parts to be shipped, so I'm sort of at a standstill. There are a few minor things I'll be doing in the meantime, but I can't get any major work done until I get the first part of the HVAC started... and that's putting holes in the exterior to run the ductwork.

Good news though. I heard back from Rod on my HVAC design, and his response was... "The HVAC is looking pretty good", and "There is nothing in your HVAC design that concerns me". This was a HUGE relief. Once all the parts get here, I'm really confident I can get this done right.

I do have some electrical concerns though. I have a pretty good understanding of the electrical, but I was hoping maybe someone could help clarify some of the details, as well as see if I'm missing something really important. I've read 2 books on electrical wiring, plus the section in Rod's book, plus several papers on isolated ground systems, so I feel like I'm in good shape.

Ok, my house has a 200 amp main panel. There is a grounding rod right there at the panel connected with 4AWG stranded wire, and driven deep into the ground. There is a 2nd grounding rod at the front of the house that is bonded to the water pipes. Currently, there is a sub panel in the garage (studio), that is supplied by a 40 amp breaker being fed underground via conduit with four 10AWG conductors (2 hot, 1 neutral, 1 ground) from the main panel. I want to replace the 40amp breaker with a 60amp breaker, and swap the 10AWG conductors with 6AWG conductors.

Question 1: is this OK? And does the size of the ground conductor matter? Should it also be 6AWG, or can it be smaller?

Inside the studio, There will be just 1 penetration in the wall where I bring in the power conductors. Everything will be surface mounted (sub panel, outlets, switches, lighting, etc). I plan on having one phase of the panel be ONLY for studio/audio equipment, and all of those outlets will be isolated ground receptacles. They will be run in EMT conduit, so the conduit acts as the safety ground, and the hot, neutral, and isolated ground conductors will be run inside the conduit together, and will all be home runs back to the sub panel. The other phase of the sub panel will be for everything else, i.e. lights, hvac, standard plugs, etc.

As for the isolated grounds, I understand each isolated ground conductor needs to be sent to a separate ground bus bar that is not connected to the ground bus or neutral bus in the sub panel. They also need to be connected back to the ground bus at the main service entrance.

Question 2: Can I install a 2nd small panel in the studio to house the isolated ground bus bar, then send a single isolated ground conductor back to the main service entrance via the underground conduit to connect to the main ground/neutral bars in the main panel? So I will essentially have 5 conductors in the underground conduit from the house to the studio, instead of 4? And if so, what size should that ground conductor be?

Question 3: Am I correct that I do NOT need another ground rod outside the garage/studio? As long as the isolated grounds are bonded to the main service ground/neutral bar (which is bonded to the grounding rod at the service entrance), i'm good?

This sketch should illustrate everything.

Edit: Oh! back in post #9 on the first page of this build thread, Stuart mentioned putting a filter on the air intake (From outside to inside), and the return air register to keep the ducts and silencers as clean as possible. Sure having to clean these every once in a while is a chore, but I'd much rather that than the alternative. I've been researching filters, and can't seem to find something that would work. Is there a specific type of filter I should be looking for?

#52

Sorry, Jag, I cannot help you with the electrics as it is not my strong point.

Jag94 wrote:Source of the postI've been researching filters, and can't seem to find something that would work. Is there a specific type of filter I should be looking for?

I too cannot find anything that seems official, proper or specific so I am just about to cut squares out of polyester batting (not made by Dacron but that type of material) as it resembles the filter in my vacuum cleaner and I have lots of it. I can show you (over in my topic) when I have done it. What are we trying to achieve? To stop flying and crawling insects (bugs) from being able to get into our ducts, whether for suicide at the ventilator filter or to nest.

#53

Starlight wrote:Source of the post Sorry, Jag, I cannot help you with the electrics as it is not my strong point.

No worries. Hopefully someone will chime in who knows. I also met an electrician in the home depot parking lot yesterday. He seemed like a good guy and I'm going to call him to set up a time for him to come check out the space and see what he thinks.

I too cannot find anything that seems official, proper or specific so I am just about to cut squares out of polyester batting (not made by Dacron but that type of material) as it resembles the filter in my vacuum cleaner and I have lots of it. I can show you (over in my topic) when I have done it. What are we trying to achieve? To stop flying and crawling insects (bugs) from being able to get into our ducts, whether for suicide at the ventilator filter or to nest.

I'll keep an eye on your build thread. I'm still a bit of a ways away before I need it, but I thought I'd ask to see what other people have done.

#54

Question: my garage is a single story gable roof style structure. Do I need a firestop at the tops of the walls between my interior and exterior leafs?

#55

Separate question:

In the gap between the exterior and interior leafs, I plan on filling that gap with insulation. Should i put something on the concrete floor so that the insulation is not touching the concrete? Could moisture from the concrete saturate the insulation?

#56

Greetings Jag94,

You should use wire to keep the insulation from sagging (which it is prone to do over time; there is also a mesh product designed to the same thing). Since the insulation sits on the plates, the two "slabs" of insulation will touch each other (you want this; do NOT compress the insulation), and the wire will also help keep the stuff off the concrete.

You can always use some concrete sealer.

All the best,

Paul

#57

SoWhat wrote:Source of the post Greetings Jag94,

You should use wire to keep the insulation from sagging (which it is prone to do over time; there is also a mesh product designed to the same thing). Since the insulation sits on the plates, the two "slabs" of insulation will touch each other (you want this; do NOT compress the insulation), and the wire will also help keep the stuff off the concrete.

You can always use some concrete sealer.

All the best,

Paul

Hey Paul,

I'm a little confused. If there is insulation in the stud bays of the exterior leaf, as well as in the gap between both leafs, and in the stud bays of the interior leaf, how will the insulation sag? The gap is only about 2", so it seems like it will be in there pretty snug, without being compressed. I wasn't planning on using any type of wire or mesh to hold the insulation (except in the roof rafters), because the insulation seems to be sitting quite well, and I haven't even put the interior leaf frame up yet.

Should there be a gap without insulation down where the sill plates are? Or should the insulation in the gap go all the way down to the concrete (in between the sill plates), but not touching the concrete?

I'm sorry, this is really hard to explain what I mean... and it's an extreme detail that I don't recall reading about.

#58

Greetings Jag,

Sorry, I was thing about something different. My apologies.

As to your question, the insulation should just be in the stud cavities. If you space the leaves 12 inches apart, R-13 in each cavity in both leaves shouldn't have any gap in between: the insulation from each side should touch. (One of the few times no MATH is needed!)

All the best,

Paul

#59

SoWhat wrote:As to your question, the insulation should just be in the stud cavities. If you space the leaves 12 inches apart, R-13 in each cavity in both leaves shouldn't have any gap in between: the insulation from each side should touch. (One of the few times no MATH is needed!)

All the best,

Paul

Alright now you've lost me. lol. R-13 insulation is roughly 3.5". If you have 2 frames that have 2x4 studs (and fill them with R-13), and you space the frames apart so that the leaves are 12" apart, that would leave a 5" gap in between the frames, no? There is no way the R-13 insulation could touch between the leaves. Am I missing something in your example?

My exterior leaf is 2x4 framing, but because of the beef up, the R-13 insulation is sticking out about an inch (which is not a big deal). Then there is a 2" space between the exterior frame and the interior frame. The interior frame is 2x6 framing, and will be filled with R-19 insulation (to fully fill the bay of the 2x6 framing). The space between the LEAVES (from the inside of the inner leaf to the inside of the outer leaf) is about 10", but the space between the frames is about 2".

Since the gap between the frames is only about 2", the insulation from each leaf will likely touch each other, so should I not bother putting more insulation in that 2" gap in between the frames?

I appreciate you chiming in.

#60

Yes, the batts loosely touching each other is exactly what you want.

BTW, I forgot you are using 2x6 on one leaf, but it really doesn't matter. The principle is the same.

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