Studio Build- Central Portugal

#76

May 6th

Guys arrived at normal time and Paul soon after. They have finished the walls now to the final height of where the roof will be. They still need to build the wall up to the top in the back but I guess they wait until they have the concrete roof pillars in place. They are going to pour the concrete pillars on the side in the middle of the building today and they have the 6cm blue insulation on the outside of the bricks, followed by the plastic protective vapour layer. Then we will have the 40cm granite blocks on the outside of that one the right and left sides. That is about 80cm of insulation and isolation. Paul was here working with the guys all day and painted the back of the concrete wall with the black waterproofing stuff.. They then poured a bunch of the small stones (britta) in the back for water drainage over the perforated tube that runs the length of the wall. We will leave this open and not fill it in completely.

Paul gave me a quote for all the materials for building the interior walls. 105 plasterboards (normal) 105 plasterboard- weatherproof, 10,000 screws, joists for the suspended ceiling. Everything has two layers of plasterboard including the ceiling which will need to have connection every 50cm due to the weight. This is going to cost 4300€. Includes all the framing materials and rock wool, tape, caulking, etc.. Paul said that the windows are perhaps the last thing they will put in. He had not idea when they will deliver them. They can take months some times.

May 7th

They had hoped to get all the tops of the walls framed to pour the cement for preparing the roof. They got pretty far though. they will finish on Monday and pour the tops.

May 10th

The guys were here until about 15 but it was raining 70% of the time just on and off all day and they finally decided to quit. They were cold and wet and it was windy and nasty.

May 11th

They got the round middle beam poured and all the framing around the top except the middle beam yesterday. I was away all day having a jam session with Martin.

May 12th

We had a real ordeal to start the day when all the materials for building the walls arrived about 8:30 but the driver refused to drive them down to the house. Paul had to call his boss and them him many other trucks this same size have come down already and it was possible. He finally after 45 mins convinced the driver to do it. Turns out the driver was terrible and knocked out part of our fence on our driveway, could not get the truck up the road so spent 30mins trying to figure out how to back around and in the end, he had to just drive down. Paul said he had not seen a guy this bad in a long time. All the other big trucks managed. Wow. It is an enormous amount of materials. Like 5 pallets of rock wool alone. It is threatening to rain now which is not good. At at least it is all wrapped in some small plastic cling film.

They stayed until nearly 19 last night and poured all the cement on the top of the walls and the central beam. Good job guys.

May 13th

The concrete beams will arrive today. They are moving and wrapping up all the materials as it looks to be raining quite soon for a few hours. They will move the rock wool pallets over to the pool patio area and cover it up with black plastic.

They plan to work on the stone wall of the studio nearest the house today as the crane is leaving on Monday or Tuesday next week and they need that to move these huge stones.

They should be able to get the concrete beams in place tomorrow and start to frame the walls again to cement them in place. By next week there will be roof on the studio. Wow…

#77

Good progress and lovely photos, Dr. Space. It is a shame about the driver and your fence. I am looking forward to seeing the beams going up.

#78

The basic roof is on. Just the concrete beams at the front for the overhang is left. See the pictures. Exciting.. They will finish the roof for sure next week. Still quite a bit of work on the outside of the building as well but 2 weeks it is done and another week they will have the inside walls framed as well. Great progress considering the terrible weather this week.
Scott

#79

I can see two possibilities for the roof:
1, lots of solar panels which would stop the roof getting too hot and provide you with plenty of electricity, or
2, a roof garden so that the studio would be almost invisible from above and far away.

#80

Well, we already have 19 solar panels so we have lots of electricity, especially in the summer. 10kW of batteries as well. The roof garden my wife liked that idea but how do you maintain that and how are they made so you are 100% sure you don't get water. Remember it rains a lot in Portugal in the winter time!! For know we will stick with traditional red tiles! Thanks for the input..

#81

Hi
We’re going to put a sedum (green) roof on my studio build: it looks after itself as far as I understand. We have a similar amount of rain over here in the UK I’d have thought and the sedum roof actually helps average out the amount of water leaving the roof into the drain.

We’ll be getting it ordered soon ish so I’ll be able to share our experience

Gareth

#82

Great Gareth as I like this idea a lot and my wife would as well.

#83

The roof has been concreted today! Building will be complete in about 3 weeks. Wow...
Dr Space

#84

May 14th

I was surprised how fast it went yesterday. They got all the main beams up, supported them from underneath and put in the bricks for 85% of the roof! Wow.. They have to the beams in the front where there will be a 1m overhang in a different way but they put them more or less where they need to be, it was amazing to go inside the building now and you can an idea of what it will be like. Great work guys…

May 17-18th

The guys worked to rebuild the ruin wall on the side of the building closest to the house. It will go in several steps down. In the gaps about the stones they will make the caputo system of insulation and water protection

May 19th

Paul moved the huge pile of dirt with his digger and it looks quite good. They did the last bit of cement on the ruin wall closest to the house and started to tie the building into the other ruin wall. It is going to look great. Gil and José started to put up the supports inside the building for pouring the cement for the front roof beams.

May 20th

I am off to Denmark so I am not sure what they are doing but probably finishing up the supports and then they can put in the bricks and then pour the cement on the roof. They are going to leave a couple of gaps so that they can pour the cement for the final floor though those. Perhap Paul will start to move the rest of the stones in place to create a sort of walled area in front of the studio. There is still quite a bit of water inside the building. It is supposed to be 26C today so perhaps a lot of it will dry up. They should probably sweep it from the back to the front to help this process.

May 26th

They did not work on the 24th and I have been away for some days to Denmark to play a concert and visit my daughter. Anyway, today they are pouring the cement for the roof. They had cemented in the concrete beams for the 1m overhang last Friday and all the steel for the roof was put in place yesterday. 13 and they are half way done. The two guys are mixing all the cement and Paul is spreading it out. IT is good that the crane is still here as it would be a lot more work. I guess this will cure for a day or two and then they can put the blue insulation on the roof and then the tiles. It is only the insulation and copouto. on the outside to be done after that and paint the building. The windows and door will be some of the last stuff done. I think Paul will even start to frame the walls inside before they are put in. Need to reach Joules.

May 28th

They just let the concrete settle for another day so did not come yesterday. I watered the roof in the evening and again in the morning on the 27th. It was quite hazy and not that hot so that was good. A nice slow cure.. No cracks. The crane is still hear and Paul is not sure when they come to get it so they used it a lot to day to move all the support pillars out of the inside as well as the clamps, wood, etc.. there is only the building materials inside and some scaffold now. I will shoot a new video soon. Looks great. They will take most of the next week off.

#85

Big news is we had a meeting with Joules Newell yesterday and that went great. We agreed on a lot of stuff and looks like they will be coming to start on the inside in less than a month but will only be working 1-2 weeks and then they have to go back to another job. THe interior walls should all be framed (except the control room) in 2 weeks, I am guessing. They are working on the outside building insulation at the moment.. More pictures soon..

#86

June 4th

I messaged with Joules and he is going to come next Weds for a meeting about the studio. This is great news as I have a lot of questions for him and I will make sure I get answers this time!! I hope they will come in July at the latest. We will see… Exciting. Thanks Joules…

June 8th

The guys showed up and pretty much just built the wall and steps yesterday in front of the studio. Great work.

June 9th

Guys are starting to work on the copouto on the front of the studio now and Paul has started to frame the interior walls. There are quite some questions about the windows though.. hot today… Joules and Suse showed up at about 15:15 or so. Since Joe is still in England, Joules has a new partner for now. We discussed a lot of stuff and they were very impressed with the building and location and views.

We agree for three of the walls of the studio we will have the following:

12 XLR sends, 2 XLR returns
6 LRS plug lines (shielded)
USB plugs that can also send midi
6 electricity plugs
4 headphone inputs (Consider combining headphones with the XLR returns instead, maybe keep 6 returns, but 2 xlr and 4 jack for headphones.

Paul will put two electrical outlet ports on each wall running 25mm tubes for the electricity cables in the walls and put all the rock wool and plaster board up. They will just cut holes where they need to for the custom printed boxes for the XLR cables, etc..

As for the control room, we will for sure flush mount all the speakers, including the rear speakers. Only the subwoofer will be on the floor in front of the mixing desk. They will build a custom mixing desk with the patch bay and all the rack gear. IT will sit low with out having anything obscuring the hearing line from the front speakers.

We talked about the HVAC system and this will be ducted with like 30cm ducts so we can have a flow rate of 10L/sec exchange. This should be plenty of fresh air and can maintain the temperature well. This will all be in the ceiling about the entrance and control room. Entrance room will have a ceiling of about 2.6m and the control room 3m. They will put a like control hatch so you can have access to the HVAC and cables if there is ever a problem. Smart.

Suspended ceiling will be 30cm. Filled with rock wool. We will pretty much only run the electricity for the lighting and the one microphone that I want to hang from the centre of the room.

We agreed to put the main electrical box inside the storage room in the live room. The other electrical box (HVAC, fridge, etc.. can be in the main entrance.

Both Joules and Suse thought that it would be an excellent live room and would not require a lot of acoustic treatment since we have a lot of non-parallel walls and a high ceiling. We will do all the proper measurements and see though. They will make some adjustable gobo’s as well so that we can adjust the acoustics of the room if we want to. Smart!

As for the time line, it appears Joules and Suse will not work for 5-6 weeks straight (estimated time it will take) but will come for 7 days at a time, perhaps 2 weeks max and then go back and forth between this big job they have in Lisboa. That will work for us. Paul will have all the walls framed in about 2 weeks.

Very excited now..

June 10th

Holiday

June 11th

Guys are working more on the copouto. Paul is working on the framing of the walls. Some progress was made but they did not show up until 11 and Paul not until about 15. Progress is super slow the last few weeks.

June 14th

Only Paul and he showed up around 9:30 and worked until about 15, working on framing the walls. We spoke about how it was very important that this get done as soon as possible so that if and when Joules shows up there are no delays. He agreed. I hope they can get it all done and the floor poured next week.

#87

Dr Space wrote:Source of the post 12 XLR sends, 2 XLR returns
6 LRS plug lines (shielded)
USB plugs that can also send midi
6 electricity plugs
4 headphone inputs (Consider combining headphones with the XLR returns instead, maybe keep 6 returns, but 2 xlr and 4 jack for headphones.

I would suggest a couple of HDMI and CAT7, just for future expansion. Also, you can have 16 XLRs, with the last 4 in parallel with male XLR. This way, you can use them for both in and out.

#88

Great.. HDMI could be useful, had not thought about that. I will add it to the list. CAT7, will mention this as well.

#89

Interior walls are going up now. All the rock wool is in on the perimeter and the first layer of plasterboard as well. They poured the final floor for the entrance yesterday as well. Slow progress but getting there... See the new pictures...

#90

a couple of more pictures from the end of the day on Friday.... Interior walls are going up....

Soundman2020 - Studio Design Forum