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I have learned so much. I know the mistakes I made and what I would do differently if I ever build another studio. Here are things I learned that I hope will help someone else one day:
1) Get your land surveyed if you don't have your property lines well defined.
2) Get every detail down to the size and placement of each nail on the plans BEFORE you have a contractor bid on those plans. I know this sounds extreme, but my contractor was going to charge me extra for anything not on the plan. We had arguments about the proper size of nails. Green glue patterns. Amount of caulking. Everything you can, do put in the plan.
3) Make sure you date every rewrite of a plan. My contractor tried to charge me extra based on older plans he had that were not the one we signed off on.
4) Make sure any changes you make to the plans gets written on the final plans. My plans showed where my studio outlets would be, but it didn't say surface mounted, even though we talked about it early on. Then one day while I was at work, electricians showed up and started wiring everything for "normal" outlets using the plans to guide them. Even though this was before drywalling, and could be discarded, the electric company still charged the contractor for their time and I ended up having to pay extra because the budget for electrical was used up.
5) Be clear on what plumbing and electrical will be covered by the contractor. I thought my contractor's bid included bringing water, plumbing, and electricity to the building. It didn't. I had to pay for the trenches and materials for all of that. It was expensive.
6) Don't gloss over your HVAC. Mine is working great! Designed by Stuart, based off my projections, the system is whisper quiet and I have had no problems with over-heating. I planned for a six-piece band, and I have had five playing and one person watching and we were all very comfortable. No steamy window. Next Saturday I will have six players at once. I am confident it will be fine.
7) Make sure if you buy a windows looking to the outside, that one of them can be used as an exterior window.
If you do a double stud wall, stagger the inner leaf studs from the outer leaf studs. I mistakenly made mine parallel. All studs line up for both of my leafs. 9) Bring ethernet cabling into studio. My wifi sucks in my studio because it has to connect to my modem in my house which is 100ft away. Especially with covid, I had to teach almost exclusively online, so I had to pay for ethernet to be added to my electrical conduit after the fact. It works great now, but I hadn't budgeted for that.
10) If using green glue, don't over screw/nail. Just use the same pattern as you normally would for hanging drywall without green glue.
11) Make sure you have some reserve money in your budget. I haven't added everything up yet but I am estimating that I have spent somewhere close to $140K for this studio. The original bid was 80K. So I almost spent double. This includes the kitchenette, so the studio portion alone would be less.
Thanks to Stuart and everyone else for their help. I couldn't have done it without you. Still have to figure out a plan for treatments beyond the super chunks. Will be adding to my posts in the treatment section soon. The few musicians who have played in here liked it better than the main studio in our area. I have been recording my friends and I with just two mics only. Old school. Keeping it simple for now, but soon I will get into close miking. It sounds good but the drums and percussion are a little hot in the mix. So I may need some gobos and other treatments, but for now I am thoroughly enjoying this studio. It has been a godsend and life saver. Especially with the pandemic. Again I hope this posts helps some folks, especially if you are using a contractor.
Best wishes,
Howie
