Adam (left) and Grayson (right) helping me pick up some more lumber for the studio.
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Loading in the wood through the basement window and taking time to pose — to avoid more pictures (haha)
We are building our basement simultaneously as I try to continue building the studio. Occasionally I need to borrow materials from my studio stash which these boards are replacing. They are for the top and bottom (plates) of the inner studio walls.
Room inside of a room. The tape marks where the inside wall will stand allowing for the 1" air gap between the walls.
I’m building the inner walls so the resulting (finished) inside room dimensions (including hat channel and double drywall on the ceiling and walls), will provide the most smooth mode/node results available for this space. I think it’s actually going to sound pretty sweet!
building a room inside a room using the double wall construction and double 5/8" drywall with Green Glue, will provide the best isolation from the other rooms that are above and surrounding the studio.
We had to get pretty creative in framing the inner side walls to make sure they didn’t make any contact with the new beam. Nice Job Wes!
Wes Peterson is seriously a cool dude! He’s also a very fast framer.
To isolate the wall, the walls will attach to the joists using a special L-shaped isolation bracket rather than being nailed directly to the joists. To keep the flow moving, we are focusing on framing everything up. Once all the walls are built, we will go back and set and secure the walls into place. The inner wall around what will be the inner door is framed. Both wall get there own door, so, there will be both an exterior door facing the stairs as well as an interior door for the inner room which is the studio.
Wes Peterson is a seriously talented individual and just an all around cool guy! There are several very tricky things we’ve encountered and Wes keeps coming up with awesome ways to make sure the “floating” walls have full stability and strength, but at the same time, still don’t touch or connect to anything they aren’t supposed to.
In the meantime, my sons helped insulate the exterior wall of the studio and we have begun the first of two layers of 5/8" drywall. Along the way, I’m starting to close up the now drywall-lined joist cavities that the original builders set up as air returns. I’m wanting and needing these to be completely sealed and soundproofed so the studio sound doesn’t leak into them — which means the sound would be pushed into any room connected to that air return. Same reason why I’m completely soundproofing the joists that have air supply ducts in them. LOTS of ceiling work, but it will be worth it!
Taking a break from the walls to quickly work on closing up an air return duct
The foundation has a lot of these concrete framing pins protruding. I’ve had to break a few of them off so the framing can sit where it needs to. They break off fairly easily though when hit laterally with a hammer.
The corner had to be trimmed so it wouldn’t hit the refrigerant line in the corner. If there was contact, vibration (therefore, noise) would have transferred to the wall. I was worried at first about having to remove wood from a corner, but because the wall is being set using the isolation brackets, it’s going to work out perfectly because it will maintain all of its normal structural strength and integrity even though the corner has a chunk cut out of it.
making good progress now.
Window wall is framed
Definitely one of the most fun parts of framing!
It’s starting to look like a room!
Here you can see walls framed on either side of the support beam support column. The drywall will lay across and cover the column without making contact. The wall could vibrate more than a 1/2 inch and still not make contact with the column. It’s going to work out great.
Setting the floating walls using isolation brackets
The is the isolation bracket I’m using to connect the top of the walls to the joists. They attache every 3–5 or so.
Finding the right screws has been a little bit of a chore.
Replacing the temporary drywall screws (used to quickly hold the wall in place during framing), with the real screws
Ooops! almost got myself into trouble without a way to secure the brackets to the top of the wall by the joist muffler. Luck was on my side this time. I had to take the battery off first, but l I was able to just barely squeeze the drill up between a gap near the top of the wall. SO lucky it fit through. I was then able to just slide the drill (up in the joist), along the wall to get to the other brackets down the rest of the wall. The wall is attached very solidly which doesn’t really make sense, but the brackets work great!
Awkward, awkward, awkward! My everything is cramping.
I’ve stripped about 3 screws because I can’t quite get the reverse angle just right. I actually stuck my phone up there finally so I could see (using the camera), what was going on. FINALLY got it all attached.
Having to cut out and replace about 4 studs that decided they wanted to warp severely on me. Just above the saw on the joist you can see one of the hat channel brackets in place. I’m starting to make a few measurements of where the hat chanel strips will go for the isolated ceiling.
These isolation brackets are quite amazing. The wall is VERY firm but movable in a way that it will help absorb any low frequency energy trying to get through the wall.
The vertical stud that has the crack on the top was replaced because it warped beyond being able to be used. The wall doesn’t attach to the joists the way the wall normally would. Instead they attach to brackets which are spaced about every 4–5 feet and lock the wall in place. This floating wall will eliminate a lot of vibration that would otherwise transfer to the floor/room upstairs.
Adam helping shoot concrete nails into the bottom wall plate using .22 shells and a Ramset nail gun. This is a fun nail gun to use.
The Ramset shoots these nails right through the bottom treated studio (plate), into the concrete.
Well, my thumb was fine until I ran a Phillips screw bit almost all the way through it with an impact drill
To spare any unnecessary queasiness, I’m using a black and white photo here. Just know that an impact drill spinning full speed and slipping off a bracket screw while under full pressure — went directly into the side of my thumb and almost went all the way through— didn’t really end up well. Basically hamburger.
The almost pushed all the way through my thumb. I’m not in shock I don’t think, but I can’t feel my thumb and Wes is waiting for me. I’m going to quickly administer some first aid and go back down and keep working.
What you’re looking at is actually mostly a powder (all the dark stuff), that cauterizes bleeding. I was considering rushing to the hospital for some stitches, but while cleaning it out realized there wouldn’t be anything really for the Doctor to stitch. Trying to be somewhat careful in my description here,….it was basically just a chewed up hole that wouldn’t stop bleeding. My father-in-law came to my rescue with a powder that stops bleeding almost instantly on contact. I didn’t know this stuff was even a thing. It forms into almost a cement. It seems to have worked, so with a few bandaids and some Ibuprofen, I’m headed back downstairs.
Well, after putting up a few more brackets, the majority of the wall is set and the HVAC trunks are ready to have a soffit built around them. I think we can be done for the night.
Quick update:
It’s been a few weeks and it’s starting to feel and look a little better. The AMAZING part about that is that I actually still have feeling in my thumb tip/pad. I would have figured the nerves would have been shot. Somehow, they remained in tact and I can definitely feel my thumb.
A quick throwback picture from last year in a different home.
This is a throwback picture from just over a year ago while I was doing baseboards in our last home just before selling it. For those wondering….yes, it’s the same thumb! The metal corner made the finishing nail curve downward and scoop right into my thumb that I was using to hold the baseboard very tightly against the wall. Yeah, that caught me off guard a bit. I can’t believe that one didn’t hit bone or something. Really lucky then also! I love the insta-bruise it gave me. As luck would have it I had received a tetanus shot because on a rudimentary doctor visit they noticed it was time for a refresh.
