Framing The Rooms

Once the overall layout was determined we began the task of framing out the rooms and hanging the sheetrock. As was the case throughout the design and construction, I needed to make a few compromises. The space is leased, so I couldn't justify (nor could I afford!) the luxury of floating floors, poured concrete walls, and so on. I also didn't have lots of room to build sound locks and entryways between the rooms, though I think I would have done so if I had it to do over again.

I got a lot of help from a friend of a friend who was really good at drywall work, and in early November began putting the steel up. The outside walls were framed out in 1 5/8 inch "Z" channel steel and insulated with foam board insulation. The walls separating rooms were doubled, each fashioned from two layers of 5/8-inch firecore sheetrock hung on 22-guage steel studs. The layers of sheetrock were staggered so that the seams between sheets did not coincide. Also, each room was built as an independent free-standing structure with a one-inch air space between the walls. We staggered the studs and filled them with fiberglass insulation. According to my studio construction bible (H. Alton Everest's "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget") that should provide about 57 dB of attenuation. In fact its not nearly that good because of the doors and windows.

The ceilings were fashioned from a steel channel grid that was suspended from the building's bar joist by thick steel cables. The middle picture, at left, shows the grid for the control room's ceiling. A double layer of 5/8 inch sheet rock was then attached in the same manner as for the walls; sheets staggered so that no seams coincided. We installed 6 inches of fiberglass insulation above the ceiling in order to improve both thermal and acoustical isolation.

Finally, the surfaces were all taped and blocked and J spent a few long evenings sanding it all down in preparation for painting.

All totaled we hung over 330 sheets of sheet rock, resulting in a marked improvement in my physical conditioning!