Some floor progess

I have managed to do some work on the floor this weekend. Yesterday, I went and bought so-called "platonmatta" (I have absolutely no idea what the english word for that is). The purpose is to create some ventilation between the concrete slab and the minerall wool isoloation. I cut it into suitable pieces and laid it on the floor. Actually, the first real piece of material that actually belongs to the studio! Nice! After I got that into place, I started cutting the floor studs. 45x70 mm with 600 mm c/c.



After a day work I noticed that the concrete slab is anything but flat. This is actually no surprise since the original garage floor was constructed so that water would flow into the drain, now in the toolshop. It turned out that the tilt was roughly 1o mm per metre, giving about 45 mm difference between the two corners on the far side. Since I need to adjust for this everywhere where the studs will rest on the u-boats, there will be significant stud-height-adjustment-work ahead!

U-boat issue

I tried for the first time to see how my u-boats fit on the floor studs I will use. Although my test stud was only 45x45 mm (the floor studs will be 70x45) they did not quite fit as you can see on the picture. You can make them fit just next to the stud but the sides will then flex outwards somewhat. I don't think that this will be an issue but it does bother me a bit.

Toolshop

Some of you might have wondered where I have put all the stuff from the garage before the construction began! Well, the first part of the garage (roughly 1/3 of the total area) is now a small toolshop with all our tools, paint buckets, electrical wiring stuff etc. Actually, we have never had such good order of the tools, screws, nails, brushes etc. as now. To be completly honest, I also put a lot of stuff to the garbage dump...

Window closed

Today I finished the work with closing the window. It was really nice weather this weekend so it fit perfectly to close the window and do the woodwork and final painting outside. Now I am not relying on good weather to do work anymore.

Outside and inside

As you can see on the picture here, there is a small window in the original garage which I need to remove and close the wall. The basic reason is estethic but I guess it will also improve the sound isolation to/from the outside as well. So for now, it is painting time!

A tribute to the nerds

Just came back from my trip to the US. Jet lag is not too bad, got a decent nights sleep. On the plane back it just came to me that this whole project would not have been possible without the net. I have no training in acoustics, I have never studied proper studio design. I would never have gotten the idea of re-building my garage into a studio without the net. Guys like Paul Woodlock (see his building diary here) or web sites such as the Studio Design forum and even the swedish Studio forum, really help and inspire to do things like this. And who are contributing to the forums? The nerds. Those who like reading manuals and really want to know how things work. I would say I am a proud member of that community, at least in some areas. Think about it; can you name a computer support department which can in 2 seconds give you the answers that you'll find on some appropriate forum on the web? If the currency in future sociteties is knowledge, I know who the future belongs to. And nowadays, glasses can look really nice!

Delivered!

Hi!

I just picked up my U-boats from the hotel reception to a total cost of 180 USD. That is more than 2000 SEK less than the corresponding swedish price. It seems like a lot of colleagues here at the meeting I am at have done the same thing; order stuff on the web with delivery to the hotel. You can make some very nice bargins that way!

Week in between

This past week it hasn't been much done in terms of the studio work. I am just now waiting for my plane to Seattle on the airport and I will not return until Sep 10 but then I'll have my U-boats! So, next week will not mean any progress at all. Too bad. I have found a possible buyer though for my old music stuff! That's nice. Although it will not mean so much money, I will at least get rid of the stuff, clear the room and start the construction on the actual studio. That will be really nice. See you!