Garden Recording/Mixing Room in Surrey, UK - Build Diary

#106

the holes in the exterior parts is ok, not great, but they're the extensions for the soffit covers. given the edge of the wood is exposed (you'll note most OSB has a coating to resist moisture which can rapidly wreck OSB / particle board), you should paint or otherwise give a coat to seal those.
on the interior cut - that opening is in the blocking between joists (rather than having a rim joist to seal the perimeter and separate soffit framing) it should still be painted or other sealed to prevent moisture into the cuts.

#107

Sorry for the lack of updates; the has been progress but I haven’t got around to updating the thread. Plus, you may remember that a year ago a injured my knee playing football; tore my ACL. I finally got the Operation on the 31st August, so I’ve been recovering for the last few weeks and back on the crutches. This means no studio work

Still aiming to get it done this year though!

Day 605 (July 1st 2023)

Outer leaf ceiling insulation and moisture barrier.

After completing/adjusting the inner leaf wall, and running some cabling for the outdoor downlight and Fan, it’s onto the outer ceiling insulation (mainly just sound reduction as the insulation is only 50mm to allow air gap above to allow air flow) and Moisture Barrier.

I’m so sick of working with insulation! That stuff gets into everything, all my work clothes are itchy and I seem to spend most days (and nights) itching! Looking forward never looking at the fluffy stuff again.

First attempt was to staple up a section of the DPM and then slide the fluffy stuff (Acoustic Roll 50mm) into the gaps between the joists:

But that was painful, so I decided to use string to hold up the insulation in place before fitting the Moisture barrier. Stapling the string was tedious but made the process of putting in the insulation much easier!

Completed by taping/sealing all the edges and corners. My top tip (as everyone learns) is to use the Insulation Aluminium Foil tape to join sections of plastic moisture barrier/DPM. It works much better than any kind of cloth tape/Duct tape I could find. Final result:

#108

nicely done. one thing - the "real" type of duct tape (like what you use when assembling ducts) is metallic :-)

it also often comes in wider widths like 100mm 150mm etc.

#109

Thanks Glenn. I think that is indeed what I have; the 100mm version. Definitely metallic as it sliced my finger clean open. Ouch!

After finally getting the structural engineer approval to go ahead with the bespoke inner ceiling joist frame design, it was onto the next big job of getting it all assembled and installed, at the same as the finished silencer boxes.

As you may notice from the previous post, the moisture barrier (MB) layer I had painstakingly installed on all walls, that would eventually join to the ceiling MB, had to be removed. As I have a good size room but limited height, I decided to go with the weird combination of normal inner walls with an inside out ceiling design (which I really liked from Gareth’s build). Which cerated a bit of confusion as to where the moisture barrier should be. Unfortunately I realised only after it was up that the moisture barrier needs to be on the ‘warm side’ of the inner leaf wall, not the outer leaf stud, which is where I had originally put it. Thankfully, I had the brainwave that I could cut the existing MB around a foot from the top, remove the rest, and then fold it over the inner stud wall, still joined to the new MB of the ceiling, ready to be joined to new sections around the walls. I think I could have left it but it may have caused damp issues in the inner lear insulation and wanted to do it properly. I realise that this probably makes no sense as text but this rough sketch shows what I mean:

Onto the inner ceiling frame and silencer boxes - Day 622 - 653 (working on and off in-between work)

Once all the ceiling was connected together, it would create one complete frame for strength to hold the inside out plasterboard sections.

Firstly I cut the long joists and ends, and screwed them together on the ground. Then I Installed the first Joist and ends of the ceiling inner frame first and secured and sealed them onto the inner studs. This pic shows what I mean hopefully. You can also see the MB removed but the top section down around the ceiling frame and over the top of joist:

We then installed the silencer boxes.

I had the boxes built and a friend came over and helped me lift them as they are so heavy. I had the idea of creating temporary mounts so that we could lift the box nearly into position, resting on the mounts, and then I could secure the ducting while it sat on the mounts, then we would lift for the final push into position. It worked really well but boy are those boxes heavy. Also I had so little wiggle space (should have allowed for more of that) and some things were very tight. Thankfully it all came good in the end!

Then we installed the silencer box on the other side (left Box) along with the associated ceiling frame section to hold it up.

Next was to connect the other joist of the frame ‘section’ to the first silencer box and rest of frame. Obviously I Couldn’t fix the box to the end joist but the actual boxes sit on the edge of the inner stud walls and then is secured to the noggin joist and the next joist holding it all in together with the end noggins. No pic at this point but I then built the next frame section, in position, and connected it to the first one (making sure to use sealant in-between the joists) with the box inside. See here:

Attached and screwed together:

All of the remaining joist frame sections (except the last one) had to be built ‘in position’, on top of the stud walls, as there simply was not going to be enough space to assemble on the floor and then slide up into position; I wanted the ceiling joists to be ‘full length’ for support. This made it very hard assembling the Frame together; screwing 100mm Screws into the joists, noggins, and end sections nearly broke my wrist and has no doubt probably given me chronic arthritis in the future.

So, As I have said, all ceiling frame sections were assembled in position and slid across to be connected on top of the inner leaf walls. However, obviously the last one could not be done like that because there would be no space to do so. So I had to make this once frame section slightly shorter so that it could be built on the ground and lifter up into position. Shorter so that it would not hit the inner leaf wall when lifted into position up over the inner leaf wall, here it is just before we lifted it up and in:

This was completed late one night and no final pic was taken. Next post I will show the final result when I cam back and properly screwed everything together and took pics.

It was such a massive relief to get this part of the build complete and felt like another huge milestone passed. I lost many nights sleep thinking about this and at times wasn’t even sure if it would work…

#110

Here are some pics of the completed ceiling frame (Day 654)

As I said, I was really pleased with how it turned out. This is the still the current status of the build as of today.

The next steps are to get the electrics sorted, the inside out plasterboard sections to fit inside the ceiling joist frames, and then the doors, floor and inner leaf windows. But as I'm still on crutches and recovering from my knee surgery (3 weeks) I won't be able to do much labour for a while, but I do have plenty of time for planning... Will have some updates soon I hope.

Hope everyone is well!

Sam.

#111

This is looking great Sam, nice work.

I can empathise with the strain of fitting so many 100mm screws. After having to screw many extra long plasterboard screws to secure second layers of plasterboard on to studs, I bought a small 12v drill driver and impact driver set. These are much easier and less wearing to use than screwdrivers or larger drills, especially when working in confined spaces or overhead. If you haven't already got tools like these I'd strongly suggest getting some, especially for the work you have ahead of you. I had no idea how much difference an impact driver makes to fixing plasterboard on to studs, it really helps get the screw the last couple of millimetres so it's flush with the plasterboard.

Cheers,
Jennifer

#112

looks like a fine pair side irons you got there pardner ;-)

you're ready for the OK corral with those!

one note - make sure you do some testing to get the torque and stop settings correct so it's flush (or slightly inset on the finish layers) and you don't overrun the screws and penetrate the drywall paper. then you're set for many hours of drywall screwing. [i think that may have come out wrong, but we're all adults here - get your minds out of the gutter - you know what i meant lol]

#113

LOL, even better with the tool belt! I use a drywall drill bit that stops the screw going in too deep. Very effective.

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