My man cave build - UK edition

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Marv,

Thanks, astrochex and Skillet83, very much appreciated

911 Rod, screws hole centres were modelled on CAD, CNC precision drilled and laser scanned to check position joking!

Mid-week update....

Not Stonehenge in my garage but Mrs Ahab sorting through some chunky stones, sizes range from 10"/250mm to 16"/400mm tall, saved the best stone for last and after a little trimming/cleaning these will be used to finish off the hallway opening



Very much work in progress but more 'ye old oak fakery'. I'm trying to create the illusion of a 16th century 'cruck' oak roof truss to make the new build top floor feel like it's actually part of the original old house.

I'm using 2-3" thick slices of reclaimed oak from what must have been a large and very old roof truss. All bought as a $40 Ebay bargain

Both timbers were a lot longer than required so the horizontal timber is just an offcut from one.



I really enjoy searching, finding and re-purposing old bits of architectural salvage and try my best not to over egg our period correct pudding by using too much of it or in too many places

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Boring update....

3 days of chopping using my trusty 9" grinder with the diamond blade, horrible dusty work but thankfully no legs were hurt

All this stone is just for the hallway opening through the external wall of the old part of the house



Good news, all 15 windows arrived, I've started painting them and then it will be onto a bit of 'hot rodding' of the frames to make them look a closer match to the existing windows

In other news I've got a thread related dilemma which I'm struggling with

I either tuff it out, working in the cold, full time on my man cave through the winter or accept a warm, WFH desk job work offer which only leaves weekends/evenings for man cave stuff

More man cave progress would be great but more $'s and ticking a hyper car off my to do list would also be great

1st world problem but I'm at a loss of what to do

[A930Rocket]

Looks great, Captain. Whatever you decide, I’m sure it will work out great.

[javadog]

I would take the job.

[astrochex]

Your updates are never boring Captain.

Based on your summary description of your options, I would lean to the hypercar option. Warmth, $, and checking off a bucket list item is a nice trifecta. Good luck on whatever you decide.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

when there was snow on the ground I was 100% going for the desk job but today was much warmer so I was dead set on carrying on with my building fun

If it was the summer it would be no contest, man cave all the way

Need to decide this week so lets see what the weather brings



Rain, sun, cold, warm, dry, wet, how am I meant to make a decision with such unsettled weather

[javadog]

Warm? I don’t see anything even remotely close to warm in those numbers.

At 25°, you’re on your way there but I’d need to see at least 30 to feel all warm and fuzzy.

[turn9]

As a faithful reader of this amazing post, I vote you take the car job.

The house will still be there for you.

Besides, I don't want this thread to end too soon

Best,

T9

[recycled sixtie]

You are so used to doing manual work that your body may have trouble adjusting to an office job. Having said that you get to work on your house evenings and weekends.

Probably it all comes down to money and health. What does Mrs. A think? In the end of course it is your decision.

[billybek]

Won't this kind of interrupt our updates on your project?
Think about your audience!

[javadog]

He could give us updates on his other job. Those are equally interesting.

[Steve F]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

What Javadog said

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Layout of all the 1st floor internal stud walling is done, that's a master bedroom, en suite and family bathroom and hallway

This is the wall between the garage and master bedroom, it's actually 2 separate stud walls. Bedroom side is 2" x 3" and garage side is 2" x 4" with a 1" gap between the two stud walls.



My logic is I want to insulate the hell out this build so each wall will have 3" PIR insulation boards (= 5" rockwool insulation) but need to minimise noise transmission from the garage to the bedroom so I can enjoy productive late nights in my man cave

Nice on the dual walls for sound insulating purposes.

The foam board is much more efficient than the more common mineral wool or fiberglass insulation. I would have thought that mineral wool would better attenuate sound, but I'm not certain on that. Around here, the only foamboard insulation that the big box stores have is 1". I can't even order thicker from HD or Lowes. I think I'd have to go to specialty building place, and presumably, the cost would be considerable.

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Another three 4" x 6" steel reinforced concrete lintels fitted and stone added above to make the the hallway opening wall all structurally sound again



My work on this is done so handed the job over to Mrs Ahab as the next stage need her 'Stone Whisperer' gentle touch. She carefully removed all the stone making up the near and far faces of the 2ft thick wall along with all the rubble mud fill in the middle

Now we have a really big slightly unfinished hole, only plaster and ceramic tiles are holding up the wall above the bathtub (white bit in the LH corner) so we need to be careful no one slips in the shower and falls out of the bathroom into the new build



I know a fully insulated internal wall doesn't make sense but it's part of a 'crazy idea' parallel project I'm trying to incorporate into the build in a 'while in your in there' kind of way

Do you need quoins or some other reinforcement for the vertical portions of the opening that you've created to help support the lintels or is the wall adequate?

[javadog]

Usually, when trying to build a sound wall, you first decouple the studs from the rest of the structure with some sort of a foam. I think fiberglass will generally outperform mineral wool and foam for sound transmission, check out the different densities available and look at their sound transmission coefficients. I’d probably loosely hang a thick sheet of mass loaded vinyl on the inside of the wall facing the noise source. If I were nuts, I might hang a thin sheet of lead, instead. I would seal the edges and any cracks, gaps or holes with a flexible butyl sealant. And, since density is your friend, I’d hang two sheets of the thickest sheet rock available on both sides of the wall.

[MikeSid]

I'd use resilient channel to decouple sheet rock from framing. But I think the Cap'n has already framed a double wall that isolates one side of that wall from the other. So resilient channel might be overkill. Some Green Glue on the stud faces wouldn't hurt though. I'm sure there's a similar product in the UK.

[javadog]

The acoustic pros I listen to don’t tend to think that the green glue does anything useful…

[gumby]

Captian...Take (try) the job...you can allways quit...chances not taken...

[silverc4s]

Your house has been there for hundreds of years already, what’s a few more? Take the hyper car off the list, hope it’s with Gordon Murray

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by masraum

Nice on the dual walls for sound insulating purposes.

The foam board is much more efficient than the more common mineral wool or fiberglass insulation. I would have thought that mineral wool would better attenuate sound, but I'm not certain on that. Around here, the only foamboard insulation that the big box stores have is 1". I can't even order thicker from HD or Lowes. I think I'd have to go to specialty building place, and presumably, the cost would be considerable.


Do you need quoins or some other reinforcement for the vertical portions of the opening that you've created to help support the lintels or is the wall adequate?

The secret to suppressing sound is layers so using 1" in multiple layers would be even better than a solid thicker piece. The second part of the method is to actually use different thicknesses and density. And as mentioned already, subtract as many direct attachments from one room to the other.

In the case of sound attenuating glass and doing it with a triple glazed window, 3 different thicknesses are used and the space, or air gap, between the outer 2 and the center pane is also different. There is also a benefit to placing sound absorbing materials between the panes around the perimeter so that any sound entering the gap is mitigated as much as possible before synchronous waves can move the next pane. Placing the glass panes at slightly non parallel angles can help.

I only explain glass because that was my business. Sound 'proof' walls are much easier to deal with. Somewhere in the wall system there should be some structure that is not vertical or parallel to the house framing.

It would be interesting to test what a plywood sandwich filled with sand would do. Or two sheets of foam as a sandwich filled with perlite or similar. As I've had to tell folks in high noise areas, like the airport or a highway with tractor trailer rigs and Harley's, those low pitched sounds are really vibrating the whole house if not the dirt under it.

Lots of weight is what overcomes sound the best. Captain should have no problems with his house exterior walls. If only he could live without windows and doors. An insulated slate or tile roof should deflect a lot of overhead noise, mainly because of the irregular surface (and weight).

Sound proofing also requires absolute sealing from air movement. Next best thing to a vacuum.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Thanks for all the advice but I've ignored it and listened to billybek

He was right, how could I have ever considered letting you guys down by not keeping the updates coming

Man cave project wins, I'm years behind finishing the house and man cave, my 'finished project' match score is embarrassingly shocking

1 for my finished projects (1 kit car built in m 20's) vs 54 for other peoples car projects

Got a big insulation job on the original house which will keep me warm, going to have a rest over Christmas and then jump on that straight after

Thanks for all the comments on the garage dividing wall, the twin stud wall was for the noise. Also plan to add two separate layers of plasterboard to the garage ceiling which I hope will help stop most noise getting through