Building a Drum Studio in My Garden

Jonathan Curtis

Jonathan Curtis

Silver Member
Hi folks,

I'm building a drum studio in my garden, and the first part of my video series documenting this is available to watch now. I'll add more as they become available, as this is an ongoing project.

Hope you enjoy it:

EDIT: 22/08/16 - Part 2 now available

EDIT 2: 07/09/2016 - Part 3 now available

EDIT 3: 01/11/2016 - Part 4 now available

EDIT 4: 19/12/2016 - Part 5 now available

EDIT 4: 20/02/2017 - Part 6 now available


Construction Video Diaries: (still in progress)
Part 1 - The Foundations
https://youtu.be/4xj8cAxMYik

Part 2 - The Walls
https://youtu.be/KI_TIKILQzg

Part 3 - The Roof
https://youtu.be/3PFe4v_SFXU

Part 4 - Soundproofing
https://youtu.be/OVs3dxrHkfo

Part 5 - Doors, Windows, and Ventilation
https://youtu.be/FINLNA-zCVI

Part 5 - Glazing, Plasterboard, and Green Glue
https://youtu.be/lLrTTq1wi-w

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Brilliant.
Looking forward to seeing how it comes together.

I am have a garden drum room planned myself, hopefully early next year.
 
Johnathan excellent work so far! What are the dimensions of the actually drum room once it will be finished? Also if you don't mind can you estimate how much this will cost you? I only ask because this is something I am interested in doing in the future!
 
Thanks chaps.

Dimensions are roughly 3.5 x 5 meters, 2.5 meters to the eaves, and 3 meters to the tip of the roof.

I don't have exact costings, because we've been building it over a spread out period of time, and just buy things as and when we need them. As a rule of thumb though, you can assume around £1000 per stage. So the foundations, then the stud walls, then the insulation, windows and doors etc., each stage would be roughly £1000.

We've saved a ton of money in labour costs as we've done it all ourselves, so just materials so far.

Here's a sneak peak:

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Not a problem!

That is a solid size for a drum room!

Price seems to not be that expensive considering the alternative costs of paying someone else to do the work!

I would be doing the work myself! I love DIY and my father in law is a general contractor with 40+ years of experience in Residential and Commercial construction!

Honestly everything looks like it is going great! Cant wait for more updates!

Excellent work Jonathan!
 
I enjoyed that. The clearly explained process was educational.
l look forward to seeing how it all finally comes together for you.
 
Well done, I enjoyed part 1. Looking forward to the rest of the series and seeing the finished product.
 
That is obviously planned out very well and the video is tremendous. I had no idea that concrete had to set for 28 days before building. I'm sure I have seen 2 story houses put on foundations in less time. Is there a weather or geographical reason as to why? I also look forward to the rest of the series.
 
To build a structure such as that on my property in New Jersey would require a mind boggling number of permits and inspections. The headaches and potential heart attack while going through the process would be enough to never consider it.
 
I had this built, its 14x16. It will be my future studio, my son lives in it right now. Your video documentary is great. Price tag was right at $3400 on this. It is big enough for 2 kits or a full band.
 

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wunderless said:
Cool.

What are you (and the others with drum rooms like this) using for climate control? (Heat, cooling, humidity etc?)
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I got a window air conditioner in now. Last winter I ran a quartz infrared heater that worked ok till it got down to around 15 degree F, then I had to get out the old kerosene. But the electric heater keeps it warm enough as to not do any harm to gear.. I put insulation in mine to.
 
MoreBeer said:
To build a structure such as that on my property in New Jersey would require a mind boggling number of permits and inspections. The headaches and potential heart attack while going through the process would be enough to never consider it.
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I live in NJ specifically South Jersey and I can concur with this statement! Not sure how that works on the other side of the pond.

My next house will have a lot of land and I think this option is cheaper than trying to doing something in a basement or garage that is attached to the house.
 
WalterKohn said:
I live in NJ specifically South Jersey and I can concur with this statement! Not sure how that works on the other side of the pond.

My next house will have a lot of land and I think this option is cheaper than trying to doing something in a basement or garage that is attached to the house.
Click to expand...

I've lived in NJ (Green Village, near Chatham) but now live in the UK.

Essentially here you can do quite a bit under 'permitted development'.
It has to be under a certain height if it is within 2m of the property boundary, and you need to get the electrics done by someone competent.
It also cannot be sleeping quarters nor take up 50% of the available yard space.
 
I've updated page 1 with photos and part 2 of the video diary.
 
Thanks for posting this. I'm slowly getting a room built in my garage, so it's interesting for me to see how you're building yours out. We are basically both using the same method.
 

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Ghostnote, that looks really good! The only difference is that yours is within a garage, whereas mine is freestanding.

It will be good to compare ideas and results once we're both finished.
 
gwetschdwummer said:
I've lived in NJ (Green Village, near Chatham) but now live in the UK.

Essentially here you can do quite a bit under 'permitted development'.
It has to be under a certain height if it is within 2m of the property boundary, and you need to get the electrics done by someone competent.
It also cannot be sleeping quarters nor take up 50% of the available yard space.
Click to expand...

This, exactly. We were very careful to ensure that we fell within this permitted development. We even had to move the footings hole a foot because it was breaching the line of forward elevation.
 
Mighty_Joker said:
Ghostnote, that looks really good! The only difference is that yours is within a garage, whereas mine is freestanding.

It will be good to compare ideas and results once we're both finished.
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Yes, I had an existing ceiling and two existing exterior walls to work with. I'm on the verge of framing up my interior walls and ceiling. It's an evenings and weekends kinda thing though, so I have to fit it in here and there in my spare time after the domestic chores are taken care of, so it's a slow process.

I am going with 3 layers of 1/2" drywall for each leaf. I wanted to use 2 layers of 5/8", but around here 5/8" is twice the price per sheet as 1/2", so I opted for a little extra work over the increase in material costs. If you look at the pic you can see where I goofed on the framing for the bulkhead around the garage door opener. I never left space for my insulation on the bottom, nor did I factor in screwing surfaces for the drywall in the corners, so I wasted a bit of 2x4 bulking that up to fix my mistake. No big deal though. The bulkhead for the inner walls/ceiling should be a bit of a challenge since It will be free-standing.

My inside dimensions when all is said and done will be 15'×12'×8.5'.
 
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Hi all. I've updated the first post with another photo and part 3 of the video diary.

Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
J
 
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