BaltimoreAnalog.com

Almost done… can’t wait to listen when everything is set up:)

I Just set up the bass traps and did a quick listen.  The sound of the room has dramatically changed:)  The bass is now a lot more even throughout and all of the other frequencies are more clearly defined. The room sounds a lot less muddy.  I can only imagine how great it will sound when it is all done!

I just finished building 4 bass traps.  6 feet tall, 6 inches thick.  They are really solid.  This is the first time that I’ve ever built panels and it went pretty well.  I built the frames out of wood and used metal corner braces to hold them together.  I then used some wood screws for extra support.

After that I stapled some fabric on the backside of the frame and then put the sheets of Roxul inside.

When I picked up the mineral wool from the dealer he told me to be careful because it can irritate your skin very easily.  When I put it in the car it happened because I was wearing a short sleeve short.  My skin immediately turned red and got itchy so when I put the panels together I wore long sleeves, gloves, and a face mask.  It all protected me well and I had no problems.  Once I got the wool in I stapled some nicer fabric to finish it off.

4 big bass traps finished:

Nothing was too hard, they were big and heavy and I’m small and weak so it was a challenge to move everything around.  The only difficult thing that I really never figured out was how to make the corners on the back really clean, that’s something that an upholsterer does…

Now I have to make some 4″ ones and some 2″ ones as well.  18 more total which is kinda crazy but it must be done…  This time I’ll be working with rigid fiberglass so we’ll see how it goes:)

I’m finally done painting.  Man, that took a long time -  4 days.  Primer, flat white, semi-gloss white, orange, periwinkle, caulk, tape, mistakes, paper coming off of the dry way, waiting for it to dry, recoating… over and again.  Too complex of a design, I have no idea how I originally did this, I must have been a little crazy.

Next step is to build the acoustic panels.  I’m gonna try this because it seems the easiest.  I’m gonna buy a mitre box so I can angle the corners though.  After calling around I’ve found out that no places here will get Owens Corning 703 because it will cost them way too much money.  If I order online the shipping cost will be crazy too but I did find a place near me that sells the equivalent of 703 by another brand.  Hopefully I will get going on these this week or next.

Wow, yes I am still here.  I decided to take a little bit of a break from the build to focus on other things but now I am back.  I pretty much have all of my gear in line and some of the old setup was sold and replaced with different pieces.  I’ll explain the changes in a post in the future.  Big news is that after much deliberation I gave in and had a wall built.  I knew I had to do it but I really didn’t want to get it done.  I was looking at many alternatives like the partitions that are used in office spaces but in the end the wall was the best option.  I decided on a wall with a pocket door because the area is so small and cramped that a normal door would be inconvenient at best and obstructive at worst.

I went for 3 estimates as usual.   The first guy was relatively cheap and everything seemed good but then he said he was, “honest and trustworthy” and from past experiences whenever anybody goes out of their way to say something like that it means they are definitely not!  I still asked him for a reference and when I called said reference he ended up only exceeding my suspicions.  The guy sounded like he was waiting for me to call and proceeded to say that he did great work but the only problem was he was too good!  So that ended it there for me.  The second estimate wanted over 3 times the first so that ended it there for me.  The 3rd estimate who I went with wanted a little more than the first but he was the only guy who didn’t try to talk me out of getting the pocket door.  Pocket doors are not as easy as normal doors and it seems like most people aren’t too comfortable installing them.  He worked with his partner on Saturday for 9 hours and was done.  I’m happy with the results.  All I need to do is prime and paint.  Here are some before and after pics:

Things are kinda crazy around here and I’m really busy but I do want to post that everything was completed.
I will be posting pictures soon and describing how it all went down.

In other news I got a Equitech 2RQ. This thing is serious!

I was almost going to write the ecstatic post but alas shit has gone afoul. I’ll get to the details soon but first I gotta get my hands dirty.

The contracts have been signed and after an extremely long time I can happily say the work is finally going to happen. Here’s what went down. After being frustrated by not being able to find somebody to do the work or at least do the work in a way that I thought would be lasting, I made one last attempt. I posted a very detailed description of my problems complete with pictures on a forum with many knowledgeable people. I didn’t know what to expect but I hoped that it would be something that I hadn’t thought of. It was. I was basically told 2 solutions. 1 solution was to use a product that was a liquid but when it dried it turned into bendable concrete. Even though this sounded good only 1 guy really suggested it but he also made it seem like it involved a lot of hard preparation. The resounding conclusion was to do “flashing” all the way around the house. Everybody seemed to agree that this was the way to go. Previous to this I had no clue what flashing was but I did some searches and read up on it. Basically it is when you cut a groove and insert a piece of sheet metal in it. You angle the sheet metal so it covers up the vulnerable point. This is most commonly seen around chimneys. So this IS my solution and it makes sense. They are going to cut a groove in between the brick all the way around the house and insert the sheet metal into it. The sheet metal will be bent down to cover up the cracks and when the rain hits it, it will just pour down the sheet metal surface to the ground. The groove will then be filled in with caulking. This may not look the best, to have a metal ring around the house, but I know it is THE best solution for the job. Sometimes you have to push aesthetics to the back so that the important things can be taken care of. After all is said and done my plan is to plant some bushes around the house and in a few years they will grow tall enough to cover the flashing.

After I got the news of what to do the next thing to do was to find somebody that would actually perform the job. I was told that I should try some waterproofing companies. I for one have always thought that these companies were scams but I’ve now learned otherwise. If they are good companies they will do foundation work, fixing cracked and bowing walls, installing french drains, and even leveling houses that are sinking. You obviously have to know your stuff to be able to do this otherwise you are just a company painting drylok in a basement. I kind of assumed that was what all of these companies did. I looked in the phonebook for waterproofers and there were over 8 pages of companies. The last thing that I wanted to start doing was basically the same process of calling, explaining, scheduling, meeting, explaining again and waiting for a price – for 8 pages of companies. I decided to find any company that had a website and email them a link to my forum post and see what they thought and if they could perform the task. I email 11 companies and got 3 responses. This seems like an accurate ratio. 1 company said to call his friend, he’s not sure if he’s licensed but he does good work and this job lo simple enough, but he would never recommend somebody that isn’t licensed!?!? I won’t even get into that one so needless to say I never called him. Then I received responses from 2 other companies. One came to the house and agreed to flashing being the best solution but said he doesn’t do that kind of work.. I actually talked to this guy for a while and even though he wouldn’t do the job he was very knowledgeable and helped me out a lot. The other guy who responded, read the post over and discussed it with some of his colleagues and then came to the house for a closer look. He agreed that flashing was the right thing to do as well. We discussed it and also talked about redoing all the concrete work around the house as well. They are going to wrap the wire mesh around the house and then reconcrete it. After that is done they will install the flashing. They were supposed to come today but it’s raining so maybe tomoroow or maybe this week depending on the weather.

Till soon…

Hopefully some news soon…