I know it’s been a while. None of the contractors called back with an estimate and I got frustrated and took a pause. It’s funny that the economy is in such bad shape, people are out of work and yet I can’t get anybody to do this job.
I’m starting to call around again (this concrete grind) so hopefully things will get sorted out.
This Old House Pt.3.2
September 14th, 2009This Old House Pt.3.1
August 10th, 2009I’m getting frustrated with the concrete situation. One of the guys that came never called me back with a quote so I’m going to assume that he can’t or doesn’t want to do the job. The last thing that I want to do is chase after somebody, especially in such an important situation as this. The other guy who came that day game me a prrice which I really didn’t even think about. I figured that once I got a few bids in the appropriate price would become apparent by comparing and finding the middle ground. The guy called me the next day and left a message saying that he can do the job cheaper and that I should call him back. It seems like he (and a lot of other guys) just make up prices in their head. They act like they are making calculations for materials, length, width, time but they don’t hand me an itemized bill, just a piece of paper with a price. I think he probably quoted me high and started thinking about the other guy charging me less and got worried that he wouldn’t get the job. So as it stands I only have one bid. Another company was supposed to come and they never did. Today another one stopped by and I am waiting on an estimate from them.. They were talking about the possibiblity of a skirt around the house, which I have read about, but they want to talk to some people and figure out what would be best “so they won’t have to come back for 10 years” Hopefully I will hear from them. But still only one bid presently. The worst thing is the tape is starting to fall off the house. I know I sung its praises in the last post but it seems that it only stuck before because there was paint on the house and that was something for it to stick to. Now that is bare concrete it won’t stick…. it’s raining as I speak
In other news I took a long trip with my friends to New Jersey and purchased the most sought after Hip-Hop sampler/ drum machine…. more on that later.
This Old House Pt.3
August 5th, 2009Today I had 2 guys come by to give me estimates on the repair. They both arrived at the same time which was awkward. They were polite about it, one guy waited in the truck while the other guy talked to me.
I must admit that I really don’t know who to hire or what to do. I just want the job done right, so in this situation cost is not the priority. With that being said both of them seemed to know what they are doing and both had valid but slightly different approaches. I think that I need to hit up some forums and do some research for myself. It seems to me this situation can be attacked many different ways and with many different chemicals. A lot of construction people stick with the old familiar and because technology is advancing there are new and better ways to fix problems today. So I’m going to do some more research on my own, before I buy into somebody’s sales pitch.
It was funny, because they both warned me about the other guy…
This Old House Pt.2
July 30th, 2009Pain(t) removal is finally done! It took Bill 2 and 1/2 hours to remove it all. I’m a very picky person and I must say he did a good job.
Next up is getting it newly concreted. It’ll probably be a little while before I post again, so savour the pictures of success.
This Old House Pt.1
July 29th, 2009Tomorrow I have the guy coming to finally remove the paint. I’m really happy to get this step out of the way. Today was pretty crazy. I had to dig a trench around the entire house to expose all the paint that is below grade. It was not easy. It was raining and I encountered all sorts of huge rocks, bricks, and broken glass buried in the ground!
Plus I am a weak little man and I have the bad back = @1:14:) This guy too. We all need this. Ok let me stop…
I must admit at this point I feel far more like Bob Villa than Steve Albini.
If you’re wondering what’s up with the big black tape everywhere, that’s what is presently stopping the rain from coming in. It’s Gorilla tape and has stayed on the house for almost 2 years!! I definitely recommend it if you need something that will last!
I had a recording session on Tuesday with PT Burnem’. It went well despite a few problems. We are working on his first official full-length release entitled Paper Cranes. I’m very excited to be working on this project with him.
Blasting
July 9th, 2009Today I had 2 guys come to the house to look at the paint removal situation and give me an estimate. Dealing with people in the construction business is very difficult. The first thing to know is that they are all crooks and they just want your money. You can’t trust anybody. I realize this is probably the deal with all business but it’s still worth mentioning. Nobody follows laws, rules, or codes because nobody enforces them. We have the MHIC (Maryland Home Improvement Commission) that is supposed to enforce code and go after people that do things wrong but they are full of shit. I had a conversation with them once about a problem I was having and the guy basically said to me, “I’m not going after somebody for YOUR problem.” So If you’re in the state of Maryland do your research cause you are on your own!
I talk for a while to the first guy that came. He was filled with ideas and other things that he thought I should try other than removing the paint. This made him seem genuine and thoughtful which is rare, but I still don’t trust anybody. He mentioned calling his friend who does something called concrete injection, which I need to research but I’m pretty sure it’s not needed. When you mention a flooding basement people have a tendency to think of certain problems and solutions. He told me about gutters and grading and all the things that I already know about. My problem is unique to this style of house and I’ve researched it thoroughly so I pretty much know what needs to be done. Still, discussion with people can never hurt, you never know what you can learn.
I was hesitant about having the second guy come because when I talked to him on the phone he said that he would charge me $250 just for an estimate. He explained to me that in order for him to give me an accurate estimate he needed to set up his equipment and actually test an area to see how long it would take. I really don’t like this idea and I still kinda feel like it’s a rip off but it’s not an absurd idea, it does make sense. Better that he does this and gives me an accurate price than to go in blind and half way through the project tell me that he miscalculated and it’s going to take twice as long and be twice the price. I’ve never payed for an estimate before, though a chimney repair company tried to make me pay once and I started yelling at them and they backed down and said they made an error. In the end I did agree to the $250 though… this has been such a looming problem that I’m willing to pay the money to get the end result that I need. This is not something I can skimp on.
First he tried baking soda which worked well but was slow. He then tried glass and that worked a lot faster. It was amazing because the pressure of the spray broke away some of the loose concrete and blasted it to the ground. This reaffirmed that this really is a problem and that it needs addressing. Once I saw that there is basically going to be a crack all the way around the entire house that needs to be filled I knew that this was exactly what I expected it to be – a big deal and why I’ve been dreading doing it for such a long time. I just need to keep my eyes on the prize and picture everything done and having an awesome studio for people to work in.
Now I need to line up a concrete person to immediately follow the paint removal. Once the paint is removed even more cracks will be exposed and the last thing I need is for it to rain while I’m looking for a contractor. So the plan is to have somebody all ready to go, they can start the second the other is finished.
Heres a picture of the test spot. You can see the pieces of concrete that the spray blew away:
Do you see the crack in the beige mortar below? That is where the water gets sucked in. It is like this at various points all around the perimeter of the house.
In other news, I did a session with Height last night and it went really well. We recorded vocals for 3 songs and made a really minimal beat out of scratches and cuts for a cover of a Schooly D track. I’m really amazed with the Hamptone. It reacts very differently to different voices. When I recorded Jones it had a very clean tone but when I recorded Height it had a very saturated agressive sound. The difference in their voices is night and day so it makes sense that it would react differently. I’m looking forward to using the pre more and getting familiar with it’s vast tonal palette.
That Was Crazy
July 6th, 2009Somebody hacked my site… not sure why or even how they singled me out.
Oh well, everything is back up and running again.
In actual relevant news. I’m waiting on estimates from a few soda/ sandblasting companies to finally get the paint removed.
Lets hope everything will work out 
Paint removal a bust
May 14th, 2009The sunny days have come and gone. The paint remover did not work. My walls now how a layer of paint remover stuck on them on top of the original 2 layers of paint that I need removed. This is really frustrating. It seems that because the concrete is not perfectly flat, it’s more like a rough textured surface, that the paint is stuck in all these tiny little pits and for whatever reason will not raise up and come out.
I need to investigate new solutions now…
Rain, rain go away
May 4th, 2009Would you believe I’m still waiting for 2 consecutive dry days?
Of concrete, water, doors, and walls Pt. 1
April 12th, 2009A lot of things have been going on but nothing really to show. I’ve been talking to people about the acoustic problems that I’ve been having and finding out solutions for them. As I suspected some construction will be needed but so far nothing too outrageous. I need a wall and a door added to my control room area to decouple it from the rest of the basement. In addition to that I’m going to need a bunch of sound absorption and diffusion surfaces made. Big bass traps, a ceiling cloud and maybe broadband slot resonators. The big issue is that the room is pretty small to begin with so I have to figure out how to have all of these things in here to fix the sound and still be able to function and move around freely. Before I can get to any of this construction I need to repair some cracked concrete on the outside of the house. I realize that this doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with building a studio but it really does, so follow me on this journey.
When it rains really heavily and I’m talking about what they refer to as flash floods, the gutters on my house are unable to hold and drain the water quick enough so the rain overflows the gutters and pours down the side of the house. There is a point where the foundation meets the brick and this seam is covered over with concrete. The house is over 40 years old so there are spots where the concrete patch has cracked and it just so happens that these very spots are the same spots where the water pools up and pours down the side of the house, oh the irony! Actually they say water is a very powerful force so maybe years of water pressure have caused these cracks. Regardless of how the cracks occurred the result is rain pouring down the inside wall of my basement. Definitely not an attractive site for a recording studio!
I’ve been putting this repair off forever but now it’s imperative that it gets done, the last thing that I need is an awesome studio flooded. Unfortunately the concrete is painted and concrete will not permanently stick to paint, eventually it will fall off. So before I can hire somebody to repair the concrete I need to remove the paint. I bought 2 different environmentally safe products and am waiting for some appropriately warm weather to test them out. The instructions say not to use them unless the temperature is over 55°F. I need 2 warm days in a row to test them. 1 day to apply and the next day to remove – it seems like every other day it’s either raining or cold so I’m waiting.
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After talking to the experts about the acoustical properties of the room it has come to my attention sadly that I need to remove my record collection and bookcases from this room as they are doing all sorts of strange things to the sound. They are my pride and joy and since I am an avid crate digger and samplist it’s great to have them in arms reach, but If I must remove them than I must. I have no idea where I am going to put about 2000 records now. I think I need to go through them and trim the collection down to only what I can’t live without. It’s a long process because it is not just about what I want to listen to but what I want to sample from.
With that being said I have 2 huge Ikea Expedit bookcases of the black-brown variety for sale. They are pretty much in perfect condition so if anybody in the Baltimore area is interested send me a mail – $100 a piece.
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In other news the SE Reflexion Filter is mighty awesome:
Rhyming into it makes you feel mighty powerful like you’re operating some heavy machinery:)