Question:
Well, I am cashing out my New Rochelle half-a-Duplex for a double lot
home slightly further out in New Jersey. So now I have been contemplating
adding a small building on the property for a studio music space, and was
wondering if any of you have found workable prefab or precut buildings that are
useful for the framing the outer structure of a studio with a half decent live
space. Is there possibly something DIY that is somewhat affordable?
I was thinking perhaps a garage with loft design, a barn with loft or
maybe a dome design, a steel building on slab damped down like hell? Anyone? I
am aware that Harvey has done well making a pair of Double-wides into a studio,
but I think we may have city codes prohibiting them...
Answer:
-Assuming that you're going to build out the interior anyway, a pre-fab steel
building can be a quite inexpensive way to start. Of course, local codes may
prohibit that as well.
-Butler makes the prefab steel buildings you see in industrial parks everywhere.
I think thy're basically erector sets with interchangable part tailore for
particular requirements. Before I found the building where my current studio
is, I looked at buying a piece of land and putting up a Butler Building. They
perform well, are relatively inexpensive, and look like shit. Ahh well, pick
any two, right?
-Seems like it could work for a true "building within a building"
design although you may find that rainy days are very noisey with a
metal roof. I looked into lots of prefab designs (and trailers), but found that my
town codes prohibited all of them.
