Installing the Back Door

It was finally time to install the back door at my garage conversion project (see these posts). The old back door was damaged and needed to be moved because of the new utility room wall that will soon be framed. I found a great door at Hailey's Salvage (this post) that will coordinate well with the rest of the home.

I started by adding treated trimmer studs on either sides of the door. I used treated because they come in contact with the cement at the bottom and this will help them not to absorb water and rot. I measured the exact dimensions of the door and framed the entire doorway, leaving around 1" around the door for the doorjamb with some wiggle-room.

If you can find a pre-hung door already in a door jamb it will be easier to install. We didn't have this luxury so I made the door jamb and even installed the door in it before placing it in the doorway. It doesn't always make sense to do it this way, but it allowed me to make sure my doorjamb was the right size to have around 1/8" gap around the door for a perfect fit.

The framing was level so installing the door was pretty straightforward, starting with the hinge side and working my way around the door to make sure all the gaps were parallel and the door fit right.

Now I could start thinking about the exterior trim. These old houses are tricky because they use trim that is hard to find these days. You have to be creative and basically custom make each piece. For the door and window casings, the original was a full inch thick (not 3/4" like most boards are today). It needs to be this thick because of the depth of the wood siding that butts up next to it. So, the stock I start with is 5/4" x 4" Paulownia. This may require some explanation.

First, Paulownia is a light-weight wood similar to balsa except stronger and resistant to splitting. It's very popular for exterior trim because it's naturally resistant to rot and decay. I get mine at Walker Ace Lumber and it comes already primed. The 5/4" x 4" boards are actually 1 1/8" by 3 1/2". That will work for our purposes, though I'll have to rip them all down to 3" wide to match the other window and door casings.

The other trick is what to use for that little trim that is on top of the door and windows. It's actually called a drip-cap. They sell it at the home stores like Home Depot, but theirs is a little bulkier than the historic stuff. I prefer the one that Walker Lumber has because it's shape is right and it's made out of PVC. PVC is a great choice for exterior trim because it won't rot. This especially good for a drip-cap because if it's wood it will eventually rot.

My technique is to first cut the top trim and the drip cap and nail them together as a unit. The drip cap has a lip on the back that actually slides under the wood siding. This is very important in keeping the water out of the house. I install the top trim first and then I can see where I need to cut the siding to install the side pieces. I make a chalk line and cut it with my jig saw upside down at an angle (like you're about to do a plunge cut). I find that using the jig saw like this is a little more accurate than trying to do it with the reciprocal saw.

The trim goes in quickly with some long trim nails. For this installation, make sure the nails are galvanized. This will help prevent rust showing up from the nail heads.

Pink siding with a green door? Why not?

Just kidding, it will get painted... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

New Concrete Slab from Cement Brothers

One major issue with our old garage was that the floor was nowhere near level. It was somewhat sloped toward the front of the house (where the garage door used to be), and had lots of humps around the room. The solution was to pour a new cement floor and add a small patio at the back door while we're at it. For the concrete work I turned to Steve Sutherland over at Cement Brothers Concrete.

My part was to empty the room of anything in the way of a new floor as well as frame the new door and window. The window was especially important because this gave us a great location to get the concrete shute into the room.

Steve and his crew showed up early and made a level line around the room with a chaulkline to show where the new floor will be. One corner would only be around 3" thick while the opposite corner was nearly 8"! They also built a form for our 8 x 5 foot patio.

The addition of a small patio at the back door will add a little outdoor living space to this home where the homeowner could put a couple chairs or a grill. Once the garage becomes living space they might actually use the back yard more often and this will provide a nice spot to hang.

During the initial pour the cement is leveled with a long 2x4 to make sure it's flat with no humps or dips. After it dries a little, the guys can get on it with boards to keep them from damaging it. This is when they really smooth it out. They have to do this several times, letting it dry a little more in between each pass. Steve joked that much of their time is spent "watching concrete dry."

The finished product looks great and gives us a nice floor for our new room. Now I can have a level surface to build a wall on for our utility closet and you can walk across the room without getting 'sea legs'. After the cement cures overnight I can get in there and install the new back door and window. We'll give it few days before setting anything too heavy on it like the washer and dryer.

Most of the day I watched Steve work. I guess we watched concrete dry together.. :)

-Peter

Contact Steve or see photos of his work from foundations to driveways at:

www.CementBrothers.com

Framing for the New Window

After getting the doorway framed, it was time to focus on the new window. At one time, long ago, this room was a garage. The garage door opening has since been framed and covered with lap siding. Now it was time to make room for a new window that will give this room plenty of light.

We found this double window at Hailey's Salvage (see this post). It was a good find because it will coordinate with the homes other windows well and it's already got a few layers of paint just like the others! :) Overall it's in great shape and even had a a sill and a couple of old counter-weights intact.

The rough opening will need to be around 45" tall by 68" wide. I measured the location from the outside because I wanted the top of the window to match the height of the others on the front of the house. This garage has a lower roofline than the rest of the house so I measured the existing windows and just made the distance from the window to the eave the same for my new one.

With the height now figured out, I centered the window on the wall and drilled a hole through the siding as a reference point. Back inside, I could now place king studs at either side of the rough opening. These are the studs that go from the floor to ceiling. Next to them will come trimmer studs that will support the new 2x6 header above the window.

Before cutting studs I added a couple temporary supports to the top plate because this exterior wall is load-bearing, carrying the weight of the attic and rafters above. Once my header was in place with supporting trimmer studs I could remove the temporary supports.

I cut the siding so it would overlap my king studs and saved the boards for later. I'll trim the siding back more once I have the window installed and know where the casing will end up. Like when I added the door (this post), it's a good idea to leave plenty of siding for later.

Even just having this huge hole in the wall made a dramatic difference to the feel of the room. Windows are a good thing.

This window is an especially good thing because it will give our concrete truck a way to get the cement in for the new slab. That's coming up next!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Move The Back Door

Part of the plan for this room is to build a wall around the laundry area to make it into a utility closet. However, this wall would be in the way of the old back door. The answer is to move the back door over a couple feet.

Before I do too much framing, we're going to have a new cement slab poured to level the floor. This will raise the floor up by a few inches so, for now, I'm just going to make a rough opening with a new header and then finish it next week after the cement is here.

To get started I took the old door out and then extended the small block wall over to where the new door will be. I'm not a brick mason, so this is about the extent of my masonry skills. :)

After giving the block a day to set up I added a treated 2x8 on top to act as a bottom late for my wall. Then I added a couple studs, keeping in mind that my new laundry wall will also intersect here.

I measured over from the new block that I installed to make a 44" rough opening for my 36" door. This will allow me to put 2 trimmer studs on each side of the door to stabilize it next to the block. Again, I'll be adding these after the cement shows up. For now I'm just trying to get the opening in the right place.

One trick to moving doors or windows like this is to consider where the siding should end up. If you cut it too short, you'll have to replace a lot of siding to get it to butt up to your new door casing. The secret is to leave plenty of extra siding- you can always cut it shorter later once you know exactly where the door casing will be. In my case I cut the siding at the edge of the trimmer studs, leaving around a 38" opening so that the siding currently hangs over 3" on each side.

Next, let's do a window!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Window & Door Treasures at Hailey's Salvage

Before getting too far with my garage conversion project, it was very important to find the windows and door that would make the space more like a living room and less like a garage. Not wanting to special order an expensive window to match the character of the house, I decided to go treasure hunting.

My first stop is usually the Habitat Store downtown. They had been fairly picked over so I headed over to a place on Dickerson Road called Hailey's Salvage.

I knew about Hailey's but hadn't found the need to go there before this project. It's an amazing place full of old used items that had been salvaged from demolitions or renovations, as well as some new odds and ends of many kinds.

I started down an aisle between two large buildings that were both full to the brim with used doors and windows. They were literally stacked all over the place. They had wood doors of every type from the turn-of-the-century, to common Masonite.

For our project, we wanted to match the other front windows as much as possible which where 8-over-8, which means that the top and bottom sashes each had 8 panes of glass (two rows of four each). Even after sifting through Hailey's windows I discovered that these were just too rare.

It may have been for the better because we settled instead on getting a double window, which is actually two windows joined with trim in the middle. These were 6-over-6, but were the old style wood windows that originally had weights and pulleys. I might have to scrape them before painting, but they will match the home's other windows very well.

By the way, if you're wanting new windows, check Hailey's first. If you ask nicely, Jim (my guide on the treasure hunt) will take you to ANOTHER huge building across the street where the keep all of their new windows and doors that were closeouts or whatever. Upstairs they have mostly vinyl windows of all shapes, while downstairs (yes, in the cellar) they have more wood ones or wood-vinyl.

The prices aren't crazy cheap, but for items you can't find anywhere else I thought it was reasonable. The newer windows were around $175 each which is comparable to most of the stock windows at Home Depot, but Hailey's has tons of unique sizes and shapes that would easily cost double that amount at full retail.

The used double window I bought was $95 and I also picked up a nice solid wood Craftsman-looking exterior door with four little windows across the top for $110. You could easily spend $400+ for a door like that. It needs paint, but otherwise was in great shape. (Even came with hinges.. :)

Anyway, check out Hailey's for your project. My only advice is to go in the early stages. The more flexible you can be on the sizes you're looking for, the more likely you'll find something fantastic.

By the way, they have WAY more than just windows and doors. How about sinks, toilets, mouldings, sidelights, faucets, light fixtures, tons of storm windows, and probably more that I didn't even get to. That place is huge...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Converting the Garage to Living Space

I started a new project today for a client in East Nashville who wants me to convert an old garage into finished living area. She's planning to sell the home soon, so adding these 220 square feet to a small 800 square foot home will really add some room to stretch out a little.

Sometime in the past the garage door had been removed and patched to make this room a utility work room. It's time to finish the job and make it nice. Here are a few of the upcoming steps:

• Gut the room except around the laundry area.
• Move the back door.
• Have a new cement poured to level the floor and add a patio at the back door.
• Have an electrician add outlets and light fixtures.
• Add a couple windows to let it more light.
• Build a wall around the laundry area to make a large utility closet and hide that stuff.
• Build a new landing with nice stairs.
• Drywall the entire thing, trim, paint, and eventually carpet.

It's about a four week project. Stay tuned. Of course, I'm planning to document the process so you can follow the fun! :)

-Peter

BTW- See all the related posts for this project at this link.

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Add Some Crown to the Beadboard Porch Ceiling

This week I took a morning to do some trimwork for a friend who had just installed a beadboard porch ceiling at his Inglewood home. It's a beautiful stone home that is getting some updated finishes like cedar posts to replace those ornate steel ones that were holding up the porch and rusting out.

Anyway, they left the crown moulding for me and I was glad. It's fun to see how things transform once you add trim. You can tell from the pictures that it still needs some paint, but the change is already remarkable.

This porch took around 80 feet of 3 5/8" crown. It's wide so I got to use some 16-footers. Again, I used a longer 2x4 as a helper to hold one end while I secured the other end. If you're trimming out a porch with crown you might like these posts:

Tips for Installing Crown Moulding

Crown Moulding- How To Get Tight Outside Corners

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Widening The Doorway Before and After

In the process of widening the doorway between a client's kitchen and dining room I've tried to take you through the process to see how it's done:

1. Remove Trim and Drywall (this post)

2. Remove Framing & Install New (this post- BTW- This wall is NON-Load bearing)

3. Install Countertop (this post)

4. Install Lighting (this post)

5. Trim, Paint and Clean-up

In all, this project just took me three days to accomplish. However, the change is quite dramatic. Now this homeowner can include their dining room with the kitchen as entertaining space and have a beautiful new counter to serve as a buffet for those gatherings.

Again, I have to thank Chris Barber at Barber Woodworking for creating the Heart Pine Countertop that is the centerpiece of the project.

Now, let's party!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Adding Pendant Lights to the Bar

As I was widening the doorway (these posts) between this kitchen and dining room I had to keep in mind that the homeowner's wanted some pendant lights installed above the new countertop. This isn't very difficult, as long as I plan ahead.

I did the rough wiring before I even put the header in. This included adding a switch on the adjacent wall where I moved the other switches to. Then, I left a couple gaps in between the filler pieces of 1/2" plywood in the center of the header where the wires would go.

Under the header, I would install a very thin 'pancake' electrical box. I put these in place next and then marked the locations on a poplar board that I would be using to trim across the top of the opening.

With the locations marked I traced around one of the pancake boxes and cut out the hole with my jigsaw. Now the board fit perfectly and those thin boxes were nearly flush with the face.

Installing the lights and determining the best height was all that was left. We decided on a height that was around 22" off of the countertop, but they can be easily raised if the homeowner decides that they are too low. It's a matter of personal taste, I suppose.

The finished lights really helped to show off that heart pine countertop.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

The Story Behind the Heart Pine Countertop

Wanting to have more counter space for entertaining, my clients wanted me to open up the wall in their kitchen and install an 8 foot bar countertop (see these posts). For the counter I turned to a friend of mine who is also an artisan when it comes to making specialty wood items like cabinets, built-ins and an occasional countertop. His name is Chris Barber of Barber Woodworking. Here's the story, straight from Chris...

"Peter recently commissioned me to build a heart pine bar top. The final dimensions would be 15" wide, 100" long, and 1.5" thick. Heart pine is old growth pine, and although 60 - 80 years ago it was as common as regular southern yellow pine is today, it is no longer available in the lumber yard.

So, the first step in this process was selecting and buying the lumber from a local reclaimed lumber supplier. They specialize in reclaiming beams and boards, mostly heart pine and white oak, from old turn-of-the-century factories and buildings. This particular beam had been a framing support member at a Washington Manufacturing plant that made Dee Cee overalls in Columbia, TN. The factory was built in 1884 and was dismantled after the company filed bankruptcy in 1988. (read about this here)

Peter's client had mentioned wanting the top to look like one board, so I wanted the color and grain to be consistent throughout. The best way to do this is to get two boards from the same log, and luckily, dealing with a specialty lumber supplier allows more freedom to do this. I selected a nice looking beam that was about 10" x 9" and 10' long.

The supplier had a portable band-saw mill, so he sliced two planks off of the beam, each about 1.75" thick . The great thing is, not only does this technique ensure consistent color, it allowed me to book-match the top's grain from two alike pieces.


The next step was milling these two planks to rough dimensions and gluing them together, using Titebond II wood glue. Once the glue had dried, I used a thickness sander to level out the top to a rough thickness, about 1 5/8". Then came final dimensioning and cutting the radius for the end of the top.

After this step, I needed to address how the counter would be supported. The solution involved milling three 4"wide x 9" long x 3/4" deep cutouts on the bottom of the piece to accommodate the brackets for attaching the top to the wall. This is a little tedious, but can be done using a template jig with a router. The brackets would first be attached to the support framing, then the counter could be installed over the brackets and secured.



With all of the milling completed, I began smoothing and finishing the top. After a light surfacing with a #4 smoothing plane, I rough sanded the top with 120 grit sandpaper in a random orbit sander. I then put an 1/2" radius round-over profile around the top edge to give it a finished look, and progressed with final sanding to 180 grit sandpaper. The top was finished with 5 coats of Minwax Satin Wipe-on Polyurethane, a very durable, easy-to-apply finish.

For the installation, I met Peter at the client's home as he was stabilizing the wall for the top. I cut the top to length to fit the wall, and marked the spots where my brackets would need to go. After removing the top, I bolted the brackets to the top plate of the wall, making sure to shim them level where needed. Once the brackets were properly secured, the top clicked back in place like a giant Lego brick. For final securing, I used 1.25" washer head screws to screw up through the bracket into the top (making extra sure they weren't too long!).

The final result was a handsome top with an interesting history. I hope it will serve the customer for many years to come and perhaps even provide a frequent topic of conversation."

-Chris Barber

Contact Chris or see galleries of his work at:
www.BarberWoodworking.com

Removing Part of the Kitchen Wall Part 2

Yesterday, I covered removing the trim and drywall for the opening I made in the wall between a client's kitchen and dining room. (See this post) Now it's time to remove framing.

Again, it's important to think this through.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a NON-load bearing wall.

1. Remove the old header. Before removing studs, I carefully removed the header above the old doorway. It's hard to not damage drywall doing this because they are often nailed from every direction! Still, I was able to cut around the perimeter with my reciprocal saw and cut most of the nails. Once I got part of it loose I could start prying it out and cut more nails. Now onto those studs...

2. Think it through. If this wall had been load bearing, we would need temporary walls and install a substantial header to carry the load. A non-bearing wall up to 8 feet just needs a 2x4 header, however, this is a little longer so I've used a double 2x6 header built up with 1/2" plywood in between.

Knowing that my header is 5 1/2" and that I want to reuse the old trimmer stud on the left side, I can figure out where to cut these studs so that they'll rest on my new header once it's in place.

Also we'll be installing a countertop on the lower section of this wall at 42" high. The counter will be around 1 1/2" and then there will be a top plate (2x4) that's another 1 1/2". All this means that I need to make the bottom cut at 39" to accommodate these things. I measured in one place and then used the level to mark the others. It's very important that our countertop is level.

3. Cut the studs. Mark across the studs using a level to make sure they're all the same. Once they are marked, use a small square to mark lines on both sides of the stud. This will be a reference to help me make a flat cut across each board.

Before making the cuts, I used a longer metal blade in the reciprocal saw to cut any screws holding the drywall to the studs I'm about to remove. Starting with the the stud closest to the old doorway and working toward the wall, I made the top cut first before making the lower cut. If anything, I tried not to remove too much. After cutting, I checked everything with my level and trimmed a couple studs that had high spots. I was very careful to not cut all the way through and damage the drywall on the other side.

4. Install the new header. Now I built my header out of a couple 2x6 pieces with some 1/2" plywood sandwiched in between. The plywood makes the header 3 1/2" wide which will be flush with the surrounding 2x4s. Before nailing it together, take note of which way each piece is crowning and put this side up.

The crown is the slight curve in the middle of each longer piece of dimensional lumber. Too much crowning will be a pain to work with, so leave these boards at the lumber yard. However, even great lumber will have a slight crown in the center.

WHICH WAY IS IT CROWNING? When you pick up a piece of lumber and look down the edge do you know what you're looking for? To tell which way it is crowning look at an upper corner at the opposite end. As you raise the board, if the corner disappears then it's crowning up. If you can see the corner all the way down the board, then it's crowning down. Flip it over and repeat to make sure you've got it right.

Installing a header can be a tight fit. I usually cut the header with a little margin so that it won't be impossible to install. Rest one end on the trimmer stud and slide the other end into place. I needed a small prybar to get mine in, but that means it fit well. The crown means that the middle may be a little tight. You want it to fit snugly.

Next I put a top plate across the bottom studs where the countertop will go. I double checked it to make sure it was level and then did a little dance because it was... :)

Now, where's that beautiful countertop?

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Removing Part of the Kitchen Wall Part 1

A common project on many people's wish list is to open up their kitchen by removing a wall, or at least making an opening in a wall. That's the goal at my current project where I will be removing much of the wall between a kitchen and dining room, installing a beautiful wood serving counter that will be the new centerpiece for this entertaining space.

Today was demolition day. Maybe I should say careful demolition. The trick with this project is to keep the mess to a minimum and reduce the amount of drywall repairs to make as well.

So, how do you widen a doorway? This home was only a couple years old, so it will make a great candidate to cover the basic steps to the process.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a NON-Load bearing wall.

1. Carefully remove trim. Once again, carefully. Much of the casing from the old door will be reused around the new, wider opening so I want to carefully save as much as possible. See this post to learn how to not ruin every piece as you remove it.

2. After the trim is off, I removed the door jamb. It's often easiest to cut the nails around a door jamb with a reciprocal saw. Then, the jamb comes out as one unit that you can disassemble. If you just start prying on it you're more likely to damage it. I'll need those pieces later and boards aren't cheap these days!

3. Think, then remove drywall. Thinking this all the way through will save you time and suffering from cutting something you shouldn't. My new header will be at the same height as the old one, except extend all the way across the room. The header will be 2x6, so I added 5 1/2" to the height of the cripple stud, marked a level line and cut all the way across on one side.

I will need to slide the header in from one side, but the drywall on the back can stay intact. If I can keep from damaging it, that will save me some work down the line. I used my little drywall saw for most of these cuts because power tools make so much more dust.

Before pulling drywall off, score the corners with a utility knife and cut around the perimeter with a hand saw or reciprocal saw. Then you can pull the drywall off in pieces.

4. Move any electrical. With the drywall removed I can easily see any wiring that needs to be dealt with. This home was fairly easy in that there was only a couple light switches and all the wires ran up to the attic. I was able to put a junction box in the attic where I could extend the wires enough to reach new switches on an adjacent wall.

Next we start removing lumber. I'll cover that tomorrow...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Inglewood Kitchen Before and After

I wrapped up my Inglewood Kitchen project today and thought I'd share some photos. This kitchen underwent quite a transformation.

When I started, most of the walls were covered in lovely paneling and the floor was ceramic tile in an outdated shade of pink (not the homeowner's favorite.)

One of the first jobs after removing all of the trim was to widen the doorway between the kitchen and the adjoining dining room. It previoiusly had a recessed sliding door hiding in there.

Thankfully, this was not a load-bearing wall, which simplified things a little bit. This wider doorway really opens up the entire downstairs of this home, making that old doorway look very skinny...

The kitchen already had decent cabinets with granite counters. My job was to rip up the old tiles (this post) and install 16" travertine stone tiles on the floor. I also installed a travertine subway tile backsplash with a mosaic pattern in the middle (this post).

In addition to the tile work, I also installed drywall and wider crown, baseboard, and casings to better fit the character of this older home.

I'm happy with the results. This was a fun project.

See this link for all the posts related to this project.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Idea for Budding Carpenters

Anyone with small children should be teaching them the basics of carpentry and construction, wouldn't you agree?

Whatever your motivation, you might enjoy taking your kids to one of Home Depot's "Kid's Workshops". One Saturday a month, they offer free activities for kids. I took my three kiddos this morning and they had a blast. Abby (3) built a bean-bag toss game and Noah (5) built a helicopter. Anna (1.5) just watched. All of it was free. Of course, they're hoping that we will shop there. (I'm there nearly everyday during the week, so I'd say they owe me a helicopter or two... :)

I'm not really trying to promote Home Depot, however, my kids love doing these activities and getting to do some hammering and nailing. They even love getting dressed up in their orange aprons and look forward to going back the next time.

Next time, maybe they could do something with nail guns or at least a miter saw.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Improvise Trim for French Doors

Improvisation works for jazz and McGyver, so why not me, right?

After installing the French Doors in this post, we met a problem when it came to trimming between the doors and the windows. Mullion trim would be perfect, except that I couldn't find any that was the right width for this project. Further, we needed a skinny piece to run across the top of the door to match.

What to do? Time to go custom...

For our purposes, it really didn't need to be fancy. I wanted to start with a thin board and round over the edges. A typical 1x4 would be 3/4" thick which is still too much. Instead, I bought some wider pine baseboard and ripped off the decorative edge with my table saw to leave me with a 3" board that was only about 1/2" think. Perfect!

Next I used my router to round the edges and then sanded them down as you can see in the picture. Once the boards had been transformed into decorative mouldings, I was ready to install them as usual.

This was the last piece of this puzzle. It was time to putty and caulk all those seams! Fight that temptation to skip the caulk, even with a brand new door installation. The caulk makes everything look seamless so that instead of looking at gaps you can enjoy the new door.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Trim for Inglewood Kitchen Project

It was trim day at my kitchen project which is always fun because of the transformation that takes place when you start hiding all the rough edges.

The kitchen has 4 doorways that all got 3 1/4" casing. Some of the door jambs had to be extended with furring strips by about 3/8" because of the drywall that I had installed that made the walls a little thicker. (See this post)

In addition to the doors and a little baseboard, I installed some thing trim around the large recessed refrigerator to hide the unfinished ends of the drywall. There was also a matching cavity above the fridge that would hold a couple wine racks that I trimmed out as well. (See picture).

Now that the Travertine flooring is installed and grouted and the trim is going in, we are very close the end of this project. I'll start caulking and puttying trim tomorrow and wrap this up with some paint after that.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Another Baffle for the Home Studio

Earlier this year I had the priviledge of helping some clients convert part of their home into a home studio.  This was no ordinary conversion either- we vaulted ceilings, added lots of mineral wool insulation, and then built enough acoustical treatments to make a room inside the room.  It was a blast.  (See these posts).

Anyway, they called me again today to build a couple more baffles to stick in the corners to help absorb more of the low end frequencies in the control room downstairs. 

The majority of the baffles were made out of a wood frame around mineral wool insulation that is covered with acoustical fabric.  These are hung from the ceiling to absorb reflections and hopefully help the engineer get an accurate impression of the recording.

To fight those pesky low frequencies, I took 4" thick mineral wool insulation and built a small frame with some 1x2 that would go on the back.  This would offer some support, but mainly I needed a place to staple the fabric.  At this thickness, the insulation will basically stand on it's own in the corner.

I put these in each corner behind the baffles I had previously made.  I'm not an acoustic engineer, but my client tells me that the lower frequencies should get trapped in the airspace behind the new thick insulation and hopefully reduce the boomy low end and make it clearer.

Right.  I just built the baffles and installed them.  He says it sounds better.  That works for me!  :)

-Peter

http://www.carpentryguy.com/