Renting a garage for music-purpose? Now I found a solution!

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Recently i had a talk with one of my patients about music and it appears that the person has highly optimized a room only for listening to music. As the discussion was moving on, i got a hint about a company that rents garages in different sizes with a 24/7 access. I checked it out and it isn’t even expensive. There is of course electricity. There is plenty of room 6m x 3m (aprox. 19,5 ft. x 9,85 ft).
Now i’m thinking about building a studio in this place, preparing the walls and anything else.

But… since the garage isn’t in a building, everything inside is somehow exposed to temperature-fluctuations and humidity, even when the garage-door is closed although there is an isolation-treatment at the door’s edges.

This is my main-concern! From my point of view it will hurt any kind of electronic-devices over time and just for imagination i don’t want to re-pack my instrument every time i leave.

The pros are:

  • i can listening to my music as loud as need without thinking about the neighborhood
  • i can treat the walls with acoustic-parts
  • it’s separated from my normal life (which is important to me)

Has anyone of you a similar solution or any tips regarding temperature/humidity ?

#2

just use pelican cases when ur done playing.

#4

if you wanna do this for real - and if the company renting those garages agrees - i would consult a craft business specialized in the isolation of unheated rooms. i think that the ground has to be isolated too, since this is where humidity often comes from - if there is no basement underneath. i dont think that humidty will be no problem for the machines over time. i mean, we are speaking from a garage - and those are quite heavily exposed to humidity and other environmental factors (mold is often something i see in garages here in Germany - because they are not properly isolated - as there is usually no need to!).

there is - however - another thing you also have to consider. and this is the insurance. you must clarify what the insurance is paying for. maybe you can get a domestic policy from them or a special content insurance. garages are usually exposed to breach much more than your home apartment. the insurance could easily be more expensive in that case (at least in Germany insurance cost always depends on the expected risk). in other words: you would literally have to rebuild the garage from the ground up to make that work and to be safe. costs can be tremendous and probably not worth it.

So: Why not renting an empty room in an industrial area? this is what people do quite often here in germany. you have a room with no direct entrance, so insurance is not a problem. and you have no issues with humidity. and prices can be fair too - me and a friend of mine had a room in a building from another company several years ago. we paid 90 € per month for 32 m² - heating costs included. with insurance we were at 110 € a month. and electricity was around 15 € per month (just checked the old papers :slight_smile: ). So 125 € per month in total. that was also not expensive.

#5

Moisture can really ruin some gear. I had a Roland SH-2 near a window that got a lot of condensation on it in winter. Over time a lot of surface rust appeared on the metal case.

1 Like
#6

Good point on the whole security aspect of it all and checking on what’s covered by the owners. Another thing to consider is that if you have a lot of older analog gear, temperature fluctuations can be a pain with tuning etc.

#7

all old rolands has rust on them :kissing_heart:

#9

that is a good idea, i didn’t think about it first but let’s see if there is any solution

with the insurance you are right… and this is one of my concerns. This kind of business (garages in a dedicated area) is relatively new in Austria, quite on on the contrary to self-storage - which i use.

and yes, the adaption for the floor could be considerable expensive

i did some research and i found quite a lot rooms in my home-town

#10

springtime, fall and winter… for a car, no problem

#11

What about renting a studio?

#12

sounds too good to be true, but for a non-professional like me a way to heavy

#13

oh, youre from Austria - thats our german speaking neighbourhood … :slight_smile: Yeah, i assume renting a room in an industrial area will be quite similar there. Here in Germany there are often some Halls or levels in bigger Houses which had companies inside that left one day - and are now empty. Particularly in the countryside. I even heard from rental companies offering Rooms in such buldings specifically for adolescents to use them as youth clubs or something like that. If i were you i would really check that out first. This garage thing is something you can still do if you dont find anything.

#14

I beg to differ. Relative humidity can be a problem in any climate, be it temperate or tropical. I think especially in a context of unregular use, paired with bad ventilation (garages usually don’t have windows), and bad insulation you could quickly end up with a room atmosphere that has a lot of relative humidity which will then quickly condensate once the room is not being used.

#16

Yes, you are absolutely right about that! I go mostly by my experience with garages in a few different climatic zones, and all of them had the common feature of big changes in temperatures and high relative humidity. It’s just not the type of room I would keep musical instruments of any kind in - perhaps aside from some steel drums :wink:

#17

Although I’m sick since days, I did a big step forward in my life. With next month I’m going to open a Psychologist’s office … of course it means a lot of work for me and i have to invest a certain amount of money … anyway, the size is quite perfect: 20,4 sqm (or 2195.838 sqft)

beside my job for the clients i can (as already posted at first):

#18

If I were to see a psychologist (which I have no reason to although some nuats might beg to differ :joy:), I would not expect Elektrons in the office…
Haha, bonus points! :rofl: