Basement Ceiling Sound Barrier Question

I

idkDude

New member
I'm in the process of finishing my basement. I want a sound barrier to prevent as much sound as possible from leaking to the upstairs. At this point, I'm not so much concerned with controlling the acoustics for recording. My main goal is to be able to strum the guitar and sing or listen to the stereo at a decent level without bothering anyone.

The room is ~12ft x 20ft. My plan is to:
1. Put Roxul up in the ceiling joists.
2. Put in a drop tile ceiling with ceiling caps to lay on top of each one. These things - https://imgur.com/VEPOBKu
3. Use sound barrier blanket or something on the door/wall that will eventually be there.

The other side of the long wall is a garage.

So, what does anyone think of this plan? Some guidance or suggestions would be much appreciated. My budget solely for "soundproofing" is ~$1500 -$2000.

Crappy pics but here are a couple angles of the room:
https://imgur.com/sGrSKxT
https://imgur.com/lrqLtVn

Thanks.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're going to spend this money and be totally unsatisfied with the results. Those stud walls you have butting right up to the ceiling joists/beams? They're going to transmit the sound through the wood. Those 'ceiling caps' seem to be nothing more than slightly-compressed fiberglass insulation. Yes, you will block some of the sound from transmitting upstairs, but when you crank the stereo with a good bass guitar and kick drum, they'll hear it.
For true isolation, you need to build a 'room within a room' using isolating rubber pads between hard surfaces and double-wall construction.
 
Yeah, unfortunately I knew it was highly unlikely that anyone would reply, "Yes, that will be perfect. You will have next to no noise transmission with that approach. Your plan is brilliant" even though that's what I'd like to hear. From all the information I've looked through I know the "room within a room" approach is ideal, but given this space it just isn't feasible. Do you think Roxul (or some sort of acoustical insulation) in the walls would help minimize that? My music and guitar playing wouldn't need to be blaring, but a reasonable level would be great. I need to do something but I would hate for it to be a more or less wasted effort. I'm so eager to get this done, but I want to be smart about it.
 
Roxul in the walls/ceiling, and double thick sheetrock (using green glue, not nails/screws between the layers) will help some.
 
Well, the transmission of mostly low end is the issue without 'de-coupling' the structure. That does not mean you can't lower the overall volume of sound between the rooms.

Density of the materials between the rooms will help the most for the overall volume of transfer.

So what is the purpose of this room? Recording or mixing?

For isolation only and not room treatment, I would suggest a double layer of 5/8" Drywall on the ceiling. Fill that gap with the pink stuff. But then you will limit the cubic volume of your acoustically treated space below.

I was recommend by J H Brandt to add layers of dense material to the subfloor from below and leaving the space open for my drum room. Since I didn't care about sound transfer the the floor above I did not go that route. Basically adding layers of dense material to the bottom of the subfloor above would help to isolate the sound a bit. By that I mean adding two layers of drywall to the subfloor from below and sealing the air gaps between the joists. Then utilize the space for rockwool or whatever between the joists (covered with breathable cloth) for sound absorption in the space below.

A compromise will be made here in your situation regardless. The ventilation duct itself is also going to limit you as to what you can achieve.

I myself have a 8' x 12' guitar isolation room adjacent to the above living space that has 3 concrete walls. Again, because it was 40' away from my daughters room, I was not so concerned with the sound transfer to the above level. I built a simple 2x4 wall with 2 layers of 5/8" drywall on the outside, filled with pink stuff, then a layer of 1/2" drywall on the inside. One solid fire rated door. Just for the wall between control room and isolation room. The results of the sound reduction to the control room is quite amazing, but the low end from the structure is still there. But that is an acceptable level for me.
 
The main purpose of the room will be listening to music and playing guitar/keys. I'll be recording there too, but I'm not too concerned with treating the room with respect to that as I'm very much a hobbyist and the room serves as a laundry room too, so I'm pretty limited. A lot of what I record is D/I anyway. Trying to dampen the sound in the room for recording can come later. I typically do mixing with headphones. I mainly just want to play guitar (and maybe some auxillary percussion and keys) and listen to the stereo at a moderate level without bothering anyone upstairs. I know whatever I do won't be perfect. I also need to get buy-in from my father-in-law who's been renovating my house from top to bottom and will be leading the project. We are planning to go the drop tile route so we can access the newly-installed pipes and wires in the ceiling. There are so many different options and variables, it's difficult to pin down what will work best for my purposes. Thanks for all the replies so far.
 
The amount of sound proofing you want dictates how much you will spend. If you can get away with just reducing the sound levels to a liveable level then the cost is much less than complete sound proofing. The reduction of sound transition is relative to the money spent in exponential amounts. Meaning that the costs will double for every Db reduction you want.

If you want to reduce the sound spill upstairs than the drop-in panel with the insulation will reduce the amount of spillage, remember that the sound proofing is only as good as the installation, no gaps anywhere as the job is only as good as the weakest point.

Alan
 
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