Dampen sound from unfinished ceiling in basement?

mcgeestevens

New member
Hi everyone, I'm new here and trying to figure out the best way to soundproof a basement recording studio.

I have an 100 year old house with an unfinished basement with ducting and wires/pipes everywhere all over the ceiling. The sides and back of the house have a concrete foundation but the front had a wood one up against an open crawl space under the porch. We took out the front wall (took down the existing paneling to find the whole front of the house was supported by a single 4x4 post :eek:) and put in an insulated wall with staggered studs and exterior sheathing/drywall. It does a pretty good job of blocking the noise from outside but you can still hear everything that goes on inside the house really well. The original idea was to simply paint out the ceiling in a flat black to make it recede but now we are thinking it definitely needs more soundproofing up there. The problem is the ceiling is pretty low (about 6'9"-7') with various ducts/pipes running around making it even lower in spots. The sound comes from everywhere above, but is most noticeable around the ducting.

I realize that it will probably be impossible to completely soundproof the area, but it would be nice to make it a little more isolated at least. The goal is to be able to record in there without worrying about the noise of a car driving by or the baby playing on the second floor. The whole space is about 15'x8'. I have photos of the space but I guess I can't post them until I'm not so new!

A couple ideas we had -

Spray foam insulation between the rafters and shear off the edges and paint?
Shove thick insulation between the rafters and cover the whole thing in a special sound insulating blanket?
Wrap the ducting? Maybe adhesive spray the Owens Corning fiberglass acoustic panels to felt and wrap that around the ducts?

Some combination of everything above?

Something we haven't thought of yet?

What do you all think?

---------- Update ----------

OH nvm I guess the photos did upload. Sorry they're upside down!
 

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I think the only viable option of those you listed is the one where you would wrap / cover the duct work. The other options may help a BIT to isolate SOME sounds from above but probably not most or many. The duct work....however.....is likely acting as "speakers" of a sort..........transmitting and emitting sounds all along it's length. Others here may have some better ideas of what to wrap them with or coat them with......I'm no expert and they might save you some trial and error cost.
 
Stuffing the space between the joists with regular fiberglass insulation couldn't hurt either, but I wouldn't bother with OC703/705 or even Roxul AFB.
 
Stuffing the space between the joists with regular fiberglass insulation couldn't hurt either, but I wouldn't bother with OC703/705 or even Roxul AFB.

+1 to not worrying about the OC/Roxul. However, you may be surprised how quiet a basement can get with a little TLC. Pink fiberglass between the joists and, in my case in my last place, 3/8" thick drywall did the trick - although that may sag over time, depending on the spacing of your joists and how you secure it. Went from hearing every step, burp, fart or sneeze to being as quiet as the door to the basement allowed. We didn't have cats but the house came with a cat door in the basement door and that was the holdup; still, the difference was night and day. It wasn't "soundproof" but it made a very noticeable difference and was on a conservative budget.
 
My initial thoughts would be to glue and screw two layers of 5/8" drywall to subfloor above between joists. Green glue best. Then fill with pink fluffy stuff. Another layer of drywall below if isolation is your most important goal. I would take into consideration finding if that is enough before enclosing though. Just the added density of the drywall layers on subfloor above may be satisfactory. Covering the insulation with cloth may be a great benefit to acoustic performance of the room.

I would definitely use a rigid fiberglass glued to the ductwork to minimize it's resonance.
 
Thank you so much for the advice everyone! I think I will wrap the ducting, and do the 2 5/8 drywall between the joists, with insulation underneath, then cloth. What kind of cloth would be best? Would just a generic felt do? Also what product would you guys recommend for wrapping the ductwork? I was looking at the Quiet Duct-Wrap from Acoustical Surfaces (I would post a link but the site won't let me), does that seem sufficient?

Thank you again for all the help!
 
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