Walling off a section of basement - staggered stud wall?

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devilsgirth

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So I'm going to wall off a section of my basement and its going to require me to create two new interior walls to close off a corner section. I'm thinking of doing a staggered stud wall with 2 x 4's on top of a 2 x 6 base (and top frame). I'm just kind of lost on the proper spacing between the studs. I attached two photos, one showing the already finished half and the other showing where I will build one of the walls (just in front of the pipes). Can I have the staggered studs at the same distance from each other as the studs seen in the photo? Or do they need to be closer together?
 

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I am no pro by any means, but I believe the staggered studs concept is to decouple the two walls from each other. You are still going to have transmission through the structure above the wall. I don't personally have an answer worthy, but I hope John will be around soon to give good advice. I am about to do something similar so I look forward to hearing more about this.
 
The differences between uniform and staggered have never been proven to me to make much difference as long as the mass of the cladding is sufficient. In practice, uniform spacing is so much easier to fix to, and knowing where the studs are when you are fixing makes the job a million times easier - especially if like me, you lose paperwork, and in six months time need to fix to a stud hidden under the surface decoration. In fact, by process every time I do this is to make sure the stud work is at divisions of sheet size, which makes the job even speedier.
 
Make sure there is sufficient access to all the utility stuff (pipes, etc) when you build the second wall. If a pipe has to be replaced/worked on, you don't want to have to rip down part of the wall for access. (in other words enough room for a fat-ass plumber to get through!)
As already mentioned, the staggered studs are basically to decouple the two walls, you're still going to have transmission from the upper joists and the floor unless you use rubber/foam decoupling stuff.
 
Ok thanks for the replies. Main reason I thought staggered would be good because it seems like I would be able to get a thicker wall for a cheaper price instead of having uniform 2 x 6's I could stagger cheaper 2 x 4's apart so the wall is just as thick as if it was a 2 x 6. Is that reasonable or should I consider uniform? Staggered makes more sense in my mind but then again Im a newbie so. MJB thanks for input on the pipes but don't worry I already planned on having the outside wall in front of them so I can still access them. So what is this foam decoupling you speak of to block transmission from ceiling? The other half of the room is already built, as seen in photo, so I'm kind of out of luck I think for properly sound treating that side.
 
That's awesome thanks! I'm trying to decide if it is worth the extra hassle t worry about ceiling transmissions though because the room above this future studio doesn't get walked on a lot.
 
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