Drywall on basement ceiling?

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cellardweller

cellardweller

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Would it be advantageous for me to drywall my basement ceiling for isolation purposes?

Would the added weight pose any structural compromise?

I've had it trying to use other peoples spaces for drum recording...it never works out. I'm going to have a couple hundred bucks I could dedicate to drywall/fiberglass bats for this purpose.
Money well-spent???
 
You would be better off with a drop ceiling that has drywall panels. For two reasons:
1. It will de-couple the drywall from the floor joists
2. If you need to get to the wiring and the plumbing, you won't have to cut through your nicely drywalled ceiling.
 
Ding, Ding, Ding! That is the correct answer! I've had my basement ceiling drywalled, and it has done NOTHING towards sound isolation, and it provides yet another flat surface for reflections, and yes, I've had to cut a hole or two to access wires I thought would be permanent.
 
Ceilings are approx. 74". No room for a drop-ceiling.
No money for a new house, my soon to be X has the new house. I'm left with the ghetto-cellardwelling residence!
 
Fill the rafters with insulation, staple up some plastic to keep the fibers under control and pull some fabric over it to make it look like something.

Fight the urge to use black fabric, it will make the space even smaller looking and you won't be able to get enough light in there.
 
I have a low ceiling, so I drywalled it. I'm still doing paint and trim so I can't tell you how it sounds, but it looks very nice. I did include a few access 'hatches' to key ducts/wires. If you do it, spend the thirty bucks to rent one of these. Save you all kinds of trouble. I'll be posting pics and samples here when I'm all done.
 
In my room I made a sandwich with two layers of 5/8" drywall and 1/4" oxboard. It does a decent enough jof of slowing down sound transmission of stuff like drums but bass walks through it like shit through a goose.
 
my vote is to leave it undrywalled and simply cover the whole ceiling with 4in bass traps of OC705 or equivalent--hang em from the joists. that way you won't run into the reflective surface bouncing things back at you problem AND you get a little bit of bass trapping up there (considering the distance between the bass traps and the subfloor above), which should help both sound passing through (somewhat) and should really help the overall sound of the room itself.

74 inches isn't much taller than 6ft, which is pretty low. in your case you want to make the ceiling "disappear" as much as possible. drywall will NOT do that for you--it'll do quite the opposite.


cheers,
wade
 
Drywall ceilings, properly done, are the best option for isolation. You must insulate the cavity above fully or it can actually make isolation worse. The cheap way to decouple is to use firring strips perpendicular to the joists and then mount the drywall to those. Not as effective as RSIC but better than flat to joist and only costs you 3/4"

Bryan
 
bpape said:
Drywall ceilings, properly done, are the best option for isolation. You must insulate the cavity above fully or it can actually make isolation worse. The cheap way to decouple is to use firring strips perpendicular to the joists and then mount the drywall to those. Not as effective as RSIC but better than flat to joist and only costs you 3/4"

Bryan
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the replies, except for that EZ guy....
 
Ceiling Max

I'm finishing my basement right now too. I'm going with Ceiling Max for the ceiling. It's like a drop ceiling but only comes down one inch and it uses normal drop ceiling tiles. acpideas.com/index.cfm?XlinkID=13
 
bpape said:
The cheap way to decouple is to use firring strips perpendicular to the joists and then mount the drywall to those. Not as effective as RSIC but better than flat to joist and only costs you 3/4"
Click to expand...


I actually did that, but accidentally. The furring strips were originally to accommodate some kind of acoustic paneling. At the last minute I just decided to drywall but left the furring strips up. Studio still not complete, but it is now a truly bitchen shade of blue.
 
tc4b said:
I did include a few access 'hatches' to key ducts/wires.
Click to expand...
Drywall jack looks like a good idea! I'll definitely be renting one of those!

How'd you do the access hatches? Hinges?
How'd you seal them up?
Did you put fiberglass bats above the drywall?
 
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