Going to Home Depot later, insulation or not?

  • Thread starter Thread starter undrgrnd studio
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undrgrnd studio

undrgrnd studio

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Hey guys thanks for all the help you have been giving me, I appreciate it. I'm going to start finishing my basement tonight and I'll be purchasing everything I need.

This is the basic plan, I have a 600 sq ft cement basement with open ceilings. There is an apartment on either side of me. I will be using half of this space, so 300 sq ft minus the stairs coming down and the 4' in front of the stairs. There isn't enough room to build a wall between the stairs and the cement wall, so I will frame the wall on the other side of stairs into the room, and then hang a solid door with rubber weather stripping.

I would love to decouple all the walls and the ceiling, but I have neither the time nor the cash. I realize this will hurt the isolation dramatically, but I need to finish this space quickly and I don't have a lot of money, and simply finishing the space will give me some sound reduction compared to a 600 sq ft open basement.

I'm going to incorporate some of the concepts I learned here within my budget to try and squeeze out every decibel possible. Mainly, I will be building my framing independent of the cement walls, meaning I will separate them by about 1/2-1" from the cement wall. To try reducing direct sound transmission.

I will be using 5/8th fire rated gypsum board instead of 1/2 gypsum because I learned here that more mass should isolate better, and I'm using fire rated board because it is a denser product.

I will use furring strips and tack the same drywall to them on the ceiling.

The big question is, should I insulate these walls with fiberglass insulation? Would there be enough sound absorption to make it worth the extra few hundred dollars? I imagine it has to absorb a fair amount of sound when compared to an open air wall, but I don't know.

Also, I would like to reduce the noise from my family walking around upstairs, would insulation help with this at all?

Another question I have is, is there any benefit to adding foam board insulation or rubber between the studs/joists and the drywall?
 
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i believe owens corning sells sound insulation, meant for putting between common rooms (bedrooms, living rooms) i dont know how well they work in a studio setting.. but i would consider a drop ceiling as well, and insulate above it. i've heard they have great acoustical value.
 
you can use R13 or R19 (pink stuff) for the walls and ceiling (assuming 2x4 walls and 2x8 or 2x10 joists). if you can get RC-1 or RC-2 (instead of furring strips or hat channel) it will help with your isolation and reducing impact noise. 5/8" is better than 1/2" for mass. two layers will be even better.

caulking everything really well to seal it is a significant contributor.

adding carpet over a decent carpet pad on the floor upstairs should reduce impact noise significantly.

I highly recommend Rod Gervais's book Home Studio Construction - Build It Like the Pros as he has many practical means of achieving excellent isolation (as well as many other key facets of building a studio).
 
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