studio ceiling problem

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larrye

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I am in the process of improving my basement studio. I want to finish the ceiling in the 11' x 19' room, but the area under the duct work is low and I don't want the sound to be transmitted through the house via the ducts. I want to use a suspended ceiling so I will have access to the pipes and wires above. Would the use of rigid 2" duct board under the duct and then packing fiberglass around it offer much in cutting down the sound transmission. Of course there will also be the acoustical tile.

I have attached a rough drawing (I hope) to give you a better idea of what I am thinking.
 

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I'd try this.

cheers
john
 

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John,
I know you probably can't give a definitive answer, but how effective can that method of "ceiling" be.

I have exactly the same situation here and from all I have learnt from your tutorials, I came up with the same solution........just didn't know what the end result would be.

ChrisO :cool:
 
I was hoping you would reply to this!!

Could I just run the resilient channel and plasterboard under the duct. Then I would put my accoustical tile ceiling (need access to pipes and etc.) under that, with 6" - 8" of fiberglass batts on top of the accoustical tile and along side of the duct work. This would isolate the duct from the bottom with the plasterboard and on the sides with the 8" of fiberglass.

I know your drawing is better but money and labor and I need access to ceiling area. How much would I be giving up in sound transmission?

Thanks,
Larrye

ps - If my daughter was as good a golfer as Australia's Karrie Webb, I would just hire the darn job done. But, she is just a rookie on the developmental tour and is still costing me MONEY!
 
Larye,

I do you want to add a 19 yr old son (aspiring rock god) to your family:D

John, off topic but do you recall what it cost to set up Cloud Studio.

:cool:
 
Ausrock,

Thanks anyway but I have all I can handle in my 23 year old daughter!

Do you know any ratings for fiberglass batts? I've looked all over the net and can't find anything specific.
 
John - I was considering doing something similar to your celing drawing but with the addition of a layer of 7/16" OSB (chip board? I'm not sure what you call it on that side of the world :) ) between the joists and the reslient channel.

My question is: Will that help enough to make it worthwhile? The OSB is fairly dense and cheap.

Thanks
Kevin.
 
Don't forget bass traps in the 90 deg areas, and the STC ratings for fiberglass batting varies depending on depth and density of the batting. If your real serious and cost is no option you can get "loaded" foam insulation used in the antenna industry which would deaden a fog horn. I someone doesn't get to it first I can access some design manuals about aircraft insulation. Try here....



http://www.knauffiberglass.com/products/


Peace,
Dennis
 
Larrye the only way I can see that you need access to the pipes would be downpipes *S* bends in which case I would build a trap door for access.

12" of fibreglass isn't going to make any difference in your case. It's airtightness and the mass of the plasterboard that will give you the isolation.

Ausrock - I have in front of me a chart from CSR that says if you use Their Rondo Furring Channel at 600mm centre with Bradford R 1.5 Glasswool batts and 13mm Gyprock Fyrchek you will get:

(a) Bare Particleboard flooring ..........53db
(b) Ceranic tiles bonded to CSR fibre cement underlay.....56db
(c) Carpet and underlay........54db.

That's pretty good isolation.:)

cheers
john
 
Longsought,
There is the choice here between particle/chipboard or MDF. My intention is to use the MDF, as it has more mass and I can buy "seconds" very bloody cheaply.

Another option I'm weighing up, and John may comment if he reads this, is to build some Helmholtz style absorbtion/diffuser units to fit up in between the joists, I think mainly over the area we normally put drums.
 
Ausrock, Larrye, John - My current dillema also concerns the ceiling and it is remarkably similar to Larry's... I'm guessing you have a "modern colonial" too Larry?

What I'm not sure about is what to do with the tops of the walls between the control room and one of my live rooms. See attached pic big red circle.

Should I stuff it with rigid insulation? Rubber? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks
Kevin.
 
Here is the attachment from above.

Cheers
Kevin.
 

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Longsoughtfor,

Looks like the two rooms share a common ceiling. Is there any way to cut the drywall and channel above the wall. If there is then you could extend the walls up close enough to seal it with caulking. I'm afraid if you want total isolation of the two rooms the ceiling will transmit quite a bit of sound into the other room.
I have about 20 years of building experience but I was not concerned with sound control. So this is all new to me. Hopefully John will be around to tell you for sure.

Larrye,

ps. Now that I am going to go with channel and drywall instead of acoustical tile in my combo control-vocal room, I am worried about the reverberation off of the hard surface of the finished (I plan on stucco) ceiling. Looks like you have hung treatment. Care to explain? maybe it will help me.
 
Larry - I was thinking the treatment aplied to the joists would be to isolate the upstairs. Would splitting it reduce it's efficancy at doing that?

The hanging ceiling with acoustic tiles is planned to both seal off the room and provide a cheaper ceiling for my "room in a room". The other advantage was that I could install it at an angle and limit the mode set up between the floor and the ceiling.

Has anyone tried placing (gluing?) a peice of sheetrock on top of a 2x2 acoustic ceiling tile to give it mass? Just a thought.

Kevin.
 
I am facing the same issues here.

I think that splitting the ceiling shouldn't be a problem if you "treat" the area immediately above with additional sound absorbtion.
Before I found out about resilient channel, I had planned to put MDF panels up between the joists with fibreglass on top to minimise sound transfer. Maybe doing this over the wall area would solve that problem.

Just my 2 cents......

:cool:
 
The way I see it, your goal is to keep the sound within the room. If you do this there is no sound to go upstairs thru the cut out piece of ceiling. Without cutting the ceiling you have one room within a room instead of the desired two rooms within a room.

That would be a lot of mass for the average tile frame to hold, but if it was supported well enough it would have to help. I THINK I read on the aurolex site where they suggest to cut their soundbloc and lay it in the frame.

Larrye
 
The way I see it, your goal is to keep the sound within the room. If you do this there is no sound to go upstairs thru the cut out piece of ceiling. Without cutting the ceiling you have one room within a room instead of the desired two rooms within a room.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I don't know. That ceiling even with a cut is still connected to the same floor joists. The joists are perpendicular to the walls in this case. You may be able to tell I'm trying to avoid building another framed ceiling on top of my rooms.

My question is then: Can I seal a hanging ceiling well enough to keep sound from traveling (significantly) over the tops of the walls?

Kevin.
 
Sure can't blame you for not wanting to build another ceiling!

I know a lot about construction but very little about soundproffing,
but from a homebuilders point of view, your cielings are on the same floor joist but they are hung from resilient channel, right?

The channel should go a long way toward stopping vibrations from one room being transfered to the other. It wouldn't be as good as two seperate ceilings though.

Where are the real experts when you need them.
Larry
 
Larrye,

You are correct about the ceiling on the resilient channel. The figures John posted indicate a reduction of over 50db using this method with suitable fibre insulation on top.

I think that by seperating the ceiling structure betweens the two rooms, you will minimise any sound transfer between those rooms. I would consider building the double wall and caulking the ceiling/wall joint thoroughly in each room, that way sound vibrations have to travel up through the ceiling material, resilient channel, joists and upstairs flooring, then horizontally, then back down into the next room.

Maybe adding a gasket of neoprene between the channel and joists would be an added bonus.

BTW, I'm no expert....:)

:cool:
 
Larrye, Ausrock - That approach is sounding reasonable. One principle I thought I read though was that a sealed air space was a great insulator of sound. Resilient channel alone is helpfull as long as there are no holes even as small as a nail hole for air pressure (sound) to get through. In this approach, you would at least need to seal the edge where the cut (between the walls) so that the trapped air stays..well, trapped. See pic.

Does that make sense? I'm no expert either :) Just trying to do this so I don't have to redo it... right away anyhow LOL!

Cheers
Kevin.
 

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