studio ceiling

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guitarman09

guitarman09

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I'm currently beginning the process of constructing a studio out of my basement. Unfortunately the man who built the house made the basement not very tall, 8ft floor to floor, minus 10in floor joists above, so its going to be a bit tight. A friend of mine is refinishing his ceiling from 2x4 ceiling tiles to drywall, and i have access to almost all the panels and frames that i would need, so that would be a money saver, but would of course limit ceiling height even more than if i were to just drywall it.

basically what I'm asking is what do you think is the best option for my ceiling, considering acoustics as most important.

again, its not ideal, but theres nothing i can do about it so i just need to make the best out of what i got.:)
 
guitarman09 said:
I'm currently beginning the process of constructing a studio out of my basement. Unfortunately the man who built the house made the basement not very tall, 8ft floor to floor, minus 10in floor joists above, so its going to be a bit tight. A friend of mine is refinishing his ceiling from 2x4 ceiling tiles to drywall, and i have access to almost all the panels and frames that i would need, so that would be a money saver, but would of course limit ceiling height even more than if i were to just drywall it.

basically what I'm asking is what do you think is the best option for my ceiling, considering acoustics as most important.

again, its not ideal, but theres nothing i can do about it so i just need to make the best out of what i got.:)
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Get as much broadband absorption up there as you can with as large an air gap as you can manage, under the circumstances.
 
thanks for replying, so you're thinking i should cram in as much fiberglass as i can between the joists and leave as big of an air gap as i can between the bottom of the joists and the tiled ceiling? or would just using oc r30 fiberglass be good enough?
 
I'd have to defer to BPape or Fitz or someone else for construction tips.

Treatment wise, I'd try to get the air gap behind the 703, equal to at least it's thickness.
 
Is soundproofing necessary? If not I would just put a bunch of rigid fiberglass in the gaps and staple over some flame retardent fabric.
 
while soundproofing is not a HUGE concern, i would like a decent amount of isolation from the rest of the house, and also i want the room to look good. i figure i can hang a drop ceiling for almost free, so why not? I'm probably gonna do the drop ceiling, and replace certain tiles with 703 panels at certain places like above the mixing position, and above drums to control the higher frequencies.

thanks for all of your advice
 
If you can float the walls using DC-04 clips and keep them 1/2" short of the joists, you can lay new joists between the old and sit them on top of the new walls. Insulate the cavities and drywall it. That'll give you excellent physical isolation and only cost you 1/2" of ceiling height.

Bryan
 
thanks Bryan,

currently i have one complete 2x4 stud wall built, nailed to a dri-core floor over concrete, and the top plate (parallel to the floor joists above) nailed to blocking in between the joists.

its too late to undo that, so i imagine it would be pointless to use the dc-04 clips on the remaining 3 walls when one doesn't, right?

as far as the ceiling goes, id rather have better acoustics than soundproofing, so if i were to drywall would the 7 foot ceiling be a problem, while a drop ceiling and fiberglass between the joists would result in less "bad" sound reflection into the room from above?

either option is still possible so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
guitarman09 said:
as far as the ceiling goes, id rather have better acoustics than soundproofing, so if i were to drywall would the 7 foot ceiling be a problem, while a drop ceiling and fiberglass between the joists would result in less "bad" sound reflection into the room from above?
Click to expand...

Either way you look at it, the ceiling tiles are not the best idea IMO. I'm with Supercreep on this. You're not going to get any/much isolation from those ceiling tiles. They are mostly for asthetics, altough I can't imagine leftover ceiling tiles looking a that good anyhow. Other than being free, what is it you want them for?

Your ceilling height is LOW.. like un comfortable, hard to use low. I wouldn't give up ANY more height unless you have to. If it was me, I would stuff 4" rockwool up in every cavity, flushed with the bottom edge (leaving a gap like Supercreep said otherwise just stuff pink fiberglass against the floor above) and then stretch and staple fabric to cover. This make make the room sound much better overall than the ceiling tiles.
 
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