Basement Ceiling HELP!!!

**TomF** · 07-08-2004, 02:57 PM

Hi everyone,

I need your HELP! I've searched the forums but everyones situation is different. So heres mine.

I'm constructing a basement studio and I need suggestions on soundproofing the ceiling. I want to try to eliminate the noise from upstairs coming into the studio. My problem is my ceiling height
is only 85 inches ,so I can't afford to lose that much in the height department.

Heres what I have to work with:

Upstairs there is a laminate floor with silencer foam under it. Its installed over the house origin 3/4" tongue and groove flooring/subfloor. Below that is 2x8 ceiling joists -16 inches on center. The basement floor is bare concrete, I plan to install either carpet , laminate or linoleum.

These are the products I 've found locally are:
Resilient channel
Owen-corning 703 ( 2x4 panels) They have 1",1.5" or 2" inche GeorgiaPacific Hushboard soundboard 4x8x1/2" Link below ,sorry its so long
http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx...1&hierarchy=pc
Homasote sound board

I'm going crazy trying to decide how to tackle this.Any advice on how to go about insulating /soundproofing this ceiling , would be greatly appriecated.

Thank you in advance
Tom

**knightfly** · 07-08-2004, 04:57 PM

Any odd ductwork or other holes/obstacles involved, or do you have a clear field both between joist cavities and below them?

How much too loud is your situation as is?

What kind of noise are you most concerned with - footfalls, TV noise, kids going berserk, etc -

What size room, area of the ceiling, and budget?

The GOOD news is, you only need to lose about 1 3/4" of headroom and use pretty inexpensive materials to do this, barring any wierd obstacles you didn't mention - also, you've already found the one material that can be tricky to find, the rest are easy.

You will likely need to lose about 3-4 more inches of headroom directly over the mix position for acoustic treatment, and I wouldn't recommend carpet (possibly a small area rug though) but either vinyl or laminate would be fine.

If you can answer the above questions, we can get started... Steve

**TomF** · 07-08-2004, 05:38 PM

Steve ,
Thanks for the reply! Heres the info you needed.

Any odd ductwork or other holes/obstacles involved, or do you have a clear field both between joist cavities and below them?

The ceiling is open.I have just wiring for lighting in the main and control room area. And in the control room there are a couple of 3/4" heat pipes for the upstair baseboard,they don't make any sound.

How much too loud is your situation as is?
What kind of noise are you most concerned with - footfalls, TV noise, kids going berserk, etc -
The sounds I'm concerned about are Footfalls, Dog walking ,TV , but over all the situation is not bad . I just don't want to hear the dogs paws while i'm recording a vocal track. Oh and no little kids running around.

What size room, area of the ceiling, and budget?
I'm doing the whole studio ceiling area.The main room is 12x23 , Control room is 12x11 and a 5.5 x 4 vocal booth. As far as budget, I don't want to spend thousands, but I also just want to do it once.
I'm doing all the work myself.

Thanks again
Tom

**knightfly** · 07-09-2004, 12:59 AM

Oops, my bad; forgot some of the main questions -
have you done any construction yet at all, or is this a completely bare room?
Which framing, if any, is still visible?
Any walls framed or anything?
Are your perimeter walls concrete, or what?
Any windows, or is it fully underground?
Moisture problems, or really dry ALL the time?
One more - how difficult will it be to close off the stairway so that it's hermetically sealed? And finally, (yeah, right :=) any plans for HVAC, or do we need to consider that as well?

Probably forgot a few more, but those will help get started... Steve

**TomF** · 07-09-2004, 05:51 AM

Have you done any construction yet at all, or is this a completely bare room?
The construction done:The wall between theCRoom /MRoom , the vocal booth. Both these walls I used Steve Kleins Sound Control Wall layout. The area for the oil burner and washer/dryer have been framed.The rest of the basement is unfinished.

Which framing, if any, is still visible? The ceiling is open and one side of all the walls explained above.Done with 2x4 construction

Are your perimeter walls concrete, or what?
The walls are all block.
The perimeter block walls are 55" high then a set-back of 24" to the main block foundation of 32" high. All the walls were waterproofed with Dry-Lock.I have installed 3/4" furring x 1 1/2" wide vertically and 3/4 "Dow Tuff-R in between furring to the 55" walls(all glued with constrction adhesive). I then framed a 2x4 knee wall on top of that wall to the ceiling. The furring and 2x4's are installed inline of one another, appearing as on complete 2x4 from floor to ceiling. I didn't want to frame from the ceiling to the floor and take up more floor area.The only walls that are framed floor to ceiling ,are the walls I told you about above.

Any windows, or is it fully underground? one insulated window
20x24 in main room

Moisture problems, or really dry ALL the time? No moisture problems, its dry

How difficult will it be to close off the stairway so that it's hermetically sealed? Not diffucult, the stairs leading to the basement do not go directly into the basement area. Theres a landing 16x32 at the bottom of the steps. Then a 30"door to enter
the studio area. This is my entrance from inside my house.Then I have an out side entrance set-up the same way. When you enter , theres a hallway with the oilburner room to one side and washer/dryer room on the other. The studio is basically L-shaped within the rectangle , the remaining area is the hallway and two small rooms ,explained.

And finally, any plans for HVAC, or do we need to consider that as well? No plans. If anything I have a freestanding AC unit that I can turn on to cool things done ,if needed.Heat also no problem.

Hope this helps!
Thanks Again
Tom

**stickjam** · 07-09-2004, 06:02 AM

I had the same situation in my basement. I used RSIC-EXT04 clips. You can get them online from that link. That with metal furring channel (Lowe's, Home Despot, etc), I mounted the clips to 2x8's sistered to the existing 2x10 joists to: 1.) strengthen the joists to bear the additional load of a double-5/8" ceiling and 2.) provide a mounting where the clips and furring channel could ride alongside the bottom edge of the existing joists. The drywall is mounted to the furring channel, which extends only 1/2" or so lower than the original joists, resulting in an approximately 83" finished ceiling height.

The floor above is actually pretty poor from a soundproofing standpoint--sheet vinyl over pretty crummy plywood over 1x6 subfloor. That'll be an exercise for when I replace the floor covering someday. Even so, I can't hear the dog walking or barking, nor the TV or home PC activities above. The 4-year-old jumping up and down, well, I'm not sure anything short of three inches of lead would totally silence that, but it's a pretty muffled thump.

Hope that helps

--Bob

**TomF** · 07-09-2004, 06:24 AM

Bob ,Thanks for the reply!

How did you insulate between the upstairs floor and sheetrock below?
Bob,did you also put anything between the two pieces of sheetrock?

Thanks again
Tom

**stickjam** · 07-09-2004, 07:24 AM

How did you insulate between the upstairs floor and sheetrock below?
Bob,did you also put anything between the two pieces of sheetrock?

Just the fluffy stuff. Specifically Johns Manville ComfortTherm R-25.

Nothing beween the Sheetrock--no glue or caulk (to maintain resonant properties of the dissimilar layers) nor did I use any fancy viscoelastic, limp-mass, xenon-charged, oxygen-free, radionucleotide-blocking sheets/goo (I wanted money left over for more gear to fill the room--Hah! :roll: like that happened!)

First (1/2") ceiling layer up with fine-thread 1-1/4" screws; first wall layer up with 3/8" gap to ceiling; acoustic caulk ceiling gap; tape & mud ceiling and wall; second (5/8") ceiling layer with fine-thread 2" screws and 3/8" gap from wall; acoustic caulk wall gap; second wall layer with the same gap & caulk routine.

--Bob

**TomF** · 07-10-2004, 06:18 AM

Bob ,

Thanks for all the info and the link for those clips - great stuff.
I just have one other question for you:
What was the span you used for mounting the clips to the joist ?

Thanks in Advance
Tom