I am building out my dedicated Home Theater in the basement (about to start framing). The problem is I have concrete floor and concrete on 3 side of the room. (except the back).

I need suggestions on flooring.
1) Considering I have a concrete floor, would a thick and well padded carpet suffice or should I go for a floating floor?

2) Do I have to do the 2x6 staggered studs for the framing on concrete walls, or the regular 2x4 construction suffice?

Your expert advise is greatly appreciated !!

I am building out my dedicated Home Theater in the basement (about to start framing). The problem is I have concrete floor and concrete on 3 side of the room. (except the back).

I need suggestions on flooring.
1) Considering I have a concrete floor, would a thick and well padded carpet suffice or should I go for a floating floor?

2) Do I have to do the 2x6 staggered studs for the framing on concrete walls, or the regular 2x4 construction suffice?

Your expert advise is greatly appreciated !!

Guys and Gals feel free to correct me, I live in Colorado where most basement consruction is concrete and so it would REQUIRE floating walls.

You would typically use pressure treated 2x4's to build your floating walls on. I would highly recommend you stick with that method as it is the only widely used method, and probably the only one approved by your county, if you are planning on doing this the right way and getting permits/inspections from the county.

Even though one of your walls is not concrete, I would still suggest you build floating walls all around your basement, it will only take an extra day (at most) to do the job right.

As far as the framing lumber, you do not need staggered studs, just traditional 2x4 framing over your pressure treated wood 2x4's.

Another option you could consider would be a cork flooring, there are companies that now have differnt design options with cork flooring. Just an option

Pad and carpet on my concrete. Works fine.

I thought you only did the stagger studs on interior walls to decouple the theatre room from the adjoining room?

As far as what to put on the concrete floor, it depends how cold your climate gets. I only put padding and carpet down because for cost reasons. It gets cool but I figured most people would be on the reclining seats with their feet up anyway. If cost and height considerations are not an issue, the most complete way would be to put rigid styrofoam down, then a subfloor, the padding and then the carpet.

Thanks for the input guys. On the flooring, should the carpet be okay. What exact benefits does a floating floor provide?

if it provides significant benefits, i would like to go for it, but would like to know how i would go-about doing it. Just fyi, I have no moisture issues in the basement.

I removed pad and carpet from my basement, and will be reinstalling pad and carpet.

Thickest pad I could buy and carpet for main area.

Delta-FL underlayment in gym under laminate wood flooring.

Pad and carpet on my concrete. Works fine.

Would this pass inspection by the city, because as far as I know in my county, I have to have floating walls for the inspect/permits to go through. I thought the reason for having floating walls is to have flexible walls when the ground shifts, which is very common in Colorado.

Would this pass inspection by the city, because as far as I know in my county, I have to have floating walls for the inspect/permits to go through. I thought the reason for having floating walls is to have flexible walls when the ground shifts, which is very common in Colorado.

Well we tend to do things differently in the rest of the states. No floating walls here. In fact walls are either screwed down with Tapcons or nailed down using a Ramset.

vpolisetty,

You are getting several good suggestions, my recommendation is for you to check with your City to see what are the guidelines and preferances, just to be safe.

Pad and carpet on my concrete. Works fine.

There you have it.

For the 3 walls that butt up to the foundation, just leave a 1" gap and build a standard 2x4 wall with a little R13 insulation. Consider decoupling the top plate of these walls from the original joists with a few resilient clips.

The 4th wall should be a staggered or double stud wall. You can decouple this wall from the joists also.

None of these walls need resilient clips to hang drywall, though. They are already decoupled. Just hang the drywall directly to the studs. A little fiberglass in this wall also.

Now all 4 walls are decoupled. Significantly reduced connection to the original framing. The ceiling should be decoupled also, but building a separate joist system may not be practical. So use resilient clips for this. R19 fiberglass in the joist cavities.

Make sure you make the walls and ceilings as heavy as possible. Double 5/8" drywall is the cheapest, most effective bang for the buck. Many do 3 layers on the ceiling. Drywall is cheap, so what the heck.

Due to the nature of the soil in Colorado, basement framed walls are "hung" from the ceiling and float above the concrete slab. Changes is soil moisture content in this area can cause slabs to move up/down by several inches. (Just and FYI for the non-Colorado residents). Lived there for years; however, and never had my slab(s) shift. So it goes.

Carpet and pad have worked fine for me in my GA and UT basements.

There are several very good "carpet squares" available that will work well for concrete floors. Advantage... rubber pad backing to help prevent moisture penetration from the concrete to the carpet. there is no glue, just the carpet square itself. Sort of a floating carpet floor.

Additional advantage... in case of basement flooding.. simiply pull them up, take them outside and wash them. When dry reinstall.

Additionally, a spill can be easily replaced with the few "extra" carpet squares you buy and keep stored away.

Traditional carpet/padding can be done, but I have seen many carpets torn out and replaced with new because you can't effectively wash and dry them in a basement.

From the wall standpoint, even if there are no local codes for you, check with your building department. They may be able to give you some tips that will save you pain in the long run.

I think we might be mixing topics a bit here based on the original post, (floating floors vs. floating walls). I live in Colorado and have just received a permit for a basement HT remodel to implement room w/in room design, so here's my 2 cents:
If you do a room w/in room construction whereby the walls and ceiling are decoupled from surrounding walls and home main floor (basement ceiling), you should not need to build floating walls. If the soil/slab shifts, it will not affect the rest of the house since the room is decoupled from the house.

From what I have been told, adding a floating floor to a basement HT with room w/in room design adds little to no value in terms of sound isolation. Heat/comfort/moisture are separate concerns.

A room within a room would be the best possible approach. Totally decoupled from existing structure, with the exception of the floor.

The floor is a mixed bag. Some do a lot to it, others nothing. A slab is so darned heavy that it's generally not an issue, but concrete does have a nasty coincidence point that is really low. At that coincidence point (frequency) vibration will be conducted under your wall systems through the slab. Again, this is really only an issue as you approach that resonance frequency. Other frequencies aren't a real issue.

So it's a lot of work to only guard against that coincidence point. Depends on your goals.