Hi all, long time lurker first time poster.

In short we have an already 80% finished basement that had a crappy drop ceiling installed. We have ripped the ceiling out and are installing sheet rock with can lights. All walls are already sheet rocked / insulated as shown in the attached picture. (Exterior walls have concrete foundation behind studs and are insulated, all interior walls are single layer of sheet rock and hollow.) The only major change is that the depicted wet bar area is replacing a rather useless storage area.*I*am on a budget so this can't get too wild.

My #1 concern it to keep as much sound as possible out of the upstairs bedrooms located directly above the west most lower rooms. My current plan is to double layer the entire main room ceiling with 5/8 and Green Glue with R19 on top.

Other items:
- No HVAC ducting to worry about.
- All doors are getting replaced with solid core.
- I*am going to be cutting into the existing walls already to run speaker / telco cabling and additional power runs to amp and PC locations.
- Bedroom 1 is getting fully remodeled so the walls and ceiling will be exposed, but I*was planning standard single layer of rock.
- Sheet rock is being mounted directly to joists to save head room in main area.

Do you think it would be worth the effort / $$ to double up and GG the east bathroom wall and the east bedroom 1 wall and all the walling in the wet bar?

Is there any point in doubling up bedroom 1's ceiling and walls or will I*be fine because of the door isolation?

Any advice would be great!

Send a PM to Ted White and ask him to comment in your thread. EDIT - nevermind, he found it himself.

I am guessing you may want to add blown in insulation to those hollow walls. The general rule is that mis-matched sound isolation approaches just create nice big flanking paths, so you want to use similar construction techniques for each wall (and ceiling and floor).

Welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome. Well, you have some issues that may define the overal result.

The stairs are a big problem Sound will enter the stairwell airspace as well as the framing itself. A door at the top of the stairs won't help.

Ceiling can lights will leak sound, possibly badly.

No decoupling of ceiling drywall will allow vibration into the joists.

Hello and welcome. Well, you have some issues that may define the overal result.

The stairs are a big problem Sound will enter the stairwell airspace as well as the framing itself. A door at the top of the stairs won't help.

Ceiling can lights will leak sound, possibly badly.

No decoupling of ceiling drywall will allow vibration into the joists.

Thanks Ted. At least the stairs are at the furthest end of the house relative to the bedrooms. Is it the hollow wall between the theater and stairs that's the problem, or just the stairs itself? Anything you can recommend?

What are different lighting options you can recommend? I just decided on can lights for simplicity. I'm already looking at $80 a pop and I'm putting almost twenty in so if there is a better alternative in that price range I'm all for it.

For the joist issue, will the Green Glue / double 5/8 make much of a difference or do I really need R-channel?

Thanks again.

The problem with stairs and main support beams is that they are intimately connected to the rest of the building framing. Generally you're building a new wall in front of that stairway wall, while not contacting it. Door at the bottom the stairs.

You can use can lights but you'll need backer boxes: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/manual/sim_backer_box_installation_guide/

The decoupling of the ceiling drywal from the joists is a big deal. I would not recommend RC (Resilient CHannel, RC-1) for many reasons. Clips + Channel is much better.

Each of these things performs a different task. Drywall is Mass, and doesn't replace Absorption (insulation). Clips decouple, and doesn't replace damping materials (which damp)

The problem with stairs and main support beams is that they are intimately connected to the rest of the building framing. Generally you're building a new wall in front of that stairway wall, while not contacting it. Door at the bottom the stairs.

You can use can lights but you'll need backer boxes:
The decoupling of the ceiling drywal from the joists is a big deal. I would not recommend RC (Resilient CHannel, RC-1) for many reasons. Clips + Channel is much better.

Each of these things performs a different task. Drywall is Mass, and doesn't replace Absorption (insulation). Clips decouple, and doesn't replace damping materials (which damp)


So do you think that channel and clips and GG for the ceiling and just GG for the mentioned walls would even be worth while with the stair issue? For an extra $1000 I could probably swing the clips... if it would be worth while.

Clips on walls isn't necessary, since you can accomplish with wood framing.

"worthwhile" a subjective assessment, but safe to say you would be immensely happier if you could wall off that stair area and plop a door in the new wall.

Well with how it sits I could always go back and wall in the stair well if necessary without redoing anything too major.

I wasn't planning on doing any wood frame work in the walls (double or staggered). So I'm assuming that in that case it would be a good idea to go the clip route??

I have an open room design (as opposed to a true "dedicated" room) which I just had drywalled. I KNOW that there will be compromises. HOWEVER, I took the attitude that I would do everything I could that I couldn't go back and do AFTER the drywall went up. I can go back and add a door to the bottom of the steps; I CAN'T go back and add Green Glue....I can treat the walls; I can't go back and add clips + channel.

So far, I am VERY pleased with the results. I can hear the upstairs stereo through the door, down the stairway and about halfway along the stairs. After that, it fades off quickly and by the time I'm in the "theater area" I can't hear it at all.

I would highly recommend doing as much as Ted recommends.

Good luck.

I wasn't planning on doing any wood frame work in the walls (double or staggered). So I'm assuming that in that case it would be a good idea to go the clip route??

Clips will work on walls, but framing to create the decouple is cheaper and better.