Im not sure if my "sort of soundproofing" is going to be worth it. Basically for 2000 dollars I was planning on DD with GG for the walls and ceiling along with boxes for the can lights. No decoupling, so special door. I know this won't truly soundproof, but thought it would help. Basically my budget is so tight right now im trying to decide if the 2G is worth it. The theater will sit under the living room and spare bedroom. Its just my wife and I, no kids; it was going to be put in so my loud video games wouldn't bother her so much and when we did entertain the theater could be used without drowning out the main level. Is it worth it?

If you are certain that you will not need to use the theater while someone else is in the room above, then maybe that's a good choice, given the budget issues that you have. If not, then consider soundproofing. It's not something that you can go back and easily change later. You could also defer other parts that you can modify later to get the soundproofing in.

I had a coworker who wanted a home theater built in his new house. I was midway through my build and he asked 1000 questions about the GG, clips, double drywall, cost, benefit, etc. He decided against the soundproofing, and had a theater built by a local contractor. His new theater looks really nice. When the kids play XBox or watch a movie, you can clearly hear the dialog in the living room and dining room above. He's really unhappy that he spend $35,000 for a finished theater and it's really only usable when the entire family is down there.

I've visited a number of home theaters in the NoVA area, and I've been really pleased with the fact that for the vast majority, you can crank up the sound and not hear it outside the room.

I went a bit overboard in my build. I did the following extra treatments thus far (for soundproofing):


used sound clips to isolate the wall from the ceiling
used two independent 2x4 walls on theater walls that have living spaces begin them
HAT channel and sound clips on the ceiling
2 layers of 5/8" drywall on the ceiling and walls with 2.5 tubes of GG in between each sheet
used 1 sheet of 5/8" drywall on the outside of the theater walls
sealed the corners and the bottom plate with acoustic caulk
isolated the duct work with flexiduct
built backer boxes behind all of the electrical boxes
and did not perforate the envelope of the room with can lights


I think that all of this has added about $3500 to the build, but I've got a large space and am finishing the entire basement at the same time, so it's not that large a sum. Given that my friend spent a huge amount of money to build a theater that is not usable most of the time, and given that I've heard the benefits of soundproofing, I would certainly do this again.

CJ

In my case I remodelled our existing living room - a room in the front of our house on the main floor - into the new AV/Home Theater room. I spent a lot of money doing it too.
I did a lot of acoustic work to improve in-room acoustics, but not for sound isolation.
The reasons in my case I didn't do sound isolation is:

1. Wouldn't really be possible. The room has a very large grand opening into the hallway with nice old wood pillars, no door. Trying to do sound isolation for that room would have involved much more money and construction, not to mention losing that nice feature of the house.

2. Above the HT room is our bedroom. My wife will sometimes go to bed before me if I stay up to watch a movie in the HT room. Luckily for me she sleeps like a rock and I don't play movies loud. You can just hear the sound a bit from the bedroom above the HT at night, but it's not bad at all.

I'm the one who is a light sleeper. My kids are young now but I figure if down the road
when they are old enough and want to watch something when I go to sleep, they can use headphones for truly late night watching.

So it all works out fine for me. And I actually much prefer where the HT is situated, as I'm not fond of the going-down-into-a-basement to watch a movie approach. The only real issue I see is if we ever sell the house a non-insulated HT room might not appeal to others. But then, this HT might not appeal to lots of buyers anyway. But we aren't planning to move and did the HT reno for us and how we want to live, not for some hypothetical person who may own the house after us.

Im not sure if my "sort of soundproofing" is going to be worth it. Basically for 2000 dollars I was planning on DD with GG for the walls and ceiling along with boxes for the can lights. No decoupling, so special door. I know this won't truly soundproof, but thought it would help. Basically my budget is so tight right now im trying to decide if the 2G is worth it. The theater will sit under the living room and spare bedroom. Its just my wife and I, no kids; it was going to be put in so my loud video games wouldn't bother her so much and when we did entertain the theater could be used without drowning out the main level. Is it worth it?

My set up if fairly similar to yours. I have a three level house with the garage and theater dug into the side of a hill on the first floor and bedrooms on the third floor. I just did DD with a layer of sound proofing board and boxes for lights and outlets. There is a heavy duty fire door that really seals the room. I did not do clips but used a spongy pad between the drywall and studs or joists.
The room is used alot when there are family members directly above it (kitchen and family room) and later at night when the kids have gone to bed. Sound only escapes directly upwards as the room is surrounded by dirt or foundation on 2 1/2 sides. I like to play movies at reference levels (:)) and dialog orother non LFE sound isnot a factor onthe 2nd fllor. LFE though can definately be felt and that is probably where the lack of clips hurt my sound proofing performance. However, I was not concerned with that as I was more concerned with sound performance AFTER the kids went to bed. And, with everything I did, or did not do, there is no noise or vibration that makes it to the 3rd floor. If I had had bedrooms above the theater I would have had to be more diligent. YMMV

I'm reconstructing a family room in the "basement" of a raised ranch (New England speak for "cheaply built home where the basement is only partially built into the ground and the "basement" has a garage and a large "family room""; maybe all raised ranches aren't poorly built, but ours is).

Anyway, I'm going to use clips, recessed lights and backer boxes, and two layers of 5/8 inch drywall with Green Glue on the ceiling. On the wall that's nearest the rest of the house, I'm going to use clips and two layers of drywall and GG and I'm going to seal all boxes. On the other three, outer walls, I'm going to try to use the staggered stud construction if this is possible (will find out today when I take the drywall off these walls). Regardless, I'm going to use two layers of drywall with GG on these walls. However, I still have a sliding glass door, fireplace, and two windows in this room, and two doors. I'm going to get two wood core doors with outside frames. We're having the sliding glass door replaced, as the house is sagging there, and the carpenter is going to lift that area of the house and replace the header and the sliding glass doors. The windows I may or may not replace.

I'm hoping this allows me to listen at reasonable levels without waking our daughter (2 years old).

I'm not doing anything particular for soundproofing. We're off on some acreage with no concern for outside noises coming in, and no concern for disturbing anyone outside either.

Our lifestyle just didn't justify soundproofing for us. I haven't watched a movie by myself in several years. In fact, I have only watched 3 or 4 without my wife in the 12 years we've been together. The kids are young, but they have been raised to sleep with all the commotion of life going on around them. We watch movies at reference level and they sleep right through it. I'm also confident that once they're old enough to watch most movies with us, they will do just that.

The theater is in the basement and all living space is on the main level. You can tell that a movie is on downstairs, but it's not loud enough to interupt anything.

Are there going to be times I wish I had done it? sure. But I'll take the gamble that at such an infrequent rate, it will take 60 years before the cost per movie was anything that made sense.

I'm not questioning it's value for certain lifestyles. But I do believe it not to be the only way to build a theater.

Just to throw another angle at this....

I've seen some posts on "soundproofing" by one of the experts here and he seemed to indicate that for most of us the things we are doing at the DIY home theater level are actually to lower the noise floor INSIDE the room and that limiting the amount noise getting out is only a side benefit.

I have an open floor plan in my basement, but like CJ, I used clips to decouple the walls, clips and hat track to decouple the ceiling, full insulation and 5/8s DD+GG. And I can't go back and do any of that after the fact.

It's my wife and I mostly so I'm not THAT concerned about the noise getting out, but I want the room to sound as good as it can. After recent drywall, I've now noticed that the HVAC fan is much louder than it was before. Did the fan get louder? No, the room got quieter.

I'd go for it. There s NO DOUBT that more mass = better.

How often do you watch movies while people are in other rooms that might be bothered by the sound?

Is $2000 worth making it more comfortable for them during those times?

If you have kids or a full house full of different activities going on then soundproofing will seem like a bargain. If it's just you or you and a spouce who always watches movies with you, the price may not seem worth it at all.

Basically for 2000 dollars I was planning on DD with GG for the walls and ceiling along with boxes for the can lights. No decoupling, so special door.


Thats alot of money just for DD, GG & boxes ?

Are you hiring out to get this all installed ?

2k is reasonable. I think I closer to thatfor all of the RSIC clips and GG. Small price to pay so not to piss off my wife when I watch loud movies.

I haven't priced this out myself, but what do clips and hat channel run for a typical install of $2k worth of soundproofing material? Maybe per linear foot or per sheet of drywall would be a better measure.

Does it add that much to cost and complexity? If not, I would lean towards doing it rather than just DD/GG. You'd hate to find out later that you should have done it.

For my 23x13 room and 13x4 IB chamber I spent about 1k on clips and hat track and $1200 on Green Glue. Drywall for the entire basement was under 1k.

2K is just DD and GG (and backer boxes). its 1400 of my contractor for the DD and labor and my approximation of 600 for GG. Its a 24 x 21ft room. I wasn't planning on any decoupling (clips or otherwise) due to the price restriction (plus im not sure my contractor would know how to install them). Its just me and my wife and we usually watch things together but I have a dream of playing xbox instead of watching TLC with her. ;)

(plus im not sure my contractor would know how to install them).

To be honest with you, if your contractor CAN'T figure it out, then I think you need a new contractor. It's really nothing special, it's just different. You need to find a contractor willing to work with you. I was very lucky in finding a guy willing to work with me and get the drywall crew to understand what I was doing. Even with the language barrier, I could tell they were a little puzzled when the ceiling flexed a bit. They are used to making it TIGHT. Once they "got it" (I showed them the drawing of the screen wall and what I'm trying to accomplish), they understood and got it right. Even the application of the GG was no different than an installation requiring regular glue. And surprisingly caused VERY little GG "mess." That's what I paid the pros for.

Nice summary, Tom. We see a lot of overt concern for contractors, and we wind up talking to a great number of them so they "get it." In the end it's not complex, and they have the skills (or should) and they need to be open minded.

Personally, I don't see my daughter sleeping through movies at loud volumes. Even if she sleeps through it, I used to have my wife complain about music I was playing, as she could hear it. I'd rather be able to isolate one room from the house, but each person has to make this decision for him/herself.

As for 2k for soundproofing, just the cost of GG is insane, even if you use 2 tubes per sheet. You start adding Silenseal, clips ($5 EACH, and you need a lot of them), putty backer sheets, additional insulation for joists/studs, etc., and 2k goes fast.

Ted,

I saw in a another post that you mentioned two things: staggered studs cost about the same as single studs? and using a one piece clip to decouple the ceiling? What one piece? Also if i wanted to or have my contractor consult you what is your consulting fee?

thanks for your input guys, ive decided Im going to at least make the attempt with dd and gg and am taking a second look at decoupling. The problem is I don't know jack about construction (medicine is my game) so although I trust my contractor and I think he can do anything I ask Im sort of at his mercy for price and implementation.

(medicine is my game)

Take two clips and call Ted in the morning. You'll be fine.

Ted,

I saw in a another post that you mentioned two things: staggered studs cost about the same as single studs? and using a one piece clip to decouple the ceiling? What one piece? Also if i wanted to or have my contractor consult you what is your consulting fee?

thanks for your input guys, ive decided Im going to at least make the attempt with dd and gg and am taking a second look at decoupling. The problem is I don't know jack about construction (medicine is my game) so although I trust my contractor and I think he can do anything I ask Im sort of at his mercy for price and implementation.

These are sound isolation clips:

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/products/clips/

Staggered studs will cost more than a normal studded wall will, although the price difference isn't that great, especially when compared to using clips. The clips are much more expensive. Let's say you're framing a 10 foot wall, 8 feet high. You'd need about 8 studs at 16 inch intervals for a normal wall (only talking studs). For a staggered stud installation with 24 inches on center (each side, 12 inches between each stud), you're looking at 10 studs. If you stagger using 16 inches OC (on center) (8 inches between staggered studs), you're talking about 15 studs. If the studs cost $5 each, that's at most from $40/wall to $75/wall (not including labor, which might double).

Now, using clips, you'd need about 15 clips at $4-5/each. That's $60 and that doesn't include the hat channel. You're at double the price and haven't included the cost of the hat channel.

The only detriment I've found to staggered stud construction is the lack of space between studs. If you're going to build 16 OC, then that only leaves you less than 8 inches between studs. If you have something like a Grafik Eye or anything else that takes up a lot of space in the wall, you can't put it between the studs.

...keeping mind that I've NEVER paid more than $3 for a stud and currently at the big boxes they are under $2.

So, at more like the $1.80/stud at HD this past weekend, you're looking at $14.40 and $27. Not quite as big a difference.

Take two clips and call Ted in the morning. You'll be fine.

teehee ... good one

I was on a budget, I did ceiling 1/2 dd. with acoustic seal. Its not the same as 5/8 dd, but still better than single layer. It was very notasable from one layer to another, what you would hear while in that room. If budget was more, I would go further, but I have 2kids (2 + 4years). It does the job for now :>

Ted,

Also if i wanted to or have my contractor consult you what is your consulting fee?


There is no fee. We encourage dialog with your designer, contractor or architect. This definitely helps dial in the performance and that's our goal.