I am in the process of remodelling the basement of our home and was hoping you could recommend the right insulation for our needs.

Does the Owens Corning QuietZone Insulation provide any thermal performance or is it purely for noise control? Will I be giving up a lot of thermal performance by using the QuietZone insulation?

Three of the new room's walls are masonry foundation walls and for these walls I will be leaving a 1" gap between the exterior wall and the new interior drywall partition. Should I use QuietZone Insulation at these walls or use the ProPink Fast Batt Insulation b/c although our basement stays pretty dry, there is some possibilty that the cavity between the exterior wall and the interior wall could be moist at times?

The fourth wall of the new space separates the laundry and HVAC equipment rooms from the new theater / play room area. This wall will be a staggered stud wall w/ two layers of 5/8 GWB. To limit the noise from the HVAC and laundry equipment from entering the theater area should I use two 3-1/2" QuietZone batts in this wall or a thicker thermal batt insulation?

The ceiling will also be GWB and the floor joists above leave a 10" deep cavity that I want to insulate. Should I use multiple batts of QuietZone to completely fill the cavities or should I use a thicker batt of R30 or above insulation? Which method will do a better job of stopping the sound from tranfering between the basement and the room above (which has hardwood floors)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Does the Owens Corning QuietZone Insulation provide any thermal performance or is it purely for noise control? Will I be giving up a lot of thermal performance by using the QuietZone insulation?


Look at the R Value of the product and compare that between products for thermal performance. Any of the fluffy pink fiberglass products should work fairly equivalently from an acoustic perspective at least for killing reverberations within the wall cavity. The "QuietZone" term IMHO is just marketing hype.


Three of the new room's walls are masonry foundation walls and for these walls I will be leaving a 1" gap between the exterior wall and the new interior drywall partition. Should I use QuietZone Insulation at these walls or use the ProPink Fast Batt Insulation b/c although our basement stays pretty dry, there is some possibilty that the cavity between the exterior wall and the interior wall could be moist at times?

I will defer to others on this one, but I think the general consensus is that if you have a moisture problem correct it now before you do any construction. Mold is a nasty problem to have.


The fourth wall of the new space separates the laundry and HVAC equipment rooms from the new theater / play room area. This wall will be a staggered stud wall w/ two layers of 5/8 GWB. To limit the noise from the HVAC and laundry equipment from entering the theater area should I use two 3-1/2" QuietZone batts in this wall or a thicker thermal batt insulation?


I used one R13 batt on each side of the staggard stud wall. Some would say thats overkill. You could also just use a single batt and weave it between the staggard studs. Look at the Green Glue product if you really want to isolate the noise.

The ceiling will also be GWB and the floor joists above leave a 10" deep cavity that I want to insulate. Should I use multiple batts of QuietZone to completely fill the cavities or should I use a thicker batt of R30 or above insulation? Which method will do a better job of stopping the sound from tranfering between the basement and the room above (which has hardwood floors)?

Just use the larger batt to make it easier. Again I would say to look into the Green Glue product for noise isolation of the room. There is a very large thread discussing that product here in the forum. Brian there Technical rep is a wealth of info and assistance.

Hope that helps a little.

mmmkam -

Thanks for the reply! I am definitely planning on using GG for all walls and ceiling. I am in the process of cleaning, repairing and sealing the foundation walls so I am not too concerned about high levels of moisture. I have also sloped all areas around the house away from the house to aid in drainage.

Thanks.

For moisture, code here states that a vapor barrier (thin plastic sheet) needs to be installed on the outside between the studs/insulation and the drywall.

Nick

Nick -

Thanks for the info. I am considering using one of the spray foam insulations against the foundation walls. This will act as an air and moisture barrier and give me R value of 9. The foam expands approximately 1" so I will then fill the remainin cavity w/ a 3-1/2" unfaced batt insulation. Has anyone tried this approach? Are there any downsides to using the spray-foam insulation?

Thanks.

Hmmm not sure I've heard of that route before. Sounds like it would be more expensive than the plastic vapor barrier though, so not sure what the reason to do it would be? Maybe the additional insulation will help with energy savings, not sure.

Nick