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Soundproofing on a Budget

9K views 31 replies 7 participants last post by  Ladeback 
#1 ·
OK, my head is about spinning from reading about soundproofing a home theater and the price on everything is about to give me a heart attack. My HT is in my basement and the room is under part of my kitchen and leaving room. The room is 14'x26'x9'. I have built all the walls out of 2x4's and the wall with the screen on it is along the only concrete wall in the room. I built the wall under the first joist next to the wall which has given me a 9" air gap between the concrete and back of the stud wall. I put 1" Styrofoam on the concrete to act as a thermal and moister barrier so far. Right now I am in the process of running electrical wire for outlets and lights, next is to run all my speaker wire and cables. I have 3 existing AC ducts that run in the joist above that I will have to contend with at some point. I am not to worried about sound getting through the walls as much as through the ceiling above or the sound traveling back to my bedroom about 30' where my wife will be sleeping when I want to watch a movie. I was gong to do a sound test once I put in the Roxul insulation in the ceiling and walls. If it isn't to bad I was just going to go with one layer of 5/8" sheet rock. If I can still hear something I was going to use green glue and add another layer of 5/8" sheet rock. I know the clips and hat channel would probably help, but the clips are way over priced for my wallet. I was looking at some resilient channel alone that wasn't to badly priced, would that help much? It would decouple the sheet rock from the ceiling, which is what you want, correct?

I have nice equipment, I just need a new projector and was going to put most of my money into it. I could put the insulation in, put a layer of sheet rock on the walls, get the projector and watch this way till I can afford to decouple the ceiling and add sheet rock to the ceiling. Any thoughts on doing this? Below is a couple views of my home theater.
 

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#5 ·
Jeff,

I was looking at the value clips (IB1) and they are $1.69 each on eBay. I had seen them somewhere else on the internet for the same price and they recommended one about every 5 sqft, so for a 14'x26' room that would be about 73, correct? That's not to bad and the hat channel isn't badly priced either. I may do that and see how it sounds and if it is not enough I can add another layer of sheet rock. Could I use Quite Rock in place of two layers of sheet rock? I take it will also help to build backer boxes for all the lights in the room? I need to get the walls done and insulation in to see how warm or cold the room will be, to tell me if I need to add any vents for AC. I am hoping not since it is in the basement.
 
#3 ·
Ladeback, I'm no pro at all, but I did just get done doing all the sound-proofing on my new HT. BIG (above me) is your pro.

So for what it's worth, my HT is 18' x 12'. 2x 5/8 Drywall, GG, IB3 clips, RSIC-1 clips, Hat channel. Did this for about $1,500, excluding the DW. With the help of BIG, he suggested not using the RSIC clips on the walls. Very expensive clips. I used the IB3 clips to decouple the entire wall from the joists. I set them about every 4 feet at the top of every wall. That saved me the Hat channel, and a WHOLE bunch of RSIC clips allowing me to attached the first layer of 5/8 DW right to the studs. Ensure that nothing is attached to your walls. Decouple them from everything if you can. Decoupling is key. As for the ceiling, I attached RSIC clips (these have the rubber shock absorber on them) to all of the floor joists and ran Hat channel through all that and your 5/8 DW attaches to that. Then use 1.5" fine-thread DW screws to attach the second layer of 5/8 DW, again to the hat channel making absolutely certain you do not ground it to the RSIC clips. GG between every layer of DW for walls and ceiling. It took 2 tubs of the GG with the $50 dispenser gun and I had a smidgen left over.

I also purchased a solid-core door and will be using the auto-threshold at the bottom with a cut-out to recess the closer into the door.

The effect of all this is quite astounding. With the TV upstairs at a pretty high volume, the HT is silent. I'm dead serious when I say silent. You cannot hear walking or the TV upstairs at all. The real test will be when the HT sound system is hooked up and testing to see if I can hear that upstairs. More to come on that.

To retain more ceiling height, you can mount the RSIC clips on cross board (2x4s) between the joists which should gain you about 1.25" rather than putting them right on the joists themselves.

Hope this helps.
 
#7 · (Edited)
sound flows like water, if you just do the ceiling it flows out the four walls and up inside the wall cavities, the principle is called flanking, You need to isolate the vibration in the walls from the ceiling joists. Either clips and channel all around or decouple the framing with IB3 clips.

The biggest area of concern would be the wall against the foundation.

IB1 spacing for two layers is channel every 24 inches and clips spaced no more than 48 inches. Stagger the clips don't line them up on all the same joists/studs
 
#22 ·
Thought about starting my own thread for this topic, but perhaps it'd be better to put it here as "Soundproofing on a Budget" is what I have in mind as well. I'm wanting to utilize something like an IB-3 Decoupling Bracket, without paying the typical price for said bracket. My logic (and please correct me if I'm wrong), is this clip is metal, and plastic. While at my local HD, I picked up a few construction brackets for $.50 each. If I paired these brackets with rubber/plastic underneath, would it achieve a similar effect?
 

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#25 ·
I wish I would looked more about decoupling my walls, but being under beam and next to a beam with duct work on the backside of it it was going to be hard use IB3 clip. Now I could still maybe do 3 walls, but I am not sure I want to go through all that work. Will see. The other option BIG put on here is interesting and again I should have done more homework on my part. I think using resilient channel and DDW will work well and I won't lose to much space, but the cost may be a little higher then I would like. I am hoping to work on it this weekend and see how much I can get done on wiring then putting in insulation. I will update later on what I do and how well it worked.
 
#23 · (Edited)
keeping the top plate of the wall an inch below ceiling joists, is a big step if the bracket has some flex and you use rubber padding I think you are on the right track. IB3 clips for a typical size home theater would run you around $100, If saving $80 on the clips helps the effort, I'd pursue your concept. You may also want to take a look at this method from a different vendor.

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/wallmat.html

You could use some rubber pads, screws/nails and washers to replicate that approach.
 
#24 ·
keeping the top plate off of the wall an inch below ceiling joists, is a big step if the bracket has some flex and you use rubber padding I think you are on the right track. IB3 clips for a typical size home theater would run you around $100, If saving $80 on the clips helps the effort, I'd pursue your concept. You may also want to take a look at this method from a different vendor.

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/wallmat.html

You could use some rubber pads, screws/nails and washers to replicate that approach.
Trying to cut corners where I can, and unfortunately, I'm not working with a closed space (WAF). I'm just trying to do as much as I can with the space I have. I'll go ahead and make another thread to document my journey. Thanks BIG, I've been reading through a lot of your builds. Incredible work!
 
#26 ·
I am still working on doing all the wiring for my HT, but I just figured out how much it will cost to soundproof my 14'x26'x9' room with clips, hat channel, GG and putty pads. It will be over $2600 and I still will need drywall, insurance and other things. I am thinking of just putting DD and GG one tube per sheet on the walls and only using the clips, channel, DD and GG one tube per sheet on the ceiling to save money. It will cut it in about half and I will do it in stages to break up the cost like get the dry wall up on the walls then GG with dry wall second layer and so on. That is about the only way I can cost this I think. I am not to worried about sound getting out through the walls. I may also add DD and GG between the joist on the ceiling, before adding anything else to see how much it helps. I am going to use the adjustable electrical boxes so I can adjust when I add another layer of Drywall. I would love to get everything at once and get it done, but sometimes you can't afford it. This is not a cheap hobby.


What are your thoughts?
 
#27 ·
I think you will really regret doing only 1, can't go back a redo it. I used 3 tubes per sheet. I hope your getting the 5gal buckets in bulk with applicator gun, do much easier ava saves money.

I would do at least 2
 
#30 ·
OK, to save a little money I am going to go with resilient channel instead of clips and hat channel. I know they are better, I just can't justify the extra cost. Right now I am finishing up the electrical wiring then the AV wiring. Like I said above I will be breaking this up in stages to afford the cost and spread it out over time.
Stage 1: I hope to be putting up the RC and first layer of drywall over the holidays. I will then do the GG and second layer of DW.
The second stage sill be to put in DD and GG between the floor joist and insulation. The only wall I will need to insulation before putting drywall on will be the wall behind my screen. I will insulate the other 3 walls before putting up drywall on the other side and I can get to all of them. Now I am also am going to build a shelf for the center channel and a PS3 to go in the front of the room under the screen.
Stage 2: I will install DD with GG between the joists and insulate between the joist.
Stage 3: I will install the clips and channel on the ceiling. Now I am also going to build backer boxes for 4 future Dolby Atmos speakers before the channel goes up. Now for lights I am thinking of going with 3 flush ceiling lights. I assume going with flush lights I will just have to have a outlet box and can put a putty pad over it and not have to build backer boxes for them?
Thinking of something like this. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Good-Earth...onze-LED-Ceiling-Flush-Mount-Light/1000002950
Stage 4: Install DD with GG on the ceiling and seal everything with acoustic caulk.
Stage 5: Insulate the other 3 walls and drywall the otter walls.
 
#32 ·
Man, I forgot about this thread I started a while back. I have yet to finish my room and keep going back and forth on making the room wider. If I stay with the 14'x26'x9' room I am thinking of adding a wall a 1/2" off of the beam wall and decoupling it with IB-3 clips. I am also thinking of going back and decoupling the other three walls with IB-3 clips. I used screws to build my walls so I would only have to cut the studs down to move the top plate down to decouple the walls. This won't be easily, but better then rebuilding it all. For the ceiling I would use clips and that channel on it. All the walls and ceiling would get double drywall and green glue. To save a little money I may use duct seal around the outlets instead of putty pads.

Another thing I am not sure on is whether to put drywall with green glue between the floor joist. I have a lot of nails that come through the subfloor for the hard wood floors above and have seen and been told they need to be cut off. I am not sure i want to spend the time and effort. My wife wants me to put up insulation first to see if it helps. I may do that with some Roxul. I have been told that there isn't much difference in it and the link fluffy, but it is aboutv20% or more off right now while it is going through a name change. It's cheaper then some of the pink stuff I was looking at getting. I know doesn't make sense to put insulation in till more things are done, but I could remove it and put it back up. I wonder if adding insulation to the walls would make it warmer? That's the big thing my wife complains about the most. She wants a bathroom and the rest of the basement finished as well, but I want to get the theater more functional and comfortable. This hobby is expensive, but if I can do a lot of the work myself that will save in the long run.
 
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