Options for a Combination Game Room / HT with a large window and 1-2 doors - Page 2

Furring channel is actually different. Do a search for resilient bar. I got mine from a drywall supply company.

I'm just finishing up drywall and in a somewhat similar situation as I have 3 kids and just want to be able to watch a movie in the basement after they go to sleep without straining to hear what's going on. I have some limitations you don't, my joists were only 7'4" off the floor and my budget is pretty thin. But I'll share what I've done and hopefully it helps. For me clips were out of the question due to budget, height, and the fact that a lot of noise would just work it's way up the stairs anyway.

So what I did was R19 fiberglass between the joists and to be honest I was pretty disappointed in it. One could still easily hear any conversation upstairs. Still, for under 100 bucks for 600 square feet it's tough to complain. I then went and got generic resilient channel (http://menards.com/main/building-materials/metal-framing/2-1-2-x-12-double-leg-resilient-channel-25-ga/p-1708115-c-5695.htm) and added that and a single layer of 1/2 drywall and I'm fairly happy with the results, and the cost was so low if it didn't work I was out nothing. But I am happy with the results now that it's done, and the weak link now would be other paths for sound (mainly the staircase and interior grade door at the top). At this point TV with a normal volume cannot be heard upstairs but I'm sure "movie volume" will be a different story but part of the compromise.

If I had to do this all over again I might consider green glue instead, but the channel was about 100 bucks for 600 sq ft and the green glue plus another layer of drywall would have been well over 500, plus the added labor. Another thing that turned me off to that option was the fact that on their website they recommend channel in addition to gg for footfall traffic because GG doesn't isolate impact transmission well. Lastly, I can always go back and add a second layer later on if need be, but I can never add the channel again.

It is unfortunate that sound deadening drywall is so expensive. I was quoted 66 dollars for each 4x8 sheet. At half that I would have been all in.

As for your layout concerns I would put 48" french doors at the opening of the room and leave the stairs open. It's awkward at best if the doors are anywhere within 4 feet of the last step, bordering on creepy secret passage weird with doors on each end.

I would do what is in the picture above. In the original post it sounded like you were going to put the door at the bottom of the stairs, not the entrance of the room and I would avoid that completely. Assuming you can fit the projector above the window and get some good light blocking that's probably what I would do. It's not popular here but if you keep your components on the screen wall having all that room under the steps to run cable/fiddle with things will be great and despite having all those annoying lights that's probably where I'd do a builtin media cab.

On a side wall between my couch and the screen I have 60" glass french doors, interior style. You can easily hear speech from one room to the next, but it does make a huge difference to have the door closed, I suppose like any other interior door. I have not gone to any effort to get rid of the 1" gap at the bottom of the door or the 3/8" or so gap between them because it doesn't really matter in our situation. But even if they only stop half the sound there's still another door and dead space between that and the downstairs bedroom/upstairs. I guess you could consider exterior french doors if you're really going to turn it up.

I can see all the problems with the resilient channel. It's not hard to avoid short circuiting the screws into the joists but it is one more thing to consider the entire time and it does slow you down some. I was not able to get away with 3/4" screws which would eliminate that problem completely, they would flex the metal and not bite most of the time. It probably isn't as good of a solution as ones that cost five times as much. But the price and depth of install (1/2" additional) was hard to ignore. I spent less than 300 bucks between them, insulation, screws and it was well worth the expense. If you do more in the media room do at least this in the bedroom/gym/etc.

Once you start using it you will feel much more comfortable, I felt the same way when I brought it home. I could only find two legged RC2 so that's what I used, but I only screwed one side down. I don't think you'll have a problem using RC1. It does flex, that's how it works, but it wasn't very challenging to use. Make sure to use fine threaded drywall screws, I preferred the 1"ers. I did 16" on center, I know one is supposed to do 24" for best noise reduction but I don't need a drywall panel falling on my kids.

I also used 1" fine thread drywall screws with no problems.