Home practice space - Basement room - Need suggestions / Help.

[piper]

Get a 2 foot square of plastic and tape it to the floor, sealing it all the way around. Wait 48 hours. If you have moisture on the plastic then you need to seal the concrete before you install any flooring.

If your basement is below grade, then you don't need to worry about sound escaping the house through the exterior walls. Sound that goes through a layer of 5/8 drywall into the rest of the basement is still in your house. Unless you're going to be insane loud I don't think you need to worry about that too much. Standard construction is probably sufficient. If you read the testing methodology for those special glues it is clear they aren't nearly as effective as some would lead you to believe. They rate them for un-interupeted sheets without any fasteners, but you can't build that way. I'm sure the reason is because if they tested them in a typical application they wouldn't be very appealing.

You can't have too many outlets!

17x9 isn't a very appealing shape. Any chance you can move the wall to get the room wider?

The biggest issue you might face is sound moving from downstairs to upstairs. Use clips on the ceiling and don't cut any holes in the drywall. I.e., mount your lights on the walls instead of the ceiling. The biggest issues you face in sound getting out of the room into the adjacent space (and then upstairs) is a) through the door, and b) around switches and outlets. So maybe you /can/ have too many outlets. Try to put them in alternate bays instead of back to back.

Don't forget that you need to breath, so you can't completely seal the room -- you need a way for air to get in. If you have forced air, then sound will move through the ducts.

[slavestate]

The basement has 9.5' ceilings and there is approximately only 1' of basement wall before the ceiling that is above the ground. The room is already framed out, so I don't really want to modify the dimensions in any way, as the basement overall is approximately 30'Lx30'Wx9.5'H will be used for a workshop and storage.

The room that is framed has about 1' above its ceiling and the first floor of the house. I was anticipating crawling up there and stuffing it with acoustic insulation to buffer it a bit before the first floor. The whole ceiling of the basement besides the room is exposed and down the road I am anticipating installing acoustic insulation and then drywalling it.

I'm not concerned with the sound really traveling throughout the house so much as I am concerned it leaves the house and the neighbors hear it.

I suppose it might be better to focus on the basement ceiling and the basement door and keep the sound in the basement as a whole as opposed to just inside the jam room?

I'll know within a week or so weather or not "as is" the basement is conducive to the noise I will be creating. I might just want to focus my energies on the basement ceiling as an overall project, instead of the room that is already framed out.

The room itself has I believe around 5-6 outlets, no ventilation and one window to the outside. The window I anticipated to build a removable insert of wood, drywall, glue, drywall and then a handle to insert it for its application.

Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

More to come once I have photos.

[piper]

I understand not wanting to move the walls, although a 9' space, once drywall is up, will be even smaller and it seems kind of tight for a drum kit, so make sure your fiance is going to be OK with it.

I suspect your neighbors will be fine. Take turns playing in the room as-is while the other listens outside. In my case, I play bagpipes, which are right about 100 db. My wife said she can hear them outside, but that the birds are louder. Basements are really good at containing sound. Mine even has several windows and doors. A storm window can help too.

Assuming the basement is all concrete block, then the area most susceptible to sound leakage to the outdoors is the rim joist area. Our house is brick, so the construction there is 2" rim joist, 1/2" sheathing, air gap, brick. It does a pretty good job. If your house is wood shingles or vinyl or something, then it would be 2" joist, 1/2 to 1" sheathing, outside finish. This won't be nearly as good. You can stuff the rim joists with Roxul insulation and that will cut down on transmission in this area and function as insulation too.

A lot of building materials reduce sound by about 30 dB. It depends on the material, how it's installed, and the frequency (bass is hardest) but lets run with that approximation for just a minute. So suppose you're in the basement playing at 100dB. Then if the floor absorbs 30 dB you have 70 upstairs. Then your wall soaks up another 30, and you're left with 40 outside, which, as my wife puts it, isn't as loud as the birds. So there's a good chance you won't really have a problem to solve.

If you don't have a storm window on the basement, put that in first (because you'll want it in the winter anyway) and test things out. If you have a problem there, then I might try something easy first -- get a 3/4" piece of plywood, hinge it at the top and put a latch at the bottom and foam weather stripping all the way around. Between that and two layers of glass it will probably take care of all your high frequency noise. If not, put a couple layers of "felt" and another layer of plywood on it. Getting a tight fit is the most important factor here, and a plug probably won't seal well; if you do make a plug, don't use any lumber, which will change dimensions as the humidity changes.

[Syncamorea]

I'll wait for the pictures - the 8' height in post #1 vs. 9.5' later is confusing. Having a 9.5' height and 9' room width is a significant problem in terms of mode pile-up. If you haven't already, use a room mode calculator to take a look at the distribution - it won't be pretty. I understand that you don't want to move any walls but with a basement as large as this, moving a wall is exactly where I'd start. A width of 14 or 15' is where I'd be thinking in terms of recording acoustics and utility for rehearsal & recording.

The above doesn't matter, so what can you do given your constraints? Deal with the major leaks. Use test tones in the room with doors and windows shut and walk around outside the room (in the basement and other rooms and outside the house) with a good SPL meter and go find out where your major leaks are. Doors, windows, heating duct work, A/C recepticals, etc. Most of your bang per buck will probably be gained by sealing around doors.

[slavestate]

Yes, just to clarify the basement ceiling is overall 9.5' while the room that is finished is 8'.

We are closing tomorrow on the house, so I will have plenty of photos to upload in the evening with regards to the basement.

Thank you!

[slavestate]

Okay, so here are the photos of the basement in comparison to the framed room.

I took a look at the room and I noticed that there is insulation above the ceiling and on the insides of the framed wall between the concrete walls leading to the exterior basement walls.

What I intend on doing is filling in the voids above the ceiling of the framed out room with more insulation and then eventually finishing the basement ceiling with acoustic insulation and drywall. There is quite a bit of cosmetic work that will be done with the basement besides the practice space including a laundry area and work bench.

Also, I will be insulating the two sides of the framed room that aren't finished as well as drywalling them so we can start to put up cabinets and storage.

I'm super excited on getting this all going, but my main concern is the basement overall with the sound.

This Sunday I will be rehearsing with the group I play with down there and we will be doing perimeter checks around the house and property to see how loud the acoustics are.

Here are some photos below of the basement and the framed room. Also, you can see the window in the room that I will be soon replacing, but until then I will be closing up with some sort of removable gasket/device.

Any more suggestions?

Thanks!

[piper]

That looks pretty good for keeping sound in as-is. I'd definitely do a test prior to making any plans.

[slavestate]

I buit myself a 2x4" floor covered with 3/4" plywood at 12'Lx8'W. I put some rubber gym mats that I cut down underneath the wood that was touching the floor to remove any vibrations that might be caused from playing and walking on it. I was planning on putting the mats down on the whole floor, but boy were they expensive. I also put down a 12'x8' rug on top of the floor to remove any movement from the gear as well as help deaden the sound.

I have since painted the room and moved all of the gear into the room and it all fits with some room to spare. I did some initial sound checks with just guitar and it seems that the room is quite live and for rehearsals we probably won't need to turn up that loud. Also, the noise leaks were only coming from outside of the house within a few feet of standing near the window that is in the room. The house itself seems to be a bit noisy from the room, however when we replace the hardwood upstairs on the first floor in the spring, we will install some soundproofing beneath the hardwood and between base flooring.

I have also insulated the outside of the two remaining walls of the room with acoustic insulation. I have yet to drywall the outside of the room as I am anticipating building benches and shelving units and I would like to plan that out a bit before I drywall. I initially wanted to finish the whole ceiling of the basement and drywall that as well, however with all of the pipes, electrical and other things on the ceiling that may be a long term goal.

I have quite a bit of insulation left, so I will be using the remainder of the wood laying around and making a baffle to fit into the window area for the inside as well as the outside. I will also be stapling up insulation onto the ceilings and corners of the walls and ceilings to deaden the sound a bit inside of the room more.

I will upload some photos of the transformation of the room later on.

Enjoy.

[piper]

Regarding the adjacent room, here's a great tip I got from a homebuilder. Just put up OSB on the wall first, and then put up drywall. Now, no matter where you need it, you can put in screws and they will hold fast in the OSB.

[slavestate]

OSB is a similar option to that of plywood right?

I am also going to install an air conditioner in one of the walls which will allow me to get some airflow in and out of the room. I closed up the basement window with the remainder 2x4's and plywood I had. I filled it in with acoustic insulation and then covered it with insulation.

I also have to install a sweep onto the bottom of the door, and I should reinforce the door with drywall on both sides?

Here is what the inside of the room looks like:

It's very dark, because I saw a red room and I painted it charcoal...

[piper]

Wow you work fast! Sweep is good. If you add substantial weight to the door it might need upgraded hinges. Also, make sure there is blocking or wedges between the hinges and the framing.