Estimate for basement rehearsal space

Hi, I just bought a house in Montreal, Canada. Now my dream is to have my own jam space in the basement, without being annoying to neighbors. I found this site while googling for ideas and there's TONS of reading material here, excellent advisors, very nice. Now having read quite a bit, I'd like an estimate of what you experts think on 2 things before I get started: -Realistic Expected noise reduction -Money Before I invest >1000$ I really need to be sure it's going to do a decent job at making my neighbors unaware of my loud pasttimes. Here's all the info I can give: Single story house + basement (70-120mm poured concrete), all brick exterior, built in 1963. The basement is finished, with a different finish in every room. The one I will setup in is 16'x10'x7' with drywall ceiling and cardboard like walls (don't know the english term for it, in french it's "prefini", it's fake wood finish, 1 cm thick) and some kind of lino for floor (not floating, glued to concrete). I don't mind tearing all of this room down to rebuild (except the window, a small double glass layer 1'high x 2' wide). I will most likely do all the work myself and I've never done much handiwork, I'm a new home owner. I did a quick test by plugging in my bass, through my peavey combo 300 amp, at volume 1.5, windows/doors closed We can hear pretty well outside, even by talking through window we can understand so I fear it's a big task. I play loud metal and plan to have 2 guitars, drums, bass, vocals. Closest neighbor is 12-15'. From what I read, I'd go for walls: remove fake wood wall, put mineral wool on the 2 walls that are on concrete, then a layer of sonopan, acoustic caulk, then 2 layers of gypse over it. Inner walls are most likely going to be the same, minus the insulating wool. Window: Something (re)movable preferably. Sliding/swiveling/latching pannel or else... Ceiling: Remove the gypse and do the floating ceiling with somthing like walls (sonopan, 2 layers of gypse). floor: this is on concrete, I haven't looked into floor designs yet. Door: Build or buy a massive one, with attention to lining. Rough sketch of basement in attachment. So before I tear down walls, can I hope to play drums and bass in there without getting cops knocking at my door? Can this be done for around 1k$?

welcome! please update your profile to include your location information. definitely tear down anything which is going to interfere with adding mass and creating a proper double leaf construction. consider your HVAC (esp fresh air) because even musicians need to breath... the low ceiling height will be tricky but you could go with interleaving the isolation ceiling joists with your existing floor joists. you will want to beef up the upper floor using drywall then decouple the isolation walls and ceiling from the floor. sonopan can be used or Homasote 440, along with the 3x 5/8" drywall layers. definitely you will be adding a massive door and you should plug the window. on the floor - 1" rigid insulation with 2x 1/2" plywood and a 3/8-1/2" layer of finished floor. you'll likely end up with a room height of around 6'8" or so.

"From what I read, I'd go for walls: remove fake wood wall, put mineral wool on the 2 walls that are on concrete, then a layer of sonopan, acoustic caulk, then 2 layers of gypse over it. Inner walls are most likely going to be the same, minus the insulating wool. Window: Something (re)movable preferably. Sliding/swiveling/latching pannel or else... Ceiling: Remove the gypse and do the floating ceiling with somthing like walls (sonopan, 2 layers of gypse)." While I do not think you can do it for 1K, especially since you may or may not own a hammer at this point, I also think your information is still in need of a better direction. I do not know what a floating ceiling is, but I do know that with your wants to trap basically the sound a band will make, you need a proper built mass/spring/mass design to get the highest degree of isolation available with your current setup. Questions that have not been asked: Is this basement under ground? If it is, you can do other things in respect to the build that you are thinking you need to, and you may not have to. The small window could be the >leak< that you are hearing noise from the instrument...simple as that. Mass. You need mass more than the dry friction of homosote in an attempt to isolate. The sonofoam would more find a better home in the interior once the build is complete, as an acoustic treatment. "put mineral wool on the 2 walls that are on concrete, then a layer of sonopan, acoustic caulk, then 2 layers of gypse over it. Inner walls are most likely going to be the same, minus the insulating wool." You might want to draw that picture up so we can see it, since I'm seeing it as not only a waste of your cash flow, but potentially a reduction in your isolation, not to mention more work than you really want to do with so little gain.

While I do not think you can do it for 1K, especially since you may or may not own a hammer at this point, I also think your information is still in need of a better direction.

I do own a hammer, but not much more in terms of tools. Basic minimum really but I dont think I'd need a workbench and electic saws either. In any case, I did come and ask for direction.

I do not know what a floating ceiling is, but I do know that with your wants to trap basically the sound a band will make, you need a proper built mass/spring/mass design to get the highest degree of isolation available with your current setup.

I meant a suspended ceiling but it's probably not the case. It's just gypse sheets screwed into the ceiling (I have yet to expose the composition of the ceiling). Like previous poster said, I might have a problem with low height for the MSM design. How thick could a decent one be? 4 inches? I'll read into MSM, maybe I'm off track here.

Questions that have not been asked: Is this basement under ground? If it is, you can do other things in respect to the build that you are thinking you need to, and you may not have to.

Basement is underground for 5 feet or so, poured concrete. The ceiling above is the upper level floor. Typical bungalow. Once I get to clearing out the current finish I might know better what I am working with (wall thickness, ceiling composition).

The small window could be the >leak< that you are hearing noise from the instrument...simple as that.

The windows have been remade in 2008 by previous owned, they are high quality with double glass and thick rubber seal. Of course they have most likely not used acoustic caulk in the frame and some adjustements could be made to minimise noise escape. But short of testing with a thick wood pannel over it, I'm not sure it's the >only< leak. I'm told old houses are full of holes.

Mass. You need mass more than the dry friction of homosote in an attempt to isolate. The sonofoam would more find a better home in the interior once the build is complete, as an acoustic treatment.

Short of thickening the walls with more concrete (adding bricks!?), is there other ways than sonopan?

building an inner frame and putting your drywall mass (double leaf assembly) is the tried and true method for increasing isolation but you lose inner room space, and if you can nest the inner isolation ceiling joists with your floor joists, that would be preferred as well. barring that, isolation clips and hat channel are a second choice for decoupling the inner mass from the existing structure.

"I'll read into MSM, maybe I'm off track here." You are. Please up date your profile to represent your current geographical location...