soundproffing the whole basement or not

hi .. I just bought my detach house and it's about 2200 sq.ft. Well, the basement is about 1200 sq.ft. There are already 3 finished rooms build down in the base and the basement is finish too .. room 1 size = 12 ft x 9 ft room 2 size = 13 ft x 9 ft room 3 size = 7ft x 6ft all rooms are finished with drywall on both sides... well, except for 2 walls in room #1 & #2 which the concret wall is on the otherside of the drywall. i have 1 window each in room1 and room2. i am planning some construction soon, like putting up a screen window in the control room (room#1) (Room#2 looking into room#1) and room#3 looking into room#1... And will be changing the doors too because too much gaps in there ... My question is ... DO i need to soundproof the rooms or i can get away with that. Or how much do i need to soundproof the room... I would like to convert the basement into a small studio for recording live bands and vocals etc. but just concern about the soundproffing part.. i will be also use those forms to damper the sound and bass traps on the walls, etc .. some people when they came over said, i need too some said not.. so i was just kind of cerious. let me see if i can explain a little bit more about the rooms .. i do hear just a little bit of cars passing by since room#1 & room#2 are facing my backyard from the window and about 80 ft down from my windows (backyard) is the main road where cars pass by. Again its only a little bit noise that i hear. Of course when i clap my hands i do hear an echo. when someone is walking upstairs, i do hear them and there is no carpet upstairs. wooden floor.. i do appreciate it if someone can tell me if i need all the walls in the rooms torn down and install foam or installation on all 4 walls and then seal them up with drywall again... also what about the celing. My celing have ducks for the heat in those rooms.. and the celing is not drywall on top. it's more like one of those pop on celings whcih can be removed easily.. i have some guys coming over to give me some estimate, as i tod them i needed the 3 rooms soundproofed close to 100% ... or i can save by just having a few walls done rather that all the walls in each room .. thanks.

hi modern_talking,

i do hear just a little bit of cars passing by since room#1 & room#2 are facing my backyard from the window and about 80 ft down from my windows (backyard) is the main road where cars pass by. Again its only a little bit noise that i hear. Of course when i clap my hands i do hear an echo. when someone is walking upstairs, i do hear them and there is no carpet upstairs. wooden floor..

no expert here, but my guess would be, that the very least you have to do is to block the windows to the backyard and make a resilient mounted ceiling. the next question for me would be: if you are recording drums and bass (live) how loud would this be upstairs??? are people upstairs disturbed by it? if so you have to do even more soundproofing. the echo from your handclapping is "in-room acoustics" which has nothing to do with soundproofing. i suggest that you go to the sticky section in the construction forum and do some reading first. Also go to www.johnlsayers.com there's a link to the sae-stuff and another to some diy-absorber plans. happy digesting! :)

the dreamer wrote:

hi modern_talking,

i do hear just a little bit of cars passing by since room#1 & room#2 are facing my backyard from the window and about 80 ft down from my windows (backyard) is the main road where cars pass by. Again its only a little bit noise that i hear. Of course when i clap my hands i do hear an echo. when someone is walking upstairs, i do hear them and there is no carpet upstairs. wooden floor..

no expert here, but my guess would be, that the very least you have to do is to block the windows to the backyard and make a resilient mounted ceiling. the next question for me would be: if you are recording drums and bass (live) how loud would this be upstairs??? are people upstairs disturbed by it? if so you have to do even more soundproofing. the echo from your handclapping is "in-room acoustics" which has nothing to do with soundproofing. i suggest that you go to the sticky section in the construction forum and do some reading first. Also go to www.johnlsayers.com there's a link to the sae-stuff and another to some diy-absorber plans. happy digesting! :)

hi thanks for the reply yes, the windows are a must to seal. then of course the celing too because, when we talk down stairs, we can hear a bit of it up too .. And yes, if we had to use drums or bass, the noise would travel up stairs The guy that came over suggested that we insulate the celing with like those drop off type of ones, with insulation in there.. There like those one's that if you ever need to get into the celing, all one has to do is push the square blocks up and the celing or the wood beams and joists are seem .. Then he suggested, if the noise is still travelling up, we'd insulate it even more (like putting more insulation) and maybe carpet upstairs too I have another guy coming over too tomorrow to get me an estimate and then have another one coming voer the next day too. So, we'll see what they say . thanks for the info /

The guy that came over suggested that we insulate the celing with like those drop off type of ones, with insulation in there.. There like those one's that if you ever need to get into the celing, all one has to do is push the square blocks up and the celing or the wood beams and joists are seem .. Then he suggested, if the noise is still travelling up, we'd insulate it even more (like putting more insulation) and maybe carpet upstairs too 

i'm not really sure what type of ceiling the guy is talking about, but my impression is this is some "office-type" acoustic ceiling which will not do a lot when it comes to soundproofing drums etc. what you need is some resilient mounted (resilient channel) mass leaf (gypsum board) below the ceiling with one airspace inbetween. (filled with insulation) i mentioned above where you get information about it. carpet upstairs would help to lower footsteps-noise from above but will not prevent drums and bass crawl upwards. and you will have to do the walls as well as it seems to prevent flanking noise. depends on how "soundsensitive" your family is. :?

So how about they put insulations everywhere, where the beam and joists are and then put drywall underneath the insulation. will that help the drums and bass sound form leaking ontop or creating a vibration.. i have a few guys coming over, and getting different inputs. today, this new guy suggested putting drywall on the celing with insulation inside. the guy yesterday suggested to put those pop out type of celing that we see in office buildings (usually 4ft by 2½ ft per block) since he said those are like soft insulation too.. i had 4 people come in so far and 3 said drywall celing with insulation inside. so thats a good start for me. i guess maybe a thicker drywall celing would be more benefit in thise case for drums and bass ...

knightfly can give you professional advice here. the guys suggesting drywall/gypsumboard are right. you will need 2 to 3 layers, preferably resilient mounted. this means on resilient channel or rsic clips with hatchannel. to make it short: you need it to be decoupled in order to prevent direct noise or flanking noise to go upwards. isolation (mineral/glasswool) is a must between drywall / ceiling. again: if you read the sticky section-stuff and the sae-stuff you will know a lot about it.

alright bro!!! will check out the sticky and will post if any more questions .. thanks agian ...