house hunting

Greetings, I currently rent in Denver, and have a real estate agent looking for a house for me to buy. I told her that I insist on a basement suitable for a music room. "Studio" might be too strong a word for my intentions; I just want a place where I can play my electric guitar at all hours without the neighbors calling the cops, and occasionally record a demo without the noise from the neighbors bleeding into the microphones. And perhaps, maybe use as a practice space for a small band someday. What do you think I should tell the real estate agent my minimum requirements are? From reading some of the documents mentioned on this site, I'm thinking a 9' ceiling, and a 12x15 room would be minimal. No? Houses in Denver are $$$$, so I may have to settle for a condo or half of a duplex. Those basements will be small. That's why I'm asking for the *minimal* acceptable sizes. Also, would an unfinished basement be preferable to a finished basement, so I can put in the walls, ceilings, floor the *right* way for music? Thanks, and a great forum y'all have going here.

Also, would an unfinished basement be preferable to a finished basement, so I can put in the walls, ceilings, floor the *right* way for music?

Yes. That way you don't have to tear anything out to re-do it as isolation construction has unusual requirements. Decoupling the drywall for one, either by Resiliant Channel, or Risc Clips and hatchannel, or double wall framing. The other reason is the one I told you about Denver soil. Some basements have partition walls in basements that are structurally "hung" from the floor above. This way you can SEE what is there, and HOW it is built. Also, to increase isolation from the floor above, and to keep a 2 leaf MASS AIR MASS system intact, you may need to add drywall directly to the subfloor between the floor joists, and THEN suspend a second leaf of drywall(preferably 2 layers of 5/8") via the methods mentioned earlier. Look in the construction forum under "stickys" for complete information on these techniques. Also, if HVAC ductwork needs alteration to isolate flanking paths from ducts that feed both the basement and rooms above, it is far easier if you start with an unfinished room. Naturally. DOH!!:) fitZ

HI Rob, in the same boat. Currently trying to sell our condo in SE Denver and looking in Littleton area...let me know what you find. Jay

You might want to consider the possibility of an oversized garage with 10' ceilings, since basements often have headroom limitations that are extremely challenging to work around. In my case, I have a 3-car tandem garage with a 10' ceiling, and in it I'm building a room that will have an 8' ceiling. I'm losing about 15" on the bottom and about 10" on the top.

This recent case kind of proves my point.