Help with drum booth in basement!

I play the drums in my basement and the neighbors complained..so I worked out certain hours with them. That was ok for a few months...but now my wife is complaining, which is understandable, so I really need to build a drum booth in my basement to reduce most of the volume going upstairs. Can anyone please help me with this I am getting really frustrated not being able to practice when I want! My home is fairly new and the walls are thin...I can hear normal conversation from the upstairs when I am in the basement. I plan to build this "drum booth" right on my basement concrete floor. I estimate the size to be approximately 10x12...just large enough to fit me and my double bass kit. I am thinking about building a drum riser and floating it with those rubber U things...then I plan to build 4 walls around the riser using concrete blocks filled with sand. The concrete blocks will be cinder blocks I guess they are called...they have the two cavities in the middle. On the inside I'll use alot of carpet and foam to deaden the sound a bit...i'm not really worried about the acoustics right now...I mainly need to ISOLATE sound from going to the upstairs. The ceiling of this little booth....I am not sure yet..I am thinking of 4 layers of 5/8" drywall and a couple layers of mass loaded vinyl..and maybe a layer or two of homosote. Anyone think this may be somewhat effective? I mean will it reduce the drums enough to where my family can watch television above me while I am playing the drums? A couple of concerns that I do have are: Will the concrete blocks filled with sand be too much weight for the foundation of my home. I know little about foundations...but I figure if my garage can hold a couple of cars with no problem...then my basement floor should be able to hold a couple thousand lbs of concrete. Also RADON in the basement...could adding this extra weight on the basement floor have an effect on radon levels...I mean it would really suck to practice for many hours in my booth and become an awesome drummer, only to croak of lung cancer. Can anyone help with any suggestions? Better and more effective plans? Anyone offer written plans I can buy from them?

Welcome to the forum! Many have had the same problem that you have and have come up with plans to address it, some more effectively than others. Start here... And don't miss my project thread. Yes, I know, it's mega long and hard to follow at times... My plan went through numerous iterations before it became finalized 8 months later. I'm in the construction phase now. But you and I have some things in common in terms of our goals and you could learn a lot by following my footsteps and avoiding the landmines I discovered along the way. Some parts of what you proposed are more appropriate than others. Rather than going through it point-by-point, study some more... Which will undoubtedly raise many questions that you're more than welcome to ask us. :-) --Keith :mrgreen: P.S.: I'm not a believer in the U-boats. Do some searches on the forum and you're bound to find my reasons. ;-)