Basement Conversion

Hi, I recently bought an 1850sq. ft. home in Auburn WA (30 miles south of Seattle). I want to convert the basement into a studio. It's a daylight basement on concrete. Two of the walls are concrete 5ft high. It has been raining alot around and the concrete seems pretty dry. I think that the hight from from floor to joist is 9ft (I don't have that measurement with me) and there is plumbing hanging down leaving us with only 88 inches between it and the floor at it lowest point. I have a book that shows laying carpet pad down then laying OSB sheeting over it tied together with metal bands as an inexpensive way to float the floor. If we float the floor this way how would we secure the walls to the floating floor? We thought about building the sub floor on 2x4's laid on their sides. But, we don't really want to loose hight if we don't have to and my construction crew still say we need to bolt it to the concrete floor and the joist above to make it safe. Because of the closeness of the neighbors I would really like to have the main room floating on the floor independently from the rest of the building. Is it possible or am I making to important? After reading some of these articles floating floors don't always workout so hot. :?

Hi Frank -- welcome to the forum!

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

I recently bought an 1850sq. ft. home in Auburn WA (30 miles south of Seattle).

Congratulations! 8)

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

I want to convert the basement into a studio. It's a daylight basement on concrete. Two of the walls are concrete 5ft high. It has been raining alot around and the concrete seems pretty dry. I think that the hight from from floor to joist is 9ft (I don't have that measurement with me) and there is plumbing hanging down leaving us with only 88 inches between it and the floor at it lowest point.

You may be able to steal some headroom by restructuring your plumbing... :roll: ...And you'll definitely want to check in with your local building department to see what code requirements are for vertical clearance in your jurisdiction.

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

I have a book that shows laying carpet pad down then laying OSB sheeting over it tied together with metal bands as an inexpensive way to float the floor.

Depends on how you define "inexpensive." If it means, "doesn't cost that much to do," then, yeah, it's inexpensive. But it's a terrible idea, especially in a basement. Please provide the details of that book (title, author, ISBN) so that we can officially not recommend that people buy it! :evil: Want a good "how to build a home studio" book? Here: buy THIS one. 8)

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

If we float the floor this way how would we secure the walls to the floating floor?

Well, you won't have to, because you're surely not going to float your floor that way. ;-) 8)

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

We thought about building the sub floor on 2x4's laid on their sides. But, we don't really want to loose hight if we don't have to and my construction crew still say we need to bolt it to the concrete floor and the joist above to make it safe.

...and, thus, you'd be eliminating whatever benefit you could even hope for. Your construction crew is right, from a structural integrity perspective, especially in the Pacific Northwest, which is not immune (quite the opposite actually) from earthquakes. I'd bet money that your town won't allow you to build such a thing legally anyway. Not to mention, with such a tiny air gap between the surface of the slab and the bottom of the floated subfloor surface, the resonance in that mass-air-mass equation would undoubtedly make the floor perform worse than if you had not floated at all.

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

Because of the closeness of the neighbors I would really like to have the main room floating on the floor independently from the rest of the building.

I don't think that's what you mean. You're stating a problem and then assigning a solution without fully understanding it. I think you mean to say, something to the effect of, "Because of the closeness of the neighbors I would really like to have a high level of transmission loss (a.k.a. "soundproofing") from the main room to the rest of the building and to the outside world."

Frank E. Wetzel wrote:

After reading some of these articles floating floors don't always workout so hot. :?

Congratulations! :) You're a huge step ahead of many who automatically assume floating a floor is necessary for their situation without fully understanding all of its ramifications. Buy Rod's book -- he covers the "floating floor myth" really well. This is not to say that a floated room would not be ideal. It would be. However, doing so requires so much to do it right and can so easily be done wrong, which can actually perform worse than if the floor hadn't been floated at all. Keep searching and reading threads here. Many have been, or are, where you are now... In fact, some are really close to you geographically! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

Thanks Keith, I did puchase the book and I should be receiving it soon. I hope it will answer most my question. But, I'm sure I will have more questions after I read it. Oh by the way, that other book is Modern Recording Techniques 5th edition. I picked it up when I took a course through the UW. One of the authors David Miles Huber was one of the teachers. I was sort of dissapointed with the course. But, the book does have a lot of other good info, studio design is obviously not its stong point. :roll: