Basement Drum Room In Townhouse
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 7:05 am
OK, here goes nothing! First off, it should be in my profile, but just in case, I'm in Emmaus, PA.
I had a townhouse built and asked the builder to frame out a room for me in the basement so I could build a sound reduced drum room.
They did do that, but because it was a framed room, they had to do everything to code.
I didn't know that beforehand. Because of that they added an air conditioning vent and a sprinkler head.
Also, because the other side of the basement had an egress window, they had to build it on the side connected to the neighbor ( I am in an end unit).
The room is 12 x 10 x 8. Below is the blueprint of the basement:
The room is the space in the bottom right. The builder left a two inch gap between the framed wall and the concrete wall separating the town homes.
The space towards the rear is the sump pump room. That is about 3ft x 10ft. Two feet of that sticks out past the neighbors home. It is a bump with nothing directly to the right of that, if that makes sense.
The wall adjacent to that leads to the finished basement area and the wall between that and the next wall has a storage room with the HVAC in it.
Here are some sketch ups:
I have some more pictures. To make it easier to explain things and ask questions, I've started with the wall with the door (36") where you would walk in and called that Wall 1 and then went around the room to the right with Wall 2, Wall 3, and Wall 4.
I should mention, I've been with my wife twenty years and we moved from a house with no sound control. My concern is for my neighbors next door.
I gave my neighbor a decibel meter (BAFX 7730, I know, I know) and a walkie talkie and played my acoustics. Where it was about 110 in my room he was showing 65. Then, I played my electronic set and turned it down until he really couldn't hear it and it was 65db in the room.
My goal is to be able to play the acoustics without bothering my neighbor. I should mention, besides the electronic set, I also have RTOM Black Holes to reduce the sound of the acoustics as well as low volume cymbals. Just for the sake of my ears, I would probably be playing them most of the time, but there would be instances when I want to play the acoustics with real cymbals outright.
Also, I occasionally would like to have a guitarist come over and play, but I would most likely be using the electronic in that case just for volume control.
I know the room has many challenges. I guess I'll start with general questions and then with specific questions with each area of the room.
I was going to go with two layers of 5/8 drywall with green glue in between all around the room as well as on the wall in storage/HVAC room and the wall in the sump pump room. I was also going to go with RISC1 clips and resilliant channel.
My question on that was, do the clips actually make a difference? I have a friend in the carpenters union in NYC and he said they use resilliant channel but screw them directly into the studs. He did say they wonder if the resilliant channel is actually doing anything.
Oh, I was also going to use Roxul safe n sound all around.
Wall 1:
Wall 1 is the wall with the door with the finished basement on the other side. You can see there is a chase above along side that wall.
Will a soffit need to be built there? Am I able to put Roxul safe n sound in the framing of the soffit?
There is also a beam and a pole there. The pole is so close to the framing, I don't think resilliant channel would fit there, posibbly not even the sheet rock.
Is it possible to box around that, or should a second wall with a second door be built there? Or could just a second wall be built for that section of the wall but keep the one door?
I do plan on adding a solid core door and would reinforce the door jam if that was going to be the door that was going to be replaced.
There is only one layer of drywall on the basement side.
Wall 2
This wall has the storage area and HVAC on the other side of it. No specific questions but if there is somethng additional you think I should do there that would be great.
Wall 3
This is where I have the most concern. This is the wall between myself and my neighbor. Above the framing there is about a 12" gap between the framing and floor above. I think that is where the sound is going through to them. What, if anything could I do to reinforce that area after the drywall and insulation were up?
Wall 4
This is the wall with the sump pump room behind it. I will be putting a solid core door as well. Is there anything else I should be doing there.
As far as the ceiling is concerned, you can see there is a lot going on there.
Will adding drywall to the space between the joists help reduce sound there?
I had a stuctural engineer look at the ceiling and he said we had 14" joists which make it stronger and I should have no problem adding anything there.
Also, I know the sprinkler head needs to be lowered and I will call the company that installed that to have them do that. I think the drywall shouldn't touch it but it should be calked. Is that correct?
For the air conditioner vent, which I can close, I was going to have my contractor ( I forgot to mention I had a contractor) make a box that would be able to clip onto the celing when I needed it and compress around it with some weather stripping. I would only need to do that if I was playing the acoustics.
Regarding the air conditioning, I know we would have air coming in, but it would have nowhere to go. I was thinking of adding a small vent going out to the HVAC storage area and then having a baffle box there. Is that something that makes sense? Would it be better to cross that later, or take care of it now?
I saw in another post someone mentionng about boxing in the ducts in the ceiling. If I'm more concerned about the neighbors, and not the rest of the house, would I need to do that?
Another thing regarding the ceiling is installing the insulation. The joists are those trusses that have gaps in them. I don't think I would be able to get the insulation to stay up. If we put attached plywood to the sides of the joists and then installed the insulation, would that be alright?
The floor is cement. From what I've read it is best to just leave that. Is that correct?
Regarding the electical boxes, should I put putty around them or move them to the front of the wall using Legrand (I think that's it) outlets? I'm worried there might not be enough extra wire to move them all out.
My budget for this is $2000 but I can push it to $3000 if necessary.
Do you think I'll be able to get where I want to be without desturbing the neighbors?
Thank you for all of your help and for this forum. It's much appreciated.
I had a townhouse built and asked the builder to frame out a room for me in the basement so I could build a sound reduced drum room.
They did do that, but because it was a framed room, they had to do everything to code.
I didn't know that beforehand. Because of that they added an air conditioning vent and a sprinkler head.
Also, because the other side of the basement had an egress window, they had to build it on the side connected to the neighbor ( I am in an end unit).
The room is 12 x 10 x 8. Below is the blueprint of the basement:
The room is the space in the bottom right. The builder left a two inch gap between the framed wall and the concrete wall separating the town homes.
The space towards the rear is the sump pump room. That is about 3ft x 10ft. Two feet of that sticks out past the neighbors home. It is a bump with nothing directly to the right of that, if that makes sense.
The wall adjacent to that leads to the finished basement area and the wall between that and the next wall has a storage room with the HVAC in it.
Here are some sketch ups:
I have some more pictures. To make it easier to explain things and ask questions, I've started with the wall with the door (36") where you would walk in and called that Wall 1 and then went around the room to the right with Wall 2, Wall 3, and Wall 4.
I should mention, I've been with my wife twenty years and we moved from a house with no sound control. My concern is for my neighbors next door.
I gave my neighbor a decibel meter (BAFX 7730, I know, I know) and a walkie talkie and played my acoustics. Where it was about 110 in my room he was showing 65. Then, I played my electronic set and turned it down until he really couldn't hear it and it was 65db in the room.
My goal is to be able to play the acoustics without bothering my neighbor. I should mention, besides the electronic set, I also have RTOM Black Holes to reduce the sound of the acoustics as well as low volume cymbals. Just for the sake of my ears, I would probably be playing them most of the time, but there would be instances when I want to play the acoustics with real cymbals outright.
Also, I occasionally would like to have a guitarist come over and play, but I would most likely be using the electronic in that case just for volume control.
I know the room has many challenges. I guess I'll start with general questions and then with specific questions with each area of the room.
I was going to go with two layers of 5/8 drywall with green glue in between all around the room as well as on the wall in storage/HVAC room and the wall in the sump pump room. I was also going to go with RISC1 clips and resilliant channel.
My question on that was, do the clips actually make a difference? I have a friend in the carpenters union in NYC and he said they use resilliant channel but screw them directly into the studs. He did say they wonder if the resilliant channel is actually doing anything.
Oh, I was also going to use Roxul safe n sound all around.
Wall 1:
Wall 1 is the wall with the door with the finished basement on the other side. You can see there is a chase above along side that wall.
Will a soffit need to be built there? Am I able to put Roxul safe n sound in the framing of the soffit?
There is also a beam and a pole there. The pole is so close to the framing, I don't think resilliant channel would fit there, posibbly not even the sheet rock.
Is it possible to box around that, or should a second wall with a second door be built there? Or could just a second wall be built for that section of the wall but keep the one door?
I do plan on adding a solid core door and would reinforce the door jam if that was going to be the door that was going to be replaced.
There is only one layer of drywall on the basement side.
Wall 2
This wall has the storage area and HVAC on the other side of it. No specific questions but if there is somethng additional you think I should do there that would be great.
Wall 3
This is where I have the most concern. This is the wall between myself and my neighbor. Above the framing there is about a 12" gap between the framing and floor above. I think that is where the sound is going through to them. What, if anything could I do to reinforce that area after the drywall and insulation were up?
Wall 4
This is the wall with the sump pump room behind it. I will be putting a solid core door as well. Is there anything else I should be doing there.
As far as the ceiling is concerned, you can see there is a lot going on there.
Will adding drywall to the space between the joists help reduce sound there?
I had a stuctural engineer look at the ceiling and he said we had 14" joists which make it stronger and I should have no problem adding anything there.
Also, I know the sprinkler head needs to be lowered and I will call the company that installed that to have them do that. I think the drywall shouldn't touch it but it should be calked. Is that correct?
For the air conditioner vent, which I can close, I was going to have my contractor ( I forgot to mention I had a contractor) make a box that would be able to clip onto the celing when I needed it and compress around it with some weather stripping. I would only need to do that if I was playing the acoustics.
Regarding the air conditioning, I know we would have air coming in, but it would have nowhere to go. I was thinking of adding a small vent going out to the HVAC storage area and then having a baffle box there. Is that something that makes sense? Would it be better to cross that later, or take care of it now?
I saw in another post someone mentionng about boxing in the ducts in the ceiling. If I'm more concerned about the neighbors, and not the rest of the house, would I need to do that?
Another thing regarding the ceiling is installing the insulation. The joists are those trusses that have gaps in them. I don't think I would be able to get the insulation to stay up. If we put attached plywood to the sides of the joists and then installed the insulation, would that be alright?
The floor is cement. From what I've read it is best to just leave that. Is that correct?
Regarding the electical boxes, should I put putty around them or move them to the front of the wall using Legrand (I think that's it) outlets? I'm worried there might not be enough extra wire to move them all out.
My budget for this is $2000 but I can push it to $3000 if necessary.
Do you think I'll be able to get where I want to be without desturbing the neighbors?
Thank you for all of your help and for this forum. It's much appreciated.