Planning/Starting basement studio build. Here's my questions
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:39 am
Hi all, I think this is my first post here on this forum, so hopefully this isn't too much.
I've been planning a studio build in our basement for about 2 years now and have a few questions. I'm sure there will be more as time passes, so I'll try to keep them in this thread.
I'm mostly done doing demo of our old basement rec-room (some old insulation is still in). I'm going to split the room into two rooms and am going to reclaim our former furnace room to use as a closet/isolation room (mostly for guitar amps I think). All the room dimensions are less than ideal. There's low ceilings, the control room will be small, there's a big fireplace, two 4'x6' windows, and a couple doors in the "live room". I'm just going to try to make the best of these issues.
I'm planning on doing 2 layers of drywall + Green Glue in the "control room" and on outside walls (this room borders a laundry room). Then the plan is to decouple the walls in the other rooms using either genie clips + channels or hushframe rafts + furring strips (has anybody used these?). These rooms would also have 2 layers drywall + Green Glue. All rooms would have joists/studs stuffed with insulation. I've been working in sketchup on a model and am currently trying to figure out the HVAC.
Rules checklist:
1/2/4. I've been searching here and over at gearslutz, but it seems like I have a few specific issues to iron out.
3. Location updated (Seattle, WA)
5. I need to get a sound level meter, and will edit this post when I get one, but the plan is to play rock music fairly loud in the "live" room, although for recording will probably just be a drum set and maybe an amp. Sorry, this is a bad answer. Ideally the live room will be as sound proofed as possible without doing double studs or drastically modifying the current framing of the house. I don't seem to bug my neighbors, but would like to make sure I don't...and also my wife upstairs who does hear the playing
6. The ceiling joists in our basement are around 7'7"3/4 high. The rec room mentioned above is an odd "L" shape. Hopefully the pictures below will give a better sense of the dimensions. There's a large fireplace in the "live room" that connects to the fireplace in our upstairs living room. There's some pretty odd framing here and there. The house is a 1951 rambler with a brick facade. There is a large window (6' x 4') in each room, but I've had them replaced with newer windows with laminated glass, so hopefully that will help. I'm not opposed to creating some sort of second window layer in the "live room". Right now everything is stripped to the studs.
7. Not floating the floor in the construction sense, but will probably use "floating" flooring (vinyl plank) for the "live room"
8/9/10/11. See drawings
12/13/15. done.
14. Budget is max $20K, but hopefully I don't hit that if I do most of the work myself.
Actual questions:
1. Since the control room will probably not make nearly as much noise and there's some odd framing*, I thought it would make sense to not worry about decoupling this room. It's below our dining room and there's no bedrooms near by. *Odd framing: there's a beam made out of 6 2x10's that currently makes a border between the side room and the main part of the rec room. This would be hard to decouple without sacrificing more real estate than I'm comfortable with. The Laundry room adjacent to the "Control Room," and the "Live Room" will both have Mitsubishi mini-split systems in them. Would it make sense to run a fresh air system like this: air from laundry room > through wall > baffle box > into "control room" > baffle box > through wall or ceiling > baffle box > "live room" > baffle box > through wall or ceiling > baffle box > hallway connected to laundry room?
2. Regarding baffle boxes, I'm a little confused about the sizing of the inlet and outlet holes. Should they be the same or should the outlet be twice as big (2 times cross sectional area)?
3. If the outlet hole is 2x size of inlet and I'm using two baffle boxes on each side of a leaf, does the second baffle box get even bigger? Or is the only hole to get that big the one that outlets into the room?
4. Should returns be sized larger than fresh air inlets?
5. Is the fireplace going to negate any decoupling, or is it still worth trying?
6. Has anybody used "Hushframe Rafts"(a product over at the isostore)? Do these work?
Thanks for taking a look.
I've been planning a studio build in our basement for about 2 years now and have a few questions. I'm sure there will be more as time passes, so I'll try to keep them in this thread.
I'm mostly done doing demo of our old basement rec-room (some old insulation is still in). I'm going to split the room into two rooms and am going to reclaim our former furnace room to use as a closet/isolation room (mostly for guitar amps I think). All the room dimensions are less than ideal. There's low ceilings, the control room will be small, there's a big fireplace, two 4'x6' windows, and a couple doors in the "live room". I'm just going to try to make the best of these issues.
I'm planning on doing 2 layers of drywall + Green Glue in the "control room" and on outside walls (this room borders a laundry room). Then the plan is to decouple the walls in the other rooms using either genie clips + channels or hushframe rafts + furring strips (has anybody used these?). These rooms would also have 2 layers drywall + Green Glue. All rooms would have joists/studs stuffed with insulation. I've been working in sketchup on a model and am currently trying to figure out the HVAC.
Rules checklist:
1/2/4. I've been searching here and over at gearslutz, but it seems like I have a few specific issues to iron out.
3. Location updated (Seattle, WA)
5. I need to get a sound level meter, and will edit this post when I get one, but the plan is to play rock music fairly loud in the "live" room, although for recording will probably just be a drum set and maybe an amp. Sorry, this is a bad answer. Ideally the live room will be as sound proofed as possible without doing double studs or drastically modifying the current framing of the house. I don't seem to bug my neighbors, but would like to make sure I don't...and also my wife upstairs who does hear the playing
6. The ceiling joists in our basement are around 7'7"3/4 high. The rec room mentioned above is an odd "L" shape. Hopefully the pictures below will give a better sense of the dimensions. There's a large fireplace in the "live room" that connects to the fireplace in our upstairs living room. There's some pretty odd framing here and there. The house is a 1951 rambler with a brick facade. There is a large window (6' x 4') in each room, but I've had them replaced with newer windows with laminated glass, so hopefully that will help. I'm not opposed to creating some sort of second window layer in the "live room". Right now everything is stripped to the studs.
7. Not floating the floor in the construction sense, but will probably use "floating" flooring (vinyl plank) for the "live room"
8/9/10/11. See drawings
12/13/15. done.
14. Budget is max $20K, but hopefully I don't hit that if I do most of the work myself.
Actual questions:
1. Since the control room will probably not make nearly as much noise and there's some odd framing*, I thought it would make sense to not worry about decoupling this room. It's below our dining room and there's no bedrooms near by. *Odd framing: there's a beam made out of 6 2x10's that currently makes a border between the side room and the main part of the rec room. This would be hard to decouple without sacrificing more real estate than I'm comfortable with. The Laundry room adjacent to the "Control Room," and the "Live Room" will both have Mitsubishi mini-split systems in them. Would it make sense to run a fresh air system like this: air from laundry room > through wall > baffle box > into "control room" > baffle box > through wall or ceiling > baffle box > "live room" > baffle box > through wall or ceiling > baffle box > hallway connected to laundry room?
2. Regarding baffle boxes, I'm a little confused about the sizing of the inlet and outlet holes. Should they be the same or should the outlet be twice as big (2 times cross sectional area)?
3. If the outlet hole is 2x size of inlet and I'm using two baffle boxes on each side of a leaf, does the second baffle box get even bigger? Or is the only hole to get that big the one that outlets into the room?
4. Should returns be sized larger than fresh air inlets?
5. Is the fireplace going to negate any decoupling, or is it still worth trying?
6. Has anybody used "Hushframe Rafts"(a product over at the isostore)? Do these work?
Thanks for taking a look.