I have an unfinished basement space, roughly 1000 sqft that I would like to convert to a TV and 2-channel listening room. The ceiling is open floor joists to to the first floor, any recommendations on soundproofing materials that I could use to rough finish between the joists. Floor/ceiling joists are 2x10's.
Most materials sold by places like ASC and GIK (my fave) won't help you.
You need mass. The best Ideas I've read about are to use 2 layers of drywall with resilient channel in between. I encourage you to google for more specific solutions.
Here is one example, maybe it will help you on your journey
ASC and GIK are great for treating how the INSIDE of your listening room sounds, and they may also have sound proofing materials. What I meant to say is that the two types of products and practices are different.
I have done the two drywall layers with a "a channel" between them. It works very well. However, bass waves are so long, it's pretty hard to keep them from penetrating and leaking into other rooms. Larry
Erik, actually ASC do offer a complete soundproofing method and materials but it is complex and expensive to implement if you pay someone else to do the work, not sure the OPs building competence but if you are prepared to compeletely rebuild the roof this will work. Likely the limitation would them be the stairs and door down which will be hell to proof effectively (the door was ultimately the limiting factor in my room, no matter what heroics we went too bass leaks through it despite double doors and seals) https://www.acousticsciences.com/products/iso-wall-system
Folkfreak knows of what he speaks. His room is the best constructed I have ever been in, and is proof of the effectiveness of the ASC Wall Damp constrained layer damping product. I rapped on one of the walls in his room, and the sound produced was that of knocking on a thick piece of slate or a brick---a non-resonant click.
I bought some pieces of Wall Damp (it is sold in 4" squares), and put them between the two shelves (I bought extras, to double the thickness of each top shelf to handle the weight of my heavy turntables) I have on top of each of my Solid Steel racks. A cheap and effective upgrade!
Thanks @erik_squires -- amusing story is the installation instructions you receive from Art at ASC -- about 30 pages of closely spaced hand written notes and diagrams! Not for the faint of heart :-)
The room does sound great however and if anyone is ever in the Portland, OR area you're welcome to take a listen
h2 we have a lot of experience in this arena, we built a soundproof wall which was insanly effective 110db in room 85db outside of room and we bult the wall out of inexpensive materials.
The room and total project was featured on Rev Runs Rennovation season 2 Secret Cinema
Amusingly @audiotroy illustrates how hard this is -- 85dB is the noise level of a busy road! While 25dB reduction is impressive even at a more normal 95dB in room then 70dB out of room is the level of a vacuum cleaner. If you are looking for silence (i.e. 50dB or less) then you need some 40dB+ of isolation which is really tough to achieve. Even in my heroically isolated room my wife can still tell which tracks I’m playing when she is in the room above (leaks via doors, windows, bass through ceiling etc). The dB of the audio leak through wouldn’t be measurable (ie. its in the background room noise) but the ear is incredibly sensitive.
Actually Folk freak we got that sound leakage down heroically using layers of inexpensive materials done in a constrained layer damping system over the regular sheet rock, if we would have been able to build the wall out more we could have knocked it down very much more.
There is a huge difference between designing from scratch and retrofitting. Also the DIY Network is really cheap so our solution had to be as inexpensive as possible.
We used cemment board, sheet rock, cemment board sandwich with green glue between all layers then we used a custom made absorbing diffusing panle the room sounded and looked great.
The op is asking about soundproofing materials, and for the space between the joists and behind the new ceiling I would 2nd the suggestion of Roxul Safe ’n’ Sound (instead of the more common fiberglass insulation such as Corning 703). Using the ASC isolation "channeling", to which the new sheet rock is attached instead of to the studs, will decrease the transmission of sound to the room above.
Applying the ASC Wall Damp to that sheetrock, with a second layer of sr on top of that, will decrease the walls ability to do what drum heads do when struck with a drum stick---move in and out in the middle, which is how they create sound. Sheetrock actually flexes between the locations where it is screwed down, the middle moving in and out, creating noise. Folkfreaks’s room exhibiting none of that---the room was very quiet. Not just in it’s isolation from the outside world, but in the sense of it not creating any sound of its own. The quietest room I’ve ever not heard ;-) .
In my 647 square foot basement dedicated room on concrete slab, and concrete walls on threes sides, which is both; a listening room and home theater I did the following:
1. Joists (14” below floorboards) Spray foam 6 inches of high density 2. Roxul Safe and sound in all walls and ceiling 3. Resilient channel 4. Ceiling Quiet Rock sheet rock 530 5/8” and additional layer of quiet rock 510 1/2” installed opposite direction need long screws 4. Walls: quiet rock 530 5. back wall: double wall with Roxul safe and sound in each wall, and quiet rock 510 on each wall assembly front and back with a 1” space between the wall assemblies. 6. Green Glue on most drywall assemblies. 6. Solid wood door 7. Varied acoustic treatments / diffusion from GIK and vicoustic 8. Floor bamboo dark tone on slab with 4 in one adhesive, glue, noise and vapor barrier, and flexible.
The costs of the soundproof drywall will eat your budget. That is why I mixed 530 and 510 sheetrock.
Double sheet rock on resilient channel is the way to go. Also, filling the space with the recommended insulation. The installation of the sheetrock on the channel needs to be perfect. Any stray screws into the structure will defeat the purpose of the channel. Also, any air gaps / holes need to be filled with acoustic calk.
@folkfreak . Doors can be significantly quieted by thin lead sheeting glued/green glued to one or both sides: then cover with a sheet of melamine. Solid lead does not leach into skin; however I’d use heavy duty vinyl/rubber gloves and dispose of the after out of an abundance of caution. Cheers to silence!
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