Soundproofing a Finished Basement (HOW)

[911sc]

We have a former show home that was built by Jaymen (should say it all) The basement was developed by them as well. In the basement you can hear needle hitting the hardwood floors upstairs. The ceiling is finished with stipple and I want to find what suggestions people have to sound proof the ceiling? Do i have to tear it out and put in new thicker insulation as well as sound board or someone have other suggestions.

Thanks

[cet]

it all depends on how effective you want the soundproofing to be and how much effort and money you want to put into it. You could put up a second layer of drywall. You could put a second player of drywall with a dampening agent such as green glue. You could tear down the ceiling and insulate between the joists use hat channel and clips to attach the ceiling with green glue and another layer of drywall. All depends on your goals. Soundproofing Company has some good articles about sound and how to sound proof things.

[911sc]

We are planning on building a legal mother in law suite so I want something pretty tight you know a little noise transference is okay but not too bad

[garnet]

you dont have to go to extreme...insulating with roxul and re-do ceiling with a heavier board (standard is 1/2 inch) or doubled-up, will provide a lot of sound barrier...adding cross-ties to the joists at that time would help also
detatched ceilings (and wall) systems are something much more $$ costly, and only of benefit when doing a home studio or a $$ home theater
real world, in the few i've done this way, the sound transfer is vastly reduced, without having to spend a fortune

[Grogador]

I find a lot of noise comes through the heating ducts, any recommendations for making the forced air system quieter?

[eblend]

Originally posted by Grogador
I find a lot of noise comes through the heating ducts, any recommendations for making the forced air system quieter?

I know they have some rubber based stuff that you can paint on the ducts, never done it myself. I have roxul and resilient channel and just standard drywall and it does hell of a job compared to how it used to be before

[Ven]

What a coincidence. Similar problem and same builder. We ordered and paid for acoustic insulation between the floors, and they forgot to do it. So instead of delaying the move in date again while they pulled down the ceilings, we just took a refund on that upgrade. Mistake. Huge Mistake.

[garnet]

do you mean sounds of the metal work itself, or just the forced air sound?

Originally posted by Grogador
I find a lot of noise comes through the heating ducts, any recommendations for making the forced air system quieter?

[Z_Fan]

I used Roxul "Safe and Sound" I believe is what they call it. Works very nice. Used it at my old house and my current house...

[TKRIS]

I have no idea where the link is anymore, but there was a study done on insulation and there's very, very little practical difference between regular OC pink insulation, "Safe'n'Sound", mineral wool, or any other similar type insulation, providing they were the same thickness. So if you are going to insulate between the joists, save yourself some money and just buy regular insulation. Or use the saved money to double up in high noise areas.

If you can mud/tape/texture yourself, I would think your best bet on a budget would be to strap the existing ceiling with resilient channel then put another layer of 5/8" drywall below it.
If you've gotta pay someone to do everything for you, you could rip the existing ceiling down yourself and insulate it, then have someone come in and put up a new ceiling.

[eblend]

Originally posted by TKRIS
I have no idea where the link is anymore, but there was a study done on insulation and there's very, very little practical difference between regular OC pink insulation, "Safe'n'Sound", mineral wool, or any other similar type insulation, providing they were the same thickness. So if you are going to insulate between the joists, save yourself some money and just buy regular insulation. Or use the saved money to double up in high noise areas.

If you can mud/tape/texture yourself, I would think your best bet on a budget would be to strap the existing ceiling with resilient channel then put another layer of 5/8" drywall below it.
If you've gotta pay someone to do everything for you, you could rip the existing ceiling down yourself and insulate it, then have someone come in and put up a new ceiling.

I did my garage and my basement at the same time, the safe and sound from roxul is definatelly more packed, dense type of insulation, whereas the pink stuff I used in the garage is very soft and fluffy. I would assume the dense stuff would be better, but real scientific results don't like if that is indeed what was done for testing.

[911sc]

I think Im gonna rip the ceiling out and redo it.. I checked out the ceiling there is no insulation... Fucking Jayman... dont buy a jayman home.. Lesson learned

[garnet]

the comparison of insulations, from fiberglass to roxul type, is likely of R value between similar products
for sound transference reduction, the more dense the material the better, and where roxul is superior to fiberglass

it also makes considerable diffference in the workmanship, it is the time to secure hvac work and proper install of your new ceiling board will make a significant difference too

for any basement development i use 5/8" DW for ceiling (doubled 1/2 isn't strictly necessary), space screws every 6" or so (yes i use a lot of them), i typically run a thin bead of PL along the joists, so there are no spans of DW to vibrate against the wood, stagger your seams and shim as needed to get flush fitment at your taped joints

remember that knockdown will not hide a poor ceiling/mud-tape job

provided the above floor is done properly, then shouldn't be to much problem for you
if it is, then consider spray foam into the upper pockets of between joists and the subfloor, as a first step

good luck

[codetrap]

When I did the basement, I packed in the Roxul between the floors, and it made a huge difference in sound. It's not sound proof, but my 3 year old hippopotamus has been downgraded to a medium sized dog.

[Cheeba]

Several studies, as well as the advice of most soundproofing companies, state that the difference between fibreglass and rock/mineral wool (Roxul) is minimal. I have a stack of various white papers from the NRC (National Research Council) of Canada, and I believe they had the same conclusion. That said, I'm still using Roxul since it's worth the extra few hundred bucks to not have to deal with itch, and have the denser product that is easier to cut in complex shapes so I don't have to worry about leaving any transmission channels from sagging, etc. After ignoring the marketing, reading actual lab data and advice from the pro studio builders, I'm in the process of doing the following to my basement:

- Roxul S&S in the joists
- Resilient channel and 5/8" drywall on ceiling and walls
- MDF/cement board boxes around all the recessed lighting
- No shared HVAC between basement and upper floor; basement ducts will be insulated flexible for the first few metres, then dump into treated manifold, then back to the furnace as per normal
- Putty pads and acoustical caulk for all the electrical boxes

OP, you can take get all the 'right' advice in the World, but if you don't approach your setup with a problem-solving state of mind, you may get lacklustre results. I've see a few people insulate their ceilings and put up 3-4 layers of drywall with Green Glue or channel, and still have very poor performance because they didn't treat anything else. If you want really lower sound transmission, I would consider decoupling your walls as well; you could do it without ripping the existing walls out by Green Glue'ing the walls and slapping on another layer of drywall. You'd have to do some thinking about what to do with the electrical boxes and door frames.

[Tomaz]

I used Roxul S&S and solid-core doors between the bathroom and bedroom. I never get disturbed rest when the bathroom is used now. Added benefit for me is that there is no HVAC system in my house (all in-floor). It's actually creepy how quiet my house is.