So, in the fantasy world in which I live, one of my projects is to wall off one end of my basement to make a shop where I can go and make dust and noise without getting dust and noise all over the rest of the basement and house. I realize I won't make a sound proof room, but I would like to take some steps to reduce the amount of noise that will bleed out of the shop area.
Here are some of my thoughts, any corrections, additions, or ridicules will be accepted. The wall will have a footer and header that are 2X6 instead of 2X4. Then there will be studs staggard two one edge or the other. Thus, there will be no stud that reaches from edge to edge, so no bridging. The cavity will be filled with fiberglass insulation. The dry wall on the shop side will be mounted to Z bars instead of directly to the studs. Lots of fiberglass will be stuffed up into the joist bays overhead and then acoustic tile as a ceiling. One major question I have is dot dot dot. The wall runs parallel to the joists, so should I run the top of the wall up between two joists, but not fix it to joists or floor and then stuff lots of fiber glass around the top edge, or do I absolutely have to fix the top of the wall to something. Obviously, there is a rigidity issue if I don't. The ends of the wall can be fixed to the cement walls of the basement, if that is enough of a substitute. Most of the sound will be high frequency sounds so doesn't fiber glass batting and sealing up cracks take care of most of that sound? Without trying to make a sound proof room, are there any other things I could do to reduce the sound bleed? -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: (412) 268-9081
