[Scottdazzle]

The boys have grown up and moved out (at least for the school year).  That big basement I've been eyeing for the last 12 years is now mine, all mine! 

My current listening has good acoustical properties and I have treated it with GIK and Real Traps pieces to get it sounding really good.  But, it's too small (approx. 14 x 10 x 7.5) with only room for 2 listeners.  The new room in the basement will be appox. 19 x 13 x 7.5.  Not large, but a big improvement in any case.  Also, the dimensions are pretty good for avoiding excessive room reinforcement frequencies.

Like Pez, I'm going with double-wall construction - two 5/8" drywalls glued together with green glue.  The ceiling will be isolated from the joists by isolation straps and from the adjoining walls with isolation clips. The ducts will be flexible instead of metal.  The goal is to keep my music from overwhelming people upstairs, keep upstairs noise (like footfalls) from intruding on the music, minimize extraneous noises and resonances, and sound really good.

Just as work was scheduled to begin, the basement flooded after a very heavy rainstorm!  This was a "just in time" problem.  I decided to use the opportunity to install a french drain and sump pump and install better gutters.  I sure don't want this to happen again after my system and records are downstairs.

I will be posting some photos as construction progresses.

First step: installation of french drain and sump pump.

[drummermitchell]

Superb idea,good you caught it now instead of later ..
your room is about the same size as mine,ours a foot wider.
All I could do with mine was put 10"S+S insulation in ceiling joists(drop ceiling).
My 1'thick concrete walls were already insulated and drywalled so I just filled her up with bass traps and diffusors and I'm very happy with
the way she sounds.

[MaxCast]

Good call on the drain, Scott. I'm sure that wasn't cheep but great for peace of mind.
Enjoy your room.

[PDR]

Nice, I'll be looking forward to your progress.

I was lucky when I built my room, it was an attached
garage so I only had to contend with one common wall
with the house.

Its a cool journey, hope you have a lot of fun!

[Scottdazzle]

Second stage was removing all existing drywall walls and ceiling, and removing existing framing.  This exposed exterior walls and noisy ductwork.










One of the challenges is deciding what to do about the ceiling.  Above this room is a dining room and sunken living room.  The third photo shows the 8" lower height below the living room.  I've decided to have the ceiling be the same height which means lowering the ceiling below the dining room.

More to follow.

[Rob Babcock]

It looks like an awesome space to work with.  I'm eager to see what you come up with.

[Rclark]

This will be sweet. 

[Scottdazzle]

Next up: framing and electrical.
New dedicated 20-amp lines for the stereo. Also notice the isolation bars between the joists and framed wall.  The floor of the upstairs is decoupled from the ceiling of the music room.  No footfalls from above will be heard in the listening room. Vibrations from sound waves in the listening room will not be felt or heard upstairs.


The walls of the listening room will be suspended from, but not directly connected to the joists above. Neoprene bushings in the clips separate the studs from the joists.


Double-wall construction helps isolate the listening room from the rest of the house.


The original metal ducts are replaced by flexible, insulated ducts.  One more source of unwanted noise is gone.


A soffit is built around the central duct.  This duct is now insulated on all sides.  The soffit will be also be lightly packed with insulation before being drywalled. 


Framing is almost completed!

[BobM]

Looks like you are thinking of everything, but don't forget to insulate and seal any cold water pipes, so they don't sweat and drip into your ceiling.

Awesome project,
Bob

[Scottdazzle]

Looks like you are thinking of everything, but don't forget to insulate and seal any cold water pipes, so they don't sweat and drip into your ceiling.

Awesome project,
Bob

Good tip, Bob!  Fortunately there are no water pipes in or above this room for me to worry about. 

[srlaudio]

Another tip for you:  provide an isolated ground to the third pin of your electrical plugs.  Drive a couple or maybe even three of six foot copper rods into the earth, couple all together with #6 stranded copper to a centrally located buss bar to distribute individually to your plugs.  This will help increase your signal to noise ratio and provide a silent electronic background for the music.  The common ground in your house carries a lot of junk signals which manifest themselves in a bad way on your sound.  Another good thing is an AC regenerator.  These have fallen in price, and provide ripple free symmetrical power to your equipment.  These mods would qualify your AC as "tech power".  A wonderful thing!

[mcgsxr]

Looks to be a well thought out and well governed project.   I just finished the basement in our house this winter, and did some of what you are doing.  I was not going the whole 9 yards for sound transmission reduction though, just Safe n Sound in the ceiling and all interior walls, insulated around all the drains with same, and had a pony panel installed for the dedicated AC lines.

I also installed a SnS door at the entry to the room. 

When I stuffed my bulkhead/soffit, I just used pink rather than the SnS insulation.  It did just fine for that, it masks the sound of my HVAC trunk well.  Not perfect, but decent.

I can listen after bedtime down there louder than I normally would, with no complaints so far.

Bass heavy movies will allow for leakage though. 

Good luck with it!

[Bob in St. Louis]

Fantastic. Thanks for the pics.
The only thing I'd add is that now is the time to make sure you have enough outlets and breakers.

Great stuff.

Oh....don't forget some extra conduit from "here" to over "there".....just incase.

Bob

[Scottdazzle]

Looks to be a well thought out and well governed project.   I just finished the basement in our house this winter, and did some of what you are doing.  I was not going the whole 9 yards for sound transmission reduction though, just Safe n Sound in the ceiling and all interior walls, insulated around all the drains with same, and had a pony panel installed for the dedicated AC lines.

I also installed a SnS door at the entry to the room. 

When I stuffed my bulkhead/soffit, I just used pink rather than the SnS insulation.  It did just fine for that, it masks the sound of my HVAC trunk well.  Not perfect, but decent.

I can listen after bedtime down there louder than I normally would, with no complaints so far.

Bass heavy movies will allow for leakage though. 

Good luck with it!

Thanks mcgsxr.  I decided to go the extra yard because this is the room where I will be demo'ing the equipment Viva Hifi represents. 

[Scottdazzle]

Fantastic. Thanks for the pics.
The only thing I'd add is that now is the time to make sure you have enough outlets and breakers.

Great stuff.

Oh....don't forget some extra conduit from "here" to over "there".....just incase.

Bob

 Conduits just in case... a great suggestion. Thanks.

[Scottdazzle]

A lot of progress and a setback this week.

The soffit is built for the flexible air ducts and air return.  The ceiling height will be 6'2" under the soffit.  I think Tyler is about 5'10".


The room is framed, wired, insulated, and ready for inspection. The man in the foreground is Greg Morgan. He's the go-to-guy in northern Virginia for sound isolation construction.


The ceiling of the listening room is suspended from the floor joists above with isolation clips. You can see one to the right of the blue outlet box.


Here's the trouble spot. The building inspector failed the room for lack of fire egress. I guess the inspector thinks me and my heavy friends might have difficulty climbing out that window. 


So, it took a day to dig out a much bigger window well, expand the egress, and install the new window.


The new egress window is installed and we're back on track for inspection before the walls go up.  This window is only 36" up from the floor and it's 48" high. You can see the ladder inside the window well, too. Now that is a safe window.

[mcgsxr]

That IS a heck of a basement window!

For conduit (nice catch Bob, glad I did it!) I used central vac tubing I found at the local HD.  In wall rated, cheap, and easy to work with.

Looking forward to following this thread.

[JLM]

Hopefully that's a drain line for the window well below the egress window, especially with the flooding you mentioned.  Another good tip for avoiding flooding is to slope all the ground away from the house and install 4 inch drain tile to your downspouts and run them away from the house.

For the finished basement we built 9 years ago (in heavy clay) I used 2 foot roof overhangs throughout, footing tile that drain (by gravity plus code required sump/pump) away from the house, tar coated/poured concrete walls, pea stone backfill, landscaping stones/fabric throughout, sloped everything away from the house, and tiled all the downspouts away from the house.

For my (low cost) listening room I focused on the shape (ala Cardas) first, size (maximized for the shape ratios) second, and isolation (staggered stud walls that backup to storage spaces, insulated fiberglass exterior door with weather seal, lined/fiberglass duct) third.  I did the separate grounding mentioned above for three dedicated 20A circuits that each have a single cryo'd hospital grade duplex convenience receptacle.  My downfall was due to the builder who refused to follow the drawings that called for Z-channel isolation bars for the drywall ceiling, so as quiet as everything else is, I hear everything from above even more, but green glue and another layer of drywall could remedy that.  I say low cost because the extra cost was in the staggered studs and 2x6 top/bottom plates minus the door (cheaper than the other interior doors) and cheaper carpet/pad (all interior walls automatically insulated).  And my egress window are in three other rooms in the basement, so no window in this room.  Plus I save money with wifey having less space to buy/horde "junk".

[Scottdazzle]

JLM,

Great comments, thank you. You sure thought things out for your installation! 

Yes, there's a drain line for the egress window.  It's the white pipe below the window that feeds the french drain to the sump pump.  Belt and suspenders!  We also replaced all the gutters and downspouts and splash blocks.  Just regraded the ground away from the house.  The electrical grounding gets done this weekend. 

The comment about not hoarding applies to me, not my wife.  She thinks it's nuts for me to have thousands of records and cd's that I may never listen to again.  She's right, of course.  Now I have to downsize the collection because I'm not building any closet space for this room.

SD

[WireNut]

Here's the trouble spot. The building inspector failed the room for lack of fire egress. I guess the inspector thinks me and my heavy friends might have difficulty climbing out that window. 

So, it took a day to dig out a much bigger window well, expand the egress, and install the new window.

The new egress window is installed and we're back on track for inspection before the walls go up.  This window is only 36" up from the floor and it's 48" high. You can see the ladder inside the window well, too. Now that is a safe window.

Funny. Made me think of two signs for your window, and one for your door.
 




Enjoy your new sound room