Hi Aaron, Thanks very much foor your input. I thinlk I'll get set-up (electrical upgrades, walls drywalled and painted) and make some noise/sawdust for a bit and see how bad the sound is upstairs before doing anything to the ceiling. There are a number of options for drop ceiling that I think even I could handle. Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling and report back as progress is made. Happy Turning, Brad
part2: If you're sheetrocking your ceiling you want to minimize contact between the rock and the joists to minimize sound transmission. Hat channel is the easiest way to do this. The hat channel runs perpendicular to your joists and your rock is screwed to the channel, not the joists. If you're sheetrocking walls in your basement I'd really recommend resilient channel on the walls as well. If you rock straight to the framing you will do very little to soundproof the space because the sound vibrations go right through hard surfaces, and limiting those surfaces' contact will do a lot. My drop ceiling has been pretty effective. My shop is below the living room. I can use the lathe, drill press, bandsaw and other tools without disturbing anyone upstairs. They can still hear it, but not to the point of it being irritating. The planer and router are not something I can use after the kids go to sleep, as they're appreciably louder. Hope this helps. Aaron
Brad, sorry for the delayed reply to your question about soundproofing. If you have the headroom, I really suggest a drop/grid ceiling. In my shop I did a drop ceiling with decent quality (albeit inexpensive) ceiling tiles with a STR (sound transmission rating) of 50. That means that 50% of the sound that gets to them does not get past them. So that system alone cuts the noise in half. Comparatively, insulating the joist spaces with fiberglass or rock wool batts will not do much of anything, but can't hurt. I insulated my joist spaces with 10" thick fiberglass batts. I also furred down around the main duct and return air trunks and rocked the framing on hat channel so there would be less sound transmission to them. Continued.......
Hi Aaron, I found your soundproofing thread from 2010 when you were contemplating what to do to insulate your basement shop from the upstairs. If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me what you eventually did and how it worked-out for you? I'm in a very similar situation and have a post regarding a dedicated space for my basement shop that is at square one. Thanks for any input you can provide. Brad
