Basement ceiling question

[Deb Malloy]

Need some input....
I'm in the midst of working on my basement shop, and was planning on painting the joists white to brighten things up. I was thinking of cutting 2x2 ceilings tiles and attaching them to the over head floor.
Do you think it would help any dampen any noise from the machines, and or help with any dust ? I could possibly double up on them also.
I had originally thought I would use a drop ceiling, but it would have ended up too low. For the past few years I have been scrounging material from
Craig's list, etc., and had scored over 200 Armstrong ceiling tiles from a country club renovation.

Thoughts ? Be kind....

Deb

[Kevin Guarnotta]

Sounds like you mean to attach them to the subfloor of the ceiling above, ie between the joists? This will help with sound somewhat. To help more with sound you could put small strips of wood alongside the joists, and then lay the drop panel in there.this could all happen above the bottom of the joist-saving your ceiling height.

In practice this can be touch, depending on how the wires and piping are run in your house.

[Deb Malloy]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was going to apply to the subfloor. So, leaving a space between drop panel and sub-floor, would dampen the sound more ?
In some bays the wires will be a problem, they all might not end up being at the same distance, but not a problem. I had thought about strips of wood, it seemed like a bit more work.

[Andy Fox]

I'm planning to do my basement shop ceiling soon. Based on my recent reading of soundproofing technique, I think the tiles would help a little.

Putting R-11 or R-13 fiberglass insulation batts into each joist cavity and putting up 1/2" drywall is probably the best of the easy and cheap solutions, but it is more money than your free tiles. That's what I intend to do, and my quick estimate is that it will cost about $300 in materials for my roughly 20'x25' L-shaped shop.

Edit: Also, get some firestop caulk and seal any gaps in your shop ceiling, such as pipe penetrations. Spray foam sealant or silicone caulk would also work, but my impression is that the firestop caulk will work better at sealing out noise.

[Ole Anderson]

If you go the insulation route, don't use fiberglass, use Roxul Safe n'Sound rockwool insulation or equivalent, much better at sound proofing. Do a search for rockwool insulation. And do a search in this forum for soundproofing .

[Jim Andrew]

My nephew used this recycled denim insulation for sound in his new house. Menards has it. Check it out.

[Deb Malloy]

Thanks for all the replies. No Menards near me, will have to check for it elsewhere, along with the price for it and the Roxul. I believe the Roxul is very pricey.

[Erik France]

The biggest bang for the buck for sound attenuation would be to fasten the tiles you have procured to resilient channels which would be fastened perpendicular to the floor joists. Insulation could be placed in the cavity for added noise protection. The chanels will drastically decrease the conductance of noise from your basement shop, much more then fastening them directly to the subfloor and more than fastening the panels to the bottom of the floor joists.