Partial ceiling in basement worth the effort? Noise.

[Jacob Silver]

1890s house, unfinished basement, about 6.5 feet from floor to bottom of joists. Concrete floor, stone walls. Bilco walkout.

A portion of the basement, being about 13x29, is relatively clear of support posts, plumbing, ducts, etc. Just a couple of posts and return ducts in the way. This will be, at least for several years, my woodshop space. Warmer and larger than the last house, one car attached dirt floor garage with no ceiling or insulation, that was shared with mechanic tools and some garden stuff.

Several flies in the ointment of course with a basement shop, the one I am most concerned about is noise. I think between Thoroseal, gutters, grading and dehumidifier, I can manage to keep the moisture at bay, but if I wake kids up at night, available shop time will be much less. Will be using combination of hand and machine tools.

Of course, this being an 1890s house, the basement ceiling was never intended to be finished. The area directly over the proposed shop space is, at least, remarkably devoid of obstructions. Not so for much of the rest of the basement. It wouldn't be too hard to put Roxul and drywall over the shop area itself, but it would be tough to impossible to manage to put drywall in the rest of the basement.

I can't quite tell, from reading about soundproofing, if it is even worthwhile to do a halfway job like this, or if I am better off not wasting the time and money. Will enough sound get around the edges or in other parts of the basement to matter?

Also, it might be easier in some areas to put Roxul in the joist bay, then recess the drywall, leaving the bottoms of the joists exposed. Worth doing or not so much?

Thanks much for any insight.
Jacob

[Jim Andrew]

A really easy way to install a ceiling would be to nail 1x4's lengthwise with the joists, put insulation between the joists, and just cut some ceiling tiles to rest on the 1x4's. An even better sound insulation is the blue denim Menards sells.