All,
I recently moved to a new home and I am in the process of restablishing my shop. I now have nearly 1000 sq. ft of unfinished basement (hidden gloat) which will be a dedicated shop. It is a new home, basement is bone dry, I still Dryloked it for peace of mind, and I couldn't be happier. Of course my wife can now use the garage again (gloat for her), which she has not been able to do since I moved her car out for a project nearly five years ago.
Anyway back to my question. My basement is block wall, with engineered i-beam ceiling that is almost 9 feet tall with some small wiring, and plumbing protrusions below 9 feet. I want to install a ceiling that has the following properties (listed in order of importance):
- Reduces noise from shop so that other family members can watch TV, and converse without being overly annoyed in rooms directly above the shop
- Allows easy access to pipes, wiring, ductwork within the ceiling
- Looks nice (I know its a shop, but I still want it to look clean and professional)
- Economical, I don't need media room level complexity or sound isolation
- I want to minimize ceiling height reduction
What do you suggest? I was originally planning to install 5/8" drywall on resilient metal channel which satisfies all my needs, except it doesn't allow access to internals so it is a no-go. I am now thinking about a suspended ceiling, but I am not sure how quiet it would be. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Eric