Hi all,
My wife and I have contracted Owens Corning to finish part of our basement. In the short run, this room will be used as my son's drum practice space; in the longer run, it will become the site for a bigger and better home theater. In either case, we have the problem of LOUD bass permeating the house, annoying everyone else.
The room will take up only part of the basement, so there are two areas of leakage of primary concern: the ceiling and the new dividing wall. We are currently negotiating with Owens Corning to get the LEAST "bang" for our buck. Since I know relatively little about acoustics, I need some advice.
CEILING: At present, the basement ceiling is completely unfinished. There is a space of roughly 9 1/2" (24 cm) between the bottom of the floor joists and the board underneath the wood floor above. Owens Corning has offered us two options, priced identically:
(1) A layer of R19 insulation in the cavities between the joists; beneath that, a resilient channel; beneath that, one layer of sheetrock.
(2) One layer of R30 insulation; beneath that, one layer of homasote; beneath that, one layer of sheetrock. No RC in this option.
Which option would be better, or should we ask for something else?
WALL: The Owens Corning wall is made of rigid fiberglass. On the side facing the room it is covered by fabric. On the back, there is nothing: it attaches to a metal frame. Because we are dividing the basement in half, one wall will be freestanding, and so we will need to attach some kind of sound barrier to the other side of the metal frame.
What kind of barrier on the far side of the metal frame would give us the "least bang for our buck"? Sheetrock? Homasote?
Many thanks for your advice!
