MarkMac

Three of the four walls in the theater room I am getting ready to begin construction on are concrete foundation walls. My plan for the fourth wall is a double-studded wall (not offset--actually 2 separate 2x4 frames). This wall will use resilient channel with a sheet of 5/8" drywall, then green glue, then a sheet of 1/2". The wall will be insulated with R-13 with a sheet of 5/8" on the back side. There will be about a 1" gap, and then the 2nd studded wall will have R13 and 5/8" drywall on the back side. Your thoughts on this?

My big question is what I need to do with the other 3 walls (against the concrete). For budget reasons, I was thinking about only doing a 2x4 wall with R-13, resilient channel, and one sheet of 5/8" drywall? What do the soundproofing and acoustic gods have to say about this?

One more thing, what can I use to sandwich between the studded walls and the floor joists above? Some sort of foam? Again, budget is going to limit me to a certain extent (room within a room was dropped a while back). Thanks for your thoughts!

Dave Poehlman

I think a 2X4 wall against the concrete would be fine. You don't get much deader than a concrete wall with earth behind it. I even think the resilient channel on these walls is a bit of overkill... IMHO.


I thought about using some sort of rubber padding (sort of like dynamat..but less expensive) like you find under exercise equipment... although that stuff isn't cheap either.

My neighbors were finishing an exercise room in their basement and found some "cattle mat" at a local farm supply store. They said it seemed pretty similar to the shock-absorbant exercise matting for a lot less. However, once they got it home, they found it had a pretty strong rubber smell to it. And since they had guests coming to stay, they decided to take it back. I didn't get a chance to check it out.. but it sounds like it could be a cheap alternative to dynamat.. etc..