Soundproofing a basement ceiling (1 Viewer)

[Jesse Blacklow]

I've decided to set up half of my basement as my HT area, but the sound from the basement can be heard anywhere in the house. I think the reason for this is that the hardwood floor on the first level and the basement ceiling are the exact same boards, so there's no buffer for sound. The basement ceiling is basically the boards plus support beams.

So what would be a good, cheap way to soundproof the ceiling? The layout is just an 11'x17' rectangle, and rafters(?) run across the width.

 

[Chad Anson]

There is no good cheap solution. You can attach resilient channel to the ceiling/floor joists and hang your drywall ceiling from the resilient channel, or you go with a floating ceiling (i.e., no ceiling joists that are not coupled to the floor joists above). Anything else will be much less effective.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Chad: Darn. I was thinking along the lines of padding or paneling that I could just stick to the ceiling. I'm renting, so I can't do any permanent modifications to the house. Oh well.

 

[MikeWh]

Jesse,

Non-permanent is definitely a problem then. There are expensive methods that could be semi-permanent, like lead blankets and similar soundproofing materials, but they can be very expensive. Sorry.