Hi. I’m currently working on soundproofing my basement for some jamming and recording purpose. I’ve covered the walls and ceiling with fiberglass prior to putting a drywall. Everything sounded great and quiet with fiberglass all over the walls but right after ceiling was covered with drywall I noticed that I could hear every little sound that was coming from upstairs again. I had a very little knowledge on how to soundproof a room when I first started working on my basement and it’s my own fault for not doing enough research on it, but I did what I did and wanted to ask what would be the best solution in my case?
I really don’t want to remove drywall from the ceiling but I will if I really have to. Also, I’m not trying to do a sound insulation the same way it’s done in professional recording studios, so it wont be a big issue if some noise still travels through as long as it’s quiet enough for someone to have a phone conversation or watch tv without turning it up in the rest of the house.
I was thinking of covering entire ceiling with acoustic foam. Do you think it’s a good idea? Are there any other soundproof materials that can go on top of drywall?

Much appreciated!!!

Well, you could try adding mass to the ceiling with another layer of drywall and green glue. Of course,this is probably the best place to go and read up on this. You can probably learn more than you would ever want to know there.

Lance

My room is in my basement, too. In order to soundproof the ceiling/upstairs floor you would definitely need to add mass. I can't since my ceiling is around 7', but my family is pretty much a part of anything I do anyway. I've just decide to live with the noise as best I can. Wait for floor squeeks to stop, turning off heat/air during recording, keeping kids quiet, etc... I have managed a decent booth with about 8 or nine bats of the thickest insulation I could find smashed into giant 2' wide "pillows" with soundboard backing (and some breathable cloth covering of course) and only had to drape a moving blanket for a door and drape some thicker cloth for the ceiling to stop reflections. Ended up dead as hell and good enough to use for a major label demo (and got some kudos from the label engineer for the sound. Of course the borrowed M149 didn't hurt )

Don't remove any sheetrock from the ceiling...it's a good start. You can improve the room's isolation greatly by adding another layer right over what's there. You should at least use 5/8" "Type X" and make sure the seams of the new layer don't overlap the seams of the first. There are also newer types of gypsum board that have a layer of an elastomeric compound in them that increases their effectiveness as well.

Other improvements you can make would be to staple strips of carpet underlayment foam (very cheap and you don't need much) to each side of 1x2 furring and then nail those up across (not parallel) the ceiling beams and first layer of sheetrock. Then nail the second layer of sheetrock to those. Screws will tend to grab and bunch-up the foam.

Alternately, you can first install a layer of Homasote and then the second layer of sheetrock over that.

Pay particular attention to seams and board ends as well as any penetrations for lights and/or HVAC. They all need to be well-sealed and the smallest openings can compromise the effectiveness of the whole ceiling system.

There are also costly and fairly effective systems you can buy for installing sheetrock...channels and glues etc. They may or may not be worth the cost. The devil is in the details here. Do as tight a job as you can manage, take your time to do it right and do it once.

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I was thinking of covering entire ceiling with acoustic foam. Do you think it’s a good idea?

NO! It's expensive and doesn't do diddly for improving a room's isolation. Once the room's as well isolated as you can manage...THEN the foam is done to improve the room's internal characteristics. Two different jobs and two different sets of materials.

-john

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Alternately, you can first install a layer of Homasote and then the second layer of sheetrock over that

Is there any other names for homasote and where does one look for it. I've heard about it used for hangers but not walls or ceilings. I'm moving in a couple weeks and will be building a new room, but I have to be able to tear it out when we move so double walls are out. But this sounds like a possible compromise. I generally track during the day so I'm not too worried, but we're moving next to the neighborhood snoop so I'd like to do as much as I can.

Lance

soundboard, available at home depot and lowes.

but, you should look into green glue. it performs better than soundboard, doesn't eat up much space and performs better

yea we wasted money with soundboard and went to a friends house and he had green glue and i redid my whole basement