Hi. I am currently in the planning stages of building my basement studio in my home. The only thing about the project which bothers me is the construction of the ceiling. Most of my friends who are going to help me build the rooms don't understand the concept of not attaching the ceiling to the joists of the floor above. I want to explain it to them properly but to do so, I have answer some questions I have for myself first:
It is my intention to build the ceiling on top of the framed walls which will be built without having the ceiling studs touching the joists of the floor above. The expanse of the room is more than 12 feet in either direction, so I suppose I will have to join two studs to make the length I need. How does one do this according to building code? Since I've never built a ceiling before (drop ceiling yes, stud & drywall, no) I want to make sure I'm thinking correctly before I tell my friends how to join the boards together.
Do we just overlap the boards by approx. 12 inches and put screws through both or is there another method I'm not aware of?
Also, is it proper (or necessary even) to put small perpendicular 2x4's between the long boards to provide added strength?
Sorry for such a novice question.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
EddieCD
2x4's with a splice w/ drywall attached...someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't believe with that span, it will support the drywall. Unless you use some type of isolation hangers suspended from the above joists, to help support the load.
What is you ceiling height in your basement? If you're already going up to the joists w/ the walls and isolating them, you can do what I did which is to attach RC1 channel to the joists, then attach 2 layers of 5/8" drywall to it. If you need pics, Click Here
Eddie welcome to the board - first, could you please update your profile to include a location? we deal with members worldwide, and it's much easier to recommend if we have an idea of geographical location; prices and availability tend to govern building practices in different areas...
You should NOT try to splice ceiling joists - if you can post your actual span requirements, I can calculate what size lumber you'll need for your joists. Lumber is available in longer than 12 foot lengths in almost all decent building supply places, so it's not necessary to splice (nor is it legal that I'm aware of) -
So, what's your actual dimensions, including total headroom? Then, I can give you a couple of different options depending on your available headroom... Steve
The room which I am most concerned about is 13 feet by 24 feet. If there are 2x4's which are cut longer than 12 feet then I am not worried anymore. I will have to go to lumber yard and ask. I figured that splicing together boards was against code but I figured I'd ask just incase.
The second room is 16 feet by 10 feet. This room is very tricky because two large air ducts run through the room lengthwise off to right. My friends told me, "ah, this is no problem, just frame around the ducts attaching some furring strips to the floor joists above." Again, thats a great idea if you're not building a studio. My best guess is that its probably best for me to simply make the ceiling of this room as high as the air ducts will allow me to go rather than try to do one half of the room at 8 feet high and then an angle down to the 7 feet high where the ducts are (which is what I originally had planned to do). Again, if you have any ideas... feel free to voice them. I can handle the room being only 7 feet high but I'd like to try getting the most headroom I can get in any case.
The studio I plan on building is basically half of my basement. Currently there's a load bearing wall running the long way through my basement which separates the basement in one direction and a stairway which separates it in the other direction. The room dimensions I gave above. So far, I'm pretty confident that I can build walls which will isolate the rooms from each other and the rest of the basement however the ceilings give me the bit of trouble conceptually that I'm having now.
Sorry about the lack of a drawing. I have no scanner at my disposal and even then ... I'm not inclined to slaughter a drawing without asking for forgiveness first.
I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule for most things in life. This is not to say that I don't value perfection but it truely is a rare thing. We do the best job we can with what we're given and if we hit 80%, we're doing great. The rest we'll expend endless amounts of energy trying to recoup the other 20% at what value?
In the case of the ceiling, I think I'm going to hang the ceiling using resilient channel strips. Here's my logic:
The walls of the studio rooms are all going to be either mounted against poured concrete or well insulated with air & insulation from any other wall. The only thing worth trying to improve upon was the ceiling. Here's where the 80/20 rule comes in for me. Resilient channel should be easy for me to attach to the existing joists and I can easily frame around the ductwork (to the building code spec, of course) and then attach resilient channel to that framework. With the insulation I intend to put in between the joists and with the 5/8 wallboard on the RC, I can't see why this wouldn't get me to "80%" efficiency. This might also give me a little more headroom too as the 2x4 studs would easily take away 3 inches of space over my head in both rooms and for me, every little bit counts.
I'm still open to ideas so please, feel free to post anything you like. My biggest concerns are making sure my family is safe and thus I want to stick strictly to the building code and then try to get as much soundproofing as I can get for my studio. (I have a friend of mine who still scoffs at me for following the building code & getting permits. For some reason, the more I talk with him ... the more I want to make sure I follow the rules strictly!)
Thanks for your help everyone.
Please continue to think this over & post ideas
As long as you're putting the RC directly on the joists, this is actually the most sensible way to go - it maxes headroom and minimises material costs, and if done correctly will come within a few dB of separate, fully decoupled frames - in fact, at the bottom end of the audio spectrum there is no difference between solid fastening and resilient fastening, as long as the air gap remains the same. The improvement of resilient mounting comes in more at mid and higher frequencies, with as much as 14 dB improvement using RC.
If your joists are open on the bottom, and you want more isolation, you could add a layer of gypsum between each joist cavity and edge glue, holding it in place with small cleats along the edges - this would add some mass to the upper leaf of your barrier, then filling with insulation and doing two layers of 5/8" wallboard over RC would finish the deal.
IF you're also concerned with flanking noise between your two studio rooms, you should do the ceilings LAST, and float the ceiling panels between your walls, caulking well at the perimeter - this helps minimise flanking through the continuous ceiling panels. If you've not yet found the drawings I posted showing this, let me know and I'll run them down... Steve
