I am in the process of developing my basement which is below grade in my two storey detached family home. As a result my exterior walls are concrete for the first 8 feet followed by a header space that exists between the silent floor joist system. The basement will consist of four rooms: a bathroom, guest bedroom, home theater room, and office. The guest bedroom, office, and bathroom will not generally be in use or producing noise when my wife and I are trying to enjoy our hometheater set up (our kids are very young and in bed on the 2nd storey by 7 pm). Based on this I believe that the furnace/mechanical room in the basement is our greatest threat to enjoyable sound in the home theater room. For this reason I am planning to take steps to isolate that room rather than isolating the home theater room from the rest of the house. My plan involves roxul safe and sound insulation in the interior walls of the mechanical room which are shared with other space in the basement. On these same interior walls I would hang 5/8 inch drywall a layer of green glue and then 1/2 drywall on the side of the wall that faces into the mechanical room. The other side of the wall which forms the boundary with the bedroom and bathroom would have a single layer of 1/2 drywall. The ceiling joist area leading from the furnace room would also be filled with roxul. The door leading to the furnace room would be a solid core steel exterior grade door with weather stripping (note the furnace and hot water tank all have dedicated combustion air intakes). Lastly the hot and cold air plenums have been framed by bulkheads made with 3/8 OSB that do not touch the metal. I am planning to put a layer of green glue on the OSB prior to hanging 1/2 drywall on the bulkheads to limit sound. With these steps I think I should have relatively isolated the furnace room sound. The only flanking path that will be untouched is the actual hot air duct into the home theater room (it will simply be surrounded by roxul) and the cold air return. Also I cannot fill all of the joist space above the home theater room with roxul because I have already installed non i/c recessed lights which require a 3" space around the light. I figure that insulating the ceiling, but leaving flanking paths where each of the ten lights are is a waster of time and money. The hometheater ceiling is going to be drywall with a popcorn textured ceiling.
Any thoughts, suggestions. Is this overkill or not enough?
PS: I am looking to create an enjoyable place to watch movies, but cannot call myself an audiophile. FYI my system will be a Pioneer VSX-1019 AHK receiver, Energy Take 5.1 classic speakers, PS3 for BD and a 58"-60" plasma yet to be purchased.
Any thoughts, suggestions. Is this overkill or not enough?
PS: I am looking to create an enjoyable place to watch movies, but cannot call myself an audiophile. FYI my system will be a Pioneer VSX-1019 AHK receiver, Energy Take 5.1 classic speakers, PS3 for BD and a 58"-60" plasma yet to be purchased.