Big Beautiful Basement Studio
Posted: Tue, 2026-Feb-10, 17:55
Hi! This is my first post here but I've been lurking for quite a while. I'm designing a studio/practice space in my unfinished basement. I live in a half duplex connected side by side to my neighbors unit. I own my half, not theirs. I'd like this to be a combo studio, one big room for mixing, jamming, maybe some tracking. My primary goal is improving sound isolation from the floors above, as well as maximizing space so that the room feels as open and comfortable as possible.
I might not live here permanently, so I'm not trying to 100% purpose build this as just a music studio. Maybe like 60% home music studio, 40% regular cozy finished basement. I want to make this basement feel finished and comfortable so I can add value to my home in general, in case I decide to sell or rent out the house in the next few years. But for the time being I am here and I like to play loud music and sometimes drums, and I'd like to avoid bothering my housemates as much as I can.
TLDR, Primary goals:
1: reduce sound to/from rooms above (at least a little bit)
2: keep height of ceiling with exposed industrial look, maybe?
3: finish basement, resale friendly
basic description of the room in its current form:
- unfinished basement
- concrete walls all around: One concrete party wall between duplex units, and the rest concrete exterior walls.
- exposed ceiling. Can see subfloor from below. which is topped by laminate flooring on the main floor.
- old carpet on top of concrete floor (eventually want to replace with something nicer, maybe LVP?)
- a big loud furnace in a utility/storage area
- height: 7'9" to bottom of the joists. 8'9" to bottom of the subfloor
current sound isolation:
- my main problem is noise transmission to/from the floors above. above me is the kitchen and living room.
- around the perimeter, the concrete walls seem to do a good job already. Transmission outside isn't too bad, and my neighbors on the other side of the duplex have told me they can barely hear the drums when I play them and that it doesn't bother them. I'd like to isolate from them more if possible but this is already a good starting point.
general things I want to do:
fill all gaps in the exposed ceiling. there are various holes and cracks for cabling and around pipes and vents.
construct drywall all the way around. hide the concrete walls.
run electrical outlets to more convenient places
build a wall around the furnace/utility area
make it pretty
I don't own a sound meter currently. I will look into purchasing one soon so I can determine more specific stats and goals for sound isolation.
I have a decent amount of DIY experience with projects at home and some very basic construction knowledge. I have a handyman friend who will help me with most of the construction. I can contract out as necessary but plan to keep a close eye on things myself. Would love some help getting started here in the design phase.
Another complicating factor: walls in Colorado basements must be floating, meaning the wall cannot connect the concrete slab to the structure above, due to expansive soil below which can shift the slab up or down with the seasons (this is a code requirement, not an acoustic design choice). So the standard way of building basement walls means they are hung from the joists with a 2-3" gap between the studs and the bottom plate. I am still wrapping my head around the implications of this in the world of audio
questions I have:
If I build drywall around the perimeter, with the colorado floating framing and an air gap/insulation between the concrete. Is it necessary for me to decouple the drywall too with resilient channel clips? Sound transfer through the concrete perimeter doesn't seem to be my biggest problem, not compared to the sound transfer through the ceiling and vents.
And regarding the ceiling, is there a world I can leave the ceiling exposed and still improve isolation from above? and to what degree? I know this is against conventional practice, but I am considering leaving the ceiling exposed and painting it all a dark color, including all the cabling and pipes/vents running through it. partially because I like this industrial look, and I love the extra ceiling height. and flexibility for future cabling.
I believe in Rod Gervais's book, for ceilings, he suggested adding mass to the subfloor between the joists, then insulation, then hanging a decoupled layer or two of drywall. Or building a room within a room. But my concerns with these methods is the amount of ceiling height I would lose, as well as time/effort/cost. And also I'd lose access to everything in the ceiling, so I'd want to get everything right before I cover it all up.
Instead, could I just do the first part, and add mass to the subfloor (adding drywall between the joists). and skip the drywall below joists? will this make any meaningful, practical difference to sound isolation for me given my constraints?
I will add pictures or a sketch of the dimensions in a later post. but for now I wanted to get this thread started and get all my initial thoughts out.
Thank you for reading. Would love to hear what you think!
I might not live here permanently, so I'm not trying to 100% purpose build this as just a music studio. Maybe like 60% home music studio, 40% regular cozy finished basement. I want to make this basement feel finished and comfortable so I can add value to my home in general, in case I decide to sell or rent out the house in the next few years. But for the time being I am here and I like to play loud music and sometimes drums, and I'd like to avoid bothering my housemates as much as I can.
TLDR, Primary goals:
1: reduce sound to/from rooms above (at least a little bit)
2: keep height of ceiling with exposed industrial look, maybe?
3: finish basement, resale friendly
basic description of the room in its current form:
- unfinished basement
- concrete walls all around: One concrete party wall between duplex units, and the rest concrete exterior walls.
- exposed ceiling. Can see subfloor from below. which is topped by laminate flooring on the main floor.
- old carpet on top of concrete floor (eventually want to replace with something nicer, maybe LVP?)
- a big loud furnace in a utility/storage area
- height: 7'9" to bottom of the joists. 8'9" to bottom of the subfloor
current sound isolation:
- my main problem is noise transmission to/from the floors above. above me is the kitchen and living room.
- around the perimeter, the concrete walls seem to do a good job already. Transmission outside isn't too bad, and my neighbors on the other side of the duplex have told me they can barely hear the drums when I play them and that it doesn't bother them. I'd like to isolate from them more if possible but this is already a good starting point.
general things I want to do:
fill all gaps in the exposed ceiling. there are various holes and cracks for cabling and around pipes and vents.
construct drywall all the way around. hide the concrete walls.
run electrical outlets to more convenient places
build a wall around the furnace/utility area
make it pretty
I don't own a sound meter currently. I will look into purchasing one soon so I can determine more specific stats and goals for sound isolation.
I have a decent amount of DIY experience with projects at home and some very basic construction knowledge. I have a handyman friend who will help me with most of the construction. I can contract out as necessary but plan to keep a close eye on things myself. Would love some help getting started here in the design phase.
Another complicating factor: walls in Colorado basements must be floating, meaning the wall cannot connect the concrete slab to the structure above, due to expansive soil below which can shift the slab up or down with the seasons (this is a code requirement, not an acoustic design choice). So the standard way of building basement walls means they are hung from the joists with a 2-3" gap between the studs and the bottom plate. I am still wrapping my head around the implications of this in the world of audio
questions I have:
If I build drywall around the perimeter, with the colorado floating framing and an air gap/insulation between the concrete. Is it necessary for me to decouple the drywall too with resilient channel clips? Sound transfer through the concrete perimeter doesn't seem to be my biggest problem, not compared to the sound transfer through the ceiling and vents.
And regarding the ceiling, is there a world I can leave the ceiling exposed and still improve isolation from above? and to what degree? I know this is against conventional practice, but I am considering leaving the ceiling exposed and painting it all a dark color, including all the cabling and pipes/vents running through it. partially because I like this industrial look, and I love the extra ceiling height. and flexibility for future cabling.
I believe in Rod Gervais's book, for ceilings, he suggested adding mass to the subfloor between the joists, then insulation, then hanging a decoupled layer or two of drywall. Or building a room within a room. But my concerns with these methods is the amount of ceiling height I would lose, as well as time/effort/cost. And also I'd lose access to everything in the ceiling, so I'd want to get everything right before I cover it all up.
Instead, could I just do the first part, and add mass to the subfloor (adding drywall between the joists). and skip the drywall below joists? will this make any meaningful, practical difference to sound isolation for me given my constraints?
I will add pictures or a sketch of the dimensions in a later post. but for now I wanted to get this thread started and get all my initial thoughts out.
Thank you for reading. Would love to hear what you think!