Basement Shop Questions

[chrisNC]

Hey guys,

I'm still fairly new to all of this, but I picked up a 3100 a few months ago and I've been pretty pleased. We're moving onto some acreage and plopping down a house. The cheapest way to add shop space is evidently in the basement, and it will have more space than I could ever use for a shop, so we may also finish part of it for more living space.

My first concern is noise. If I have a DC and planer or something running, will it make the space above unusable from the amount of noise? The space will need to go under the living area or bedroom area and I don't want to bother the wife or toddler in either space. I saw a post about Homasote, but will it be enough to keep it to a white noise level? Is there a better choice to use?

Thanks in advance for responding. I'm sure I'll have other questions, but I'll research this one to death first. Maybe my first question should be: What questions should I be asking when building a basement shop from scratch?

[cgallery]

Hey guys,

I'm still fairly new to all of this, but I picked up a 3100 a few months ago and I've been pretty pleased. We're moving onto some acreage and plopping down a house. The cheapest way to add shop space is evidently in the basement, and it will have more space than I could ever use for a shop, so we may also finish part of it for more living space.

My first concern is noise. If I have a DC and planer or something running, will it make the space above unusable from the amount of noise? The space will need to go under the living area or bedroom area and I don't want to bother the wife or toddler in either space. I saw a post about Homasote, but will it be enough to keep it to a white noise level? Is there a better choice to use?

Thanks in advance for responding. I'm sure I'll have other questions, but I'll research this one to death first. Maybe my first question should be: What questions should I be asking when building a basement shop from scratch?

I think the largest noise contributors in my shop are the router (esp. when routing hard stock and the end-grain I think is esp. noisy) and the BT3K (when cutting). Insultation will cut down on noise, and I certainly encourage using it. However, I think when you are cutting the noise will permiate that insulation and walls.

You might want to research home theatre noise control. Noise isolation is a popular topic for home theatre guys.

[Peter59T]

Power, dust, noise (in that order)

I would worry first about how the basement is wired and lit, then I would think about how I will save my lungs from dust. At some distant time after I took care of those two I would think about the noise. (Speaking as someone who is confined to the garage).

I am not familiar with using white noise to overpower a planer or a table saw for that matter, but I have a hard time believing that it can be very efficient. It would have to be pretty blinding white noise :-)

When will you be working, when the rest of them are sleeping or watching TV?

[LinuxRandal]

Hey guys,

it will have more space than I could ever use for a shop,

Famous last words

I am single, so I can't tell you about use verse noise. But, I tend to use the planer outside (help keep as much dust out of the furnace), and would recommend showing the wife how to turn the tools on, so the two of you could go upstairs (one at a time please, never leave them on unattended) and listen for yourself.

[BobSch]

If the house isn't built yet you may want to see if they can dig the hole a little deeper and add an extra course of block to give you more headroom - one of the biggest complaints of a basement shop.

[Tom Miller]

If the house isn't built yet you may want to see if they can dig the hole a little deeper and add an extra course of block to give you more headroom - one of the biggest complaints of a basement shop.

...especially since sound-proofing may entail a dropped ceiling, etc.

Regards,
Tom

[chrisNC]

I would worry first about how the basement is wired and lit, then I would think about how I will save my lungs from dust. At some distant time after I took care of those two I would think about the noise. (Speaking as someone who is confined to the garage).

I am not familiar with using white noise to overpower a planer or a table saw for that matter, but I have a hard time believing that it can be very efficient. It would have to be pretty blinding white noise :-)

When will you be working, when the rest of them are sleeping or watching TV?

I mean dulling the level of noise down to something akin to background noise, as opposed to drowning out the noise of the tools.



I'll be using the shop in the evenings and on the weekend. So I think it will be a problem for upstairs unless I can reduce the noise level to a decent level.

"Famous last words"

I figured someone would say that

The basement will be just under 1900 sq ft, so unless I try to make a living from it, I expect it will be a little more than I need.


I'll take a look at the theater sound proofing, that's a good idea. I am already looking at lighting and I know I need to ask some questions about the wiring. For instance, do you just have 220 outlets here and there and 110 everywhere else?

[softop41]

Basement Shop

I am just finishing a basement shop after moving from a house with a detached garage where I couild make all the noise I wanted. The idea of theater sound control is good but I found it to be very pricy; it would have cost me about $1000 just for the hardware to hang the drywall for the ceiling!
So I did this. 5/8" drywall on all shop walls and ceiling with walls to ajoining space drywalled on both sides. Outside walls were left about 2-3" from the concrete so noise didn't transfer to the foundation walls and into the wood above and insulated with 3 1/2" fiberglass insulation. I used an steel exterior door for the shop because they have insulation and good weatherstripping. For walls that seperate the shop from the rest of the basement I used staggered stud framing - use 2x6 top and bottom plates and set a row of studs on each edge with the 16" OC spacing staggered. Google 'staggered stud framing'; it becomes clear in a heartbeat that way. That gives you two drywall surfaces that are mounted on different sets of studs so that noise that goes through the inside drywall can't transfer to the outside drywall thru studs and on into the space around the shop. Then I insulated each side with 3 1/2" fiberglass insulation, effectively giving me nearly 7" of insulation. The door to the shop is an exterior door for both the insulation within the door for sound muffling and the weatherstrip around it to help contain dust. For the ceiling, I used R-30 insulation throughout and in runs where a heat/air duct ran we packed the R30 around and over the duct and put 3 1/2" on the joists below the ducts. If needed, I can put an acoustical tile ceiling in below the drywall ceiling but I don't think I will have to do that.
Now for the verdict!!!!! She says noise is still there but is hardly noticeable compared to when I was working in the raw basement before the construction. I am just finishing the door trim, etc., now so I haven't done much work in it yet but she WMBO is happy and nothing else matters. I know that I have been on the first floor with the BT and my dust collector running and it is hardly audible; but when I am cutting it will be a bit louder. In short, the sound didn't go away but it is very much muffled.

[Thalermade]

softop41 pretty much says it all. The noisiest experience I have had is using a ROS on my workbench that is attached to a stud wall that is attached to the ceiling. the kids playing games in the adjoining room asked me to take a break. Vibration city. My shop is located underneath the kitchen and I do not have any type of ceiling in the shop.
I have never driven my wife out of the kitchen from my noise, but her walking on the kitchen hardwood floor with shoes with any kind of hard heel on them is very loud down in the shop.

[sbs]

My shop is in the basement. No insulation or anything between it and the subfloor. The BRs are on the 2nd floor, and I can work in the shop when she's asleep and she never notices.

My shop is in a separate area of the basement which has four cinder block walls, with about a 5' doorway in one of them.

The loudest noises upstairs aren't going through the floor but rather through the air - it's louder outside the door to the basement stairs than it is in the room right above the shop.

I think having a door on the shop itself and a well-sealed basement door would do more than soundproofing the shop ceiling.

[JimD]

My shop is directly below our family room. It has insulation the builder put in, I think it is R-19. Nothing else special. I have not heard it because nobody else uses my shop but the family doesn't complain. They say they turn the TV up a little but can still easily talk etc.. A BR might be different but I think under living space you shouldn't have any big problem. My shop is a room with a door (outside type). The walls that go to living space have 5/8 drywall on them (required by code). The other walls are covered by 7/16 waferboard skim coated with drywall compound and painted white. The ceiling is 1/4 waferboard also skim coated and painted with battens over the joints. The waferboard was cheap when I got it 6 years ago and I wanted to be able to take the ceiling down and put it back up (it is up with screws). Walls can take a nail or screw anywhere. In addition to the BT I use routers, sanders, CMS, radial arm saw, etc..

Jim

[Rob R]

i've got a basement shop. there are a host of ideas to soundproof. in the end, i've done nothing. my shop is right under the kitchen. the bedrooms are upstairs(second floor). i've found that the reality is i'm not down there that much, and when i am, wife is watching the kiddies or grandma/grandpa are over watching the kiddies, so a little noise is expected. more often, though i'm home alone when working down there. wife takes kids to park, i run downstairs for an hour or so!

upstairs it's not bad, the kids can fall asleep/sleep to it. the biggest problem i have is the HVAC system acts like one of the those old school walkie-talkies with the tin cans and string. you can hear fairly well out of those, but it is muffled.

i probably could spend a grand on insulation and the like, but i already spent about 500 on studs, dywall, door, switches, boxes, outlets, lights, bulbs, wire, paint, mud, epoxy floor coating(a must)

so unless the family really starts complaining, i'm done with it. this dutchman has a hard time blowing another $500 to keep my $300 table saw's noise contained.

good luck with it all.

[Peter59T]

I'm with you, Rob!

Rob makes an excellent point.

I for one spend a lot more time thinking about the great things I will make with our machines than actually using them. Concerns about noise has never been the show stopper. More often it is work, soccer practice, swim practice, riding lessons, karate practice etc. that is keeping me from ever doing anything impressive. Even when the kids are home, they are louder than I am most of the time. I suppose if I ever buy that big planer that could change.

Why spend the money sound-proofing a room that is quiet most days anyway, when you can buy another tool for the money?! Assuming there is any money left after paying for karate, soccer, riding, etc. etc. and utility bills.