Sound deadening between floors

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Master Brian

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I am basically finishing a basement in a 1915 Bungalow. The area I'm working on is directly below two bedrooms and will be used primarily for our TV/Media/Game room. I have 2x8 floor joists and I am having to fur the ceiling height down by 1-1/2" to get around electrical/plumbing/etc, so I don't want to add an extra layer of anything to the ceiling. The ceiling is already getting low enough....

I have tried batt insulation in the joist bay and that does help, and without having it added to every bay and along with the fact the drywall isn't up on the ceiling yet, I am actally pretty pleased with the deadening I have received.

With that said and the fact I can use the batting I've been "testing" in the joist bay, in other areas. Would I be better served with 1-1/2" rigid foam installed to the underside of the joists, but between the furring strips, or is ~6" of batting up there about the same end result? Cost is about the same. I have also seen that sound board stuff, don't recall the cost, but what about that installed to the underside of the joists, between the furring strips instead of any of the other items? I believe it is 1/2" material, so there would be about 1" of gap, between it and my drywall.

I realize there are better ways to get better results, but I'm not looking to spend tons of extra cash on this and figure I can do the rigid foam or batting for around $100 and so far the batting has proven acceptable results.

Curious what tips anyone might have.... The main goal is just not to have the pitter patter of little feet or toys like woodedn blocks crashing down on hardwood floors be so disrupt to someone watching a movie or vise versa. I still want to be able to tell if something happens upstairs or down, but would like it muffled.
 

Master Brian

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For the furring stips I've been using 2x4's run perpendicular to the joists, but I'm curious what if I pulled those down and used 1-1/2" rigid foam panles instead and screwed/glued that to the bottom of the joists, then screw/glue 1/4"-1/2" drywall to that? My thinking is the foam might abosrb the sound from the joist(s) and keep it from passing through the drywall.
 

Spaceman Spiff

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The batting will help but you need to decouple the drywall from the floor joists. The best way to do that is to use resilient channel at 24" OC perpindicular to the joists. The resilient channel can be found at drywall suppliers and is really cheap, and adds only 1/2" of thickness. I would fur down the 1-1/2" with 2x2's perpindicular to the joists then use resilient channel perpindicular to the furring.
 
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