Preparing a sound-resistant basement office

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Q How can I make a finished basement office space that I’m planning as soundproof as possible? I need a quiet place to work when the kids are home and I know soundproofing details have to be part of the original build. 

A You’re wise to ask because soundproofing makes any house feel larger in practice. When you can’t hear everything going on around you, it’s quite an advantage. That said, soundproofing is hardly ever considered when finishing rooms in the basement. I don’t know why because four simple details in walls, ceiling and the door can make a huge difference without adding a lot of cost. 

My preferred approach for sound-resistant walls is to use 2×6 top and bottom plates for wooden partition wall frames, but with staggered 2×4 studs spaced every 16 inches on each face of the wall. So that’s a 2×4 stud every 8 inches, alternating back and forth on each side. This breaks the continuous wood that transmits sound from one face of the wall to the other. Also, acoustic caulking where drywall meets the ceiling makes a worthwhile difference. This stuff comes in regular caulking tubes, but never hardens so it prevent sound from travelling through small cracks. Two layers of 5/8” drywall make a huge difference, too.  

Ceilings should have two layers of 5/8”-thick drywall like the walls, but with the drywall screws to strips of sheet metal hardware called resilient channel, not screwed directly to the joists above. Consider using an insulated and weatherstripped exterior door to further seal out noise.  

Both walls and ceiling should have acoustic batt insulation installed wherever possible. 

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Leaky cold room 

Q How serious is water on the floor of the cold room in the basement of the house we just bought? Could this be caused by condensation or is  water coming in from outside? Have we made a mistake? 

A If this is the only thing wrong with your house, you certainly haven’t made a mistake. The water is most certainly from outside the house leaking in, and not condensation. The condensation problem only happens when it’s very cold outside, so the fact that we haven’t had winter for a while rules that out. So the question becomes “how much of a problem is this?” 

Begin by looking for any pooled water immediately outside the walls around the cold room at soil level after a heavy rain. If standing water is there, then there’s a good chance that’s the source of what you see. This kind of standing water happens when soil isn’t sufficiently high outside the walls. Also, if downspouts are not directing water well away from the house rainwater can be concentrated in the cold room area.  

From your photos I see that the amount of water is small, and if the rainfall was particularly heavy the problem may not come again for a while, if ever. So from what I’ve seen the problem doesn’t look too bad. That said, depending on how the walls were insulated, the amount of water you see may not be all there is. It’s possible that water has soaked the insulation behind the tiles, which would trigger mold growth.  

I’d start by observing the situation when you get heavy rains in the future. If water reappears inside the cold room, and there’s no problem with the soil being insufficiently high, and there’s no problem with downspouts, then you should get a basement specialist to take a look or cut into the walls yourself. A waterproof paint called Watertite works amazingly well in my experience. Leave the walls open and see what happens when the weather gets rainy. Applying a dimpled drainage membrane on the outside walls of the cold room (after digging the soil away) is a more troublesome fix, but it works quite well.  

Steve Maxwell often spends time dealing with moisture issues in his building and renovation work. Visit him at BaileyLineRoad.com and join thousands who get his weekly email home improvement newsletter each Saturday.