Best way to put up a solid, but removable, partition wall in a room

Factual Questions
1

So I have this room in my basement. Recently I’ve got a drum kit and some amps and stereo gear set up in the part of the room which is the foreground of that picture. What I want to do, is partition off the room with a wall extending from that steel beam to the wall on the left side. One, for putting acoustic foam tiles on and closing off the acoustics of the music area, and two, to compartmentalize the other side of the room as a spare bedroom/hangout room. But, I don’t want to commit to putting up framing and drywall or other permanent materials, I would like for the wall to be removable so that if I have a party or something else requiring the space of the entire room, I can do so.

There are probably a lot of different ways I could do this. I’ve looked into portable cubicle-type walls that are on weighted stands, but I don’t see how I could get one that would be the precise size that it would actually close off the room from floor to ceiling (which is what I want - I don’t want there to be gaps.) Same goes for folding Japanese-type screens. I don’t want a curtain because it’s not solid - I want to be able to mount acoustic tiles on the wall.

Something I’m envisioning, is having 3 or 4 wooden panels cut to size, that could be bolted together with metal braces to form the wall, and then easily disassembled if needed. But what would be the best way to affix them to the floor and ceiling? The “ceiling” above where the wall would go, is actually a steel beam (with wood trim on the sides of it) - how best to mount hardware that these panels could fit inside? I’m envisioning some kind of adjustable metal clamp, that would sandwich the edge of the panel and could be tightened down so that it was secure. Hell if I know what the technical name for this kind of thing is, but I’m sure something like it exists. What about the floor? It’s currently carpeted, as you can see - what could I use to brace the bottom of the panels to hold them straight?

Am I totally overthinking this and there’s some other much easier solution right under my nose?

2

Build a solid wood frame wall, finished with drywall or paneling. But have it hinged at one end, so the whole wall will swing back flat against the room wall when you want the room opened up.

I have such a wall in my basement, but it’s only about 5 feet wide. It closes off a furnace/water heater area, but is movable if a serviceperson ever needs to work on those utilities. The bottom 2x4 basically rests on the floor; you lift it slightly to swing it open. The swinging end has a large bolt that goes through the bottom 2x4 and bolts into the concrete floor to hold it steady. (I was going to do the same on the top, but didn’t need it.)

Your room looks like a much wider space. You might need a metal frame for this distance, or have it split, with 2 swinging walls that meet in the middle, or a split wall that folds half back on itself and then swings against the wall. But a solid wall like this can be built of any materials, with any finishing. And can include sound insulation inside it, and even have wiring installed in it.

3

Can you say what you mean by “closing off the acoustics of the music area”?

If you want to “soundproof” the music area, or even substantially reduce the amount of sound from the drums or stereo that passes into the other side of the room, no temporary structure, or even a permanent one, will do very much in that regard. Anywhere that air can pass through, like that drop ceiling, or even small gaps between temporary panels, will let the vast majority of sound pass as well. The only way to truly “soundproof” a room is to make it airtight and isolate it from structural vibrations as well.

If your goal in putting up acoustic tiles is to simply reduce reverberations and deaden the room, that’s certainly feasible with a temporary partition. Perhaps build 4x8-foot frames, 6 to 12 inches thick, filled with fiberglass batting and covered with fabric of some kind. You’ll need to come up with some sort of framework, perhaps with wheels, to make them freestanding and easily moved.

4

I know that it can’t be soundproofed this way. It doesn’t need to be. Just dampening the reverb is enough.

5

You might consider bifold doors:

6

Something like this. Though maybe just 2" of Styrofoam sandwiched between pieces of sheathing or paneling of some sort. Glue the heck out of it. Should be plenty ridged, and lighter than a framed wall. Hinge one side, and stick some wheels under it.

7

About hinging it to one side: that wall is concrete block. I’m not sure I want to drill into it. It’s the foundation of the house.

8

Drilling a few holes won’t compromise its strength. I have some lumber shelves mounted on the concrete block foundation of my garage (which is under the house so the wall is part of the house foundation). They have been holding hundreds of pounds of lumber for over 20 years. However, I screwed 4x4 posts to the block with the posts sitting on the garage floor, and the shelves are attached to the 4x4s. So a lot of weight is carried by the floor rather than the wall. You could do something similar if you’re really worried about it. Adding wheels as suggested above will also reduce the load, but that could get tricky if the floor isn’t perfectly flat and level or the wall isn’t perfectly plumb.

9

Sliding barn doors could work to allow you to cover the space top to bottom without drilling into the concrete blocks. You’d have to be willing to give up some space to the full “open” doors (although you might be able to easily lift them off the tracks and move them elsewhere if you needed full access.)

Apparently, barn doors are notoriously non-soundproof whatsoever, so if you google “soundproof sliding barn doors” there are a lot of articles/blog posts on the topic.

10

Theater stagecraft builds moveable set walls. They’re often called flats.

Search YouTube for Set walls. There’s several tutorials that are quite good.

Construction Photos

Certainly brings back many memories from my school days. I always enjoyed working in a stage crew.

11

Most houses aren’t built with good sound insulation between ‘the music room’ and ‘the bedroom’. That’s why people complain about the noise their kids make.

Noise insulation tiles aren’t noise insulation: they are used to control reverb.

Do you actually need sound insulation? Because I don’t think that comes cheap.

In the 1970’s, every school or church had a large shared space built with accordion doors or quad/quint/hex fold doors or heavy curtains. The whole point of these dividers was provide sound insulation, so that the spaces could be used independently.

They make cheaper ones now, that don’t provide the sound insulation, but the sound insulating versions are still available:

12

If I was in this situation I would go with a sound absorbing curtain. They are not expensive and dampen sound, both thru and reflecting off the curtain. So less need for the acoustic tiles.

In your case, you would need a top valence of the same material to shield the gap between the top of the curtain and the ceiling.

It may not be perfect but the cost, installation ease, and convenience would be excellent.

13

You could build a frame/grid out of 1" PVC tubing and attach acoustic tiles to it. I don’t know if it’d be soundproof, but it’d at least be relatively light.

14

I agree with this. If the idea is simply to reduce reverb in the room, heavy floor-to-ceiling curtains would probably be the easiest, cheapest, and most convenient solution.

15

Concur.

16

One good component to consider would be telescoping or threaded poles that squeeze outward between floor and ceiling, so they hold themselves in place by compression. IKEA sold (now discontinued) closet systems under the Stolmen name. (Compression curtain rods are probably too lightweight for this purpose.) More serious (but ugly) screw-to-extend supports are sold by home improvement warehouses to support sagging floor joists. In either case, you’d put two of those in place, and then attach your sound-deadening panels to them.

17

How easily does the construction have to be moved? Like, daily, weekly, every few months, or only when you move out or in a few years when you have too many kids who want a bigger playroom?

I would build a set of frames that can be bolted together to form a solid wall. For the base, carpet on carpet is pretty much guaranteed not to slide - attach carpet to the base of these frames. I saw a motel being built once, and the soundproofing between rooms was pretty simple - the top and bottom plates were 2x6, and the 2x4 studs were staggered - half to the one side, half to the other. Bats of fiberglass insulation were woven between them. As a result, a stud did not attach to drywall on both sides, just one. Reverberating drywall or sheathing is what passes sound. Depending how heavy/movable you want this wall, in one episode of Holmes on Homes, he fixes a noise problem between two sides of a duplex with special sound-deadening drywall.

So whatever construction technique, build panels about 4 feet wide that just fit under the beam. I would carpet them top and bottom for a press fit, and then carpet the panel uprights so when you press them hard against each other, the gap is sealed. An alternative would be foam rubber, but that is less durable than carpet glued on. My personal inclination would be thinnest possible plywood to minimize weight, with Styrofoam insulation glued (glued the entire surface, not just beads) inside to stop reverb - or if you are rich or adventurous, use spray-on insulation foam to fill the panels. (I see a lot of new homes use this insulation technique - completely fills, no air gaps, completely bonds to the plywood to stop reverb.) Cover one side of panels with acoustic tile.

To clamp to the beam - build a cover for each side of the beam, so something say, 8 feet long by 1 foot high to overlap the vertical panels, and suitably insulated/muffled, or multiple sections. You may need to make these beam-covers L-shaped if the wall panels are not as wide as the beam. Long bolts go through the this beam cover, through solid (wood) anchors in the temporary wall panels, and into the matching beam cover panel on the other side. This has the effect of clamping the panel tops to the beam. No holes drilled in the permanent wall, removable by undoing the bolts through the beam-covers and wall, stack flat or against a wall when not in use. To install, press fit each panel under the beam. If the edges are carpeted or foam rubber, you can press each panel firmly into place. For added stability, you may add pegs/holes on the vertical edges of the panels to hold them in place against each other.

Even simpler, build the panels to fit floor to ceiling on one side of the beam, and make the L-shaped clamp piece against the beam for only one side.

18

Then some heavy curtains will tick most boxes.

19

Just an update. After a lot of research on many different solutioins for this project, including the helpful posts right here, I decided to just build acoustic partitions myself. Three of them,to be exact - though I’ve only made the first one so far. Measured and cut 1x4s (cheap pine) to fit the gap of exactly 6’ from floor to ceiling beam, and 32.5" wide for the top and bottom of each of the 3 panels the panels (factoring in the additional inches added by the 6’ vertical side pieces, so that the 3 partitions would fit together to form a wall with the tightest tolerance possible.) Frames back braced with 1x6s and all 4 corners braced with more 1x4s cut to about 1.5" long and cut 45 degrees at either end. All joined with both Titebond and 1+5/8th #6 wood screws (piolt drilled and countersunk.) Weedguard garden cloth (tough, breathable, and CHEAP) stretched tight over bottom end of the finished frame and staple-guned to a tight, flush fit. Pink insulation batting (faced) cut to strips and laid inside frame to fill evenly. Then another weedguard backing over the other side. That’s all been done. Only step left is to cover the whole thing in felt, and add “feet” to keep it firm and level on the ground. (Actually just cheap shelving brackets, but they’re sturdy enough to get the job done.)

If I can make the next two with the same degree of quality, and they manage to do a good job of insulating the sound, I’m seriously considering making a side business out of this. The raw materials are DIRT CHEAP at Lowe’s. The commercially manufactured options are OVERPRICED. There’s potentially a market to be filled here - fellow musicians and home-studio guys who need effective sound dampening panels at an afordable price.

20

That’s awesome! Do let us know how well they work with blocking real-life sound waves.

Can you ship the finished product as a flat package? Local market will be pretty finite, I’d guess, but if customers can send you measurements and receive the completed panels shipped back to them, that would expand your market considerably.

Then we can all have fun together suggesting names for your new business. I like “Shush Panels” myself.