LESLIE: Karen in North Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
KAREN: Hi. We have a house with a daylight basement that has an apartment in it. And we were wondering if you could give any tips on soundproofing, short of taking the ceiling down and – I don’t know. What do you suggest?
TOM: Well, you could add a second layer of drywall and you could use a soundproofing glue in between, which is called Green Glue. And if you put a second layer of drywall in there, isolated by the Green Glue, that does a pretty good job of quieting down that space.
KAREN: OK. So, you don’t think any acoustic tiles like they use in theater rooms or anything?
TOM: I mean you could.
LESLIE: Yeah but those are all going to be suspended ceilings, right, Tom?
TOM: Right, exactly.
LESLIE: So you’re going to lose quite a bit of space in the basement.
KAREN: Yeah.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: It could be as little as 6 inches but it could be more.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: With the additional layer of drywall and the Green Glue, you’re really only dealing with ¾ of an inch additional space there. Yes, you have to deal with moving some lighting fixtures and electrical components just down but it really does a great job.
KAREN: OK. How much would it help if we took down the existing ceiling and put up insulation?
TOM: It will a little bit but I think that’s so much work that I would much rather see you simply add a second layer of drywall rather than take everything down there.
KAREN: Alright. Thanks so much for your help.
TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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