Sound-Resistant Basement Ceiling

Q: How can I soundproof a ceiling? I recently purchased a home with a basement apartment and I’d like to reduce the amount of noise that rises into the rest of the house.

A: A: Ordinary fiberglass insulation placed between the joists will muffle sound to an extent, but the best approach is to couple this with drywall fastened to the bottom edges of the ceiling joists using something called resilient channel. These are sheet metal strips that allow the drywall to be anchored without it touching the underlying wooden ceiling framework. It’s also very important the tape all drywall joints carefully, since the tiniest cracks let a lot of sound through.