I have a very comfortable and small <300 sq ft live in basement that we have finally decided must be sound proofed from the main house above. On two adjoining sides the walls are drywall over brick foundation (underground) and on the other two sides, the walls are simply 1/2" drywall separating the room from a laundry/utility room. I will address these walls after the ceiling. The prime culprit is the ceiling between the basement suite and the house above. You can hear conversations between the two rooms and footfall traffic sounds like exactly that from the basement suite. The suite ceiling is 3/8" drywall installed on 2X2's strung across the joists. There is no insulation between the ceiling and flooring above and the drywall is interrupted with about 6 recessed can lights. Yes, I now realize that the previous owner created this suite 'on the cheap'. Moving on. The single largest noise issue is foot falls followed by conversational noise passing from the house above to the suite below. My plan is to entirely remove the current suite ceiling and 2X2 frame, insulate the gap with R-13 or R19 cheap pink stuff. Re-hang a decoupled ceiling using WAVE hangers [url=http://kineticsnoise.com/arch/wave.html]WAVE Hanger | Noise Control Ceiling Hanger for Wood-Framed Construction[/url] The ceiling will consist of 2 layers of 5/8" drywall offset. If I can talk my wife into it, I will eliminate the recessed lighting in favor of leaving the drywall as one smooth decoupled surface. My question is this. While I have the ceiling torn down, am I overlooking something that I can address while I have access. For example. Should I cut 16" wide strips of 5/8" drywall and apply them to the underside of the subfloor, perhaps with Green Glue? Should I apply Green Glue between the two layers of drywall I will be using in the decoupled ceiling? I am aware that my largest percentage of noise reduction will occur through decoupling, is it worthwhile to introduce the dampening properties of the GG between the ceiling layers? Am I missing an opportunity here? As the house is older (100) I have read that I may be able to eliminate certain types of creaking by also stiffening the joist structure while it is exposed with 2X4 running across them in a lattice? Part two of the project will be applying another layer of 5/8" drywall to the two wall separating the suite from the laundry room. Any advice will be much appreciated. TIA. Paul

My bedroom stinks because of "old house smell" wafting in from the gaps in my tongue and groove ceiling. We bought this house about 8 months ago and plan on doing a lot of work on it, part of which is replacing the ceiling in the bedroom. However, we have to wait until later this year for financial reasons. When we bought the house it was cold out and never had an odor issue. However, the smell has gotten worse as the weather's gotten warmer (it hit 101 here yesterday). I hate to think what else might be up above the ceiling. Unfortunately it's a flat roof so I can't get up there. So, my problem then is how to deal with the gaps in the ceiling (and thus odor) until we do it right? I've considered caulk, expanding foam, strips of wood and shims, sealing off the whole ceiling with plastic, and half a dozen even whackier ideas. Thoughts? Opinions? Solution?