Finally got a door put into our open hallway — here is what it actually cost

You got a relly solid deal at $450. I did almost the exact same thing last spring between our kitchen and the basement stairwell to keep drafts and washer noise down. The lowest quote I coud find around here was $650, and that didn't even include hauling off the scrap drywall or patching. The baseboard tie-in was definatly the biggest headache for us too. Instead of trying to cope our existing 5-inch colonial trim into the new door casing, our carpenter suggested putting plinth blocks at the base of the jambs. That saved hours of fussing with awkward angles and made the whole transition look intentional, like it was original to our 1998 build.

If anyone else is doing this specifically for noise control, spend the extra $70 on a solid core unit instead of a standard hollow slab. We picked up a solid Masonite two-panel from Home Depot and put a rubber sweep on the bottom. It stopped almost all the living room echo instantly.

Honestly, that labor price sounds about right for framing out an existing opening, but my biggest headache on a similar job was the door slab itself. I initially bought a cheap Jeld-Wen hollow core pre-hung unit off the shelf to block TV noise between our den and the nursery, and it barely muffled a whisper. I ended up eating the cost, pulling it out, and swapping in a solid core Masonite door that weighed nearly 75 pounds. That extra weight completly changed the install requirements. My carpenter charged $550 beacuse he insisted on backing the hinges with solid blocking and driving 3-inch screws straight into the rough framing so the jamb wouldn't sag after six months. He also scribed the bottom tight to our uneven hardwood and added an automatic door bottom seal instead of leaving a standard half-inch air gap. If blocking sound is the main goal, the labor to hang a heavy, properly sealed slab is where the real value is, even if the framing quotes give you a little sticker shock up front.

Make sure the carpenter actually packed the perimeter void between the jamb and the new jack studs before slapping that casing on, because leaving that shim cavity hollow completely compromises whatever Sound Transmission Class rating you were aiming for.

I always insist on dense rockwool or an acoustic-rated low-expansion foam—standard canned polyurethane can exert enough lateral pressure to bow the side jamb out of parallel with your door reveal—because otherwise airborne flanking sound simply bypasses the slab entirely thru the gap behind the trim.

Have you ruled out your HVAC ducting as a sound flank? alot of upstairs hallways share an open return or unlined trunk with the floor below. You can drop in a solid door and seal the frame, but sound will happily take the path of least resistance right through the vents.

Also curious if you checked the airflow balance up there now that it's closed off. If there's no dedicated return behind that new door, you might end up with pressurized rooms or uneven temps whenever it's shut.

Quick update — good call on the hollow shim space. I pulled off a piece of casing and packed some rockwool in there, wich definitly cut down on the voices downstairs. But whoever mentioned the HVAC duct was spot on; sound is clearly flanking right trough the floor return. Has anyone had luck with duct baffles or liners to quiet that down without choking airflow?