drywall on ceiling

[teabird]

Hello,

I'm renovating the finished basement in my house and when I remove the drywall on the ceiling, I find it is attached to strips of aluminum rather than to the joists directly. The AL strips are nailed directly to the joists but are shaped to provide about 1/2 inch gap between the joists and the drywall. Is this used to allow ventilation between the joist bays? I can't imagine another reason. One other thing, as I recall, all the AL strips run perpendicular to the joists, and are also on some walls, horizontally.

Thanks,

Teabird

[Bob(but not THAT Bob)]

Resilient channel for sound deadening.

More info here than you'll ever need:

If this is what you have, you'll need to replace them (assuming you've ripped the drywall off) or expect a significant noise transmission increase.

[Mikepier]

Ditto. Sound deadening. When I did my basement , I prefered to go right to the ceiling joists with the sheetrock to gain as much headroom as possible. Sound deadening was not really an issue for me since the basement is used primarily as a rec area for the kids now. But they do make sound deadening sheetrock now, so you might want to look into that if you want.

[bob haller]

yep sound deadening, can be used in combination with sound deadening drywall and sound deadening insulation....

[teabird]

Thanks to everyone. It makes sense, this used to be a fraternity house!

T