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Quick context from a small clinic build-out: we’ve got a consult room right off the waiting area, and you can catch snippets of conversations when the hallway is quiet. The door is a basic hollow-core with a generous undercut; walls are standard drywall. We’d love true confidentiality, but budget and downtime are tight. Would you jump straight to a sound-rated door, or start with perimeter seals + an automatic drop seal and maybe a closer so it actually stays shut? Curious what moved the needle fastest for you
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We went through this exact decision last month. Starting with seals gave us the first big win: perimeter gasketing, a drop seal under the leaf, and a closer so the latch compressed the seals every time. That alone took speech from “clearly intelligible” to more of a murmur. A few weeks later we swapped in a solid-core door in a decent frame and it tightened the low/mids further. Also worth checking flanking: if the ceiling is open plenum, consider sealing the lid line or extending the partition. I got a simple checklist from newyorksoundproofing.com and used it to convince the practice manager to phase the work after hours. If you can only do one step now, do seals/closer first, then upgrade the slab.