9 Ways To Make Your Home Quieter With Soundproofing Materials
Are you having issues too much sound entering or echoing in your room while you're trying to record, read, or just relax and meditate? Well we'd love to help you find your peace!
First off, sound in any room entering or sound within the room can be diffused in many different ways. As long as objects that are not solid and reflective are placed in a room (padded objects work best) and add dimension to it, the less sound will echo. If a room is perfectly square sound will echo more, but with even one item in the room, the sound will echo less.
Below are a 9 ways to make your home quieter with soundproofing materials.
Solid Door
Door Frame Seal
Soundproofing the Inside of Walls
Building a Room within a Room (Studios)
Soundproof Foam
Soundproof Blankets & Curtains
Soundproof Panels
Soundproof Islands
Alternate Sound Diffuser Options with every day items
1) SOLID DOOR
Using a solid door instead of a hollow door will absolutely stop outside sounds from entering your room. The weight and heaviness of the door itself does the work of what several thinner doors could do when being a shield for outside sounds coming and going as they please.
Sure they are a little bit more of an investment but because they are so sturdy, they are worth the investment in reaching the "quietest room possible".
2) DOOR FRAME SEAL
Sealer on door frame can be found at nearly any home improvement hardware store. By placing rubber or foam strip around the door (and windows) any sound that is "floating through" the air space will be diminished.
It's really not that expensive and is a great solution to solve a lot of external sound issues. We might offer it in our store in the future with enough requests so please let us know if this is something you're interested in!
3) SOUNDPROOFING THE INSIDE OF WALLS
This will literally help a lot of noise reduction from entering the areas outside your room and is the most imperative part to having a quiet room.
In most homes and rooms, the walls are built with sheetrock which has regular size and extra dense (we suggest the latter). In between walls is usually regular insulation. We suggest either replacing this or when you build, then install with Roxul soundproof absorber insulation and place your (preferably thick) sheetrock over it.
If the walls are brick, they are still super solid but will need help with reducing echo in the room, which we'll talk about below.
4) BUILDING A ROOM WITHIN A ROOM
This method is mainly used for recording studios because it can be very costly. However, when it's imperative to get the cleanest sound possible, this is what must be done.
Let's say there is one room already and you want extra quiet sound, then you would build a room with at least a half foot of air space before the outer shell of the internal room is placed. Then (repeat steps above) for best results.
This room should also be built on an elevate or raised platform (at least 3") off the ground to help remove any noise made from the feet moving around.
There are other methods as well, such as building a double paned window in your recording room with extra thick glass, thicker the better. 1/4" to 3/4" is great as well. Place those in the window frame but leave a few inches (at least 2") of space between the two to let the sound settle and reduce sounds from the recording room to the engineer (main) room.
5) SOUNDPROOF FOAM
Our favorite part! This is currently what we sell in our store.
Acoustic soundproofing foam will help you eliminate echoes and diminish sound frequencies that are vibrating in your room. Sounds vibrate most off flat walls with no texture and off solid floors and ceilings. If a floor or room has ceramic, it will echo louder and the sound will carry heavier and further.
Sound frequencies are of high and low nature. Low frequencies are most deadly in squared corners so corner solutions aka bass traps are what you'll need to stop those low frequencies from vibrating all over the place.
They often times come in various sizes of thickness and length. The thicker and longer they are, the higher sound absorption they will have.
(See Alternate Diffuser Options #9 for more suggestions to eliminate sounds in the room on a creative and/or cheaper way using every day items).
Here are a list of all the various types of acoustic foam treatments that will help stop the sound frequencies from vibrating throughout the room. If you'd like to see images and be able to purchase them, feel free to click words which are hyperlinked to the merchandise display with images and description with various sizes.
A) Corner Solutions are used to absorb deep & low frequency waves and bass vibrations that echo most in corners of the room. These bass traps are great for any room size and are mounted at 90 degree angles.
Any rooms that have multiple walls and extreme bass issues, we suggest bass traps in ever corner.
Acoustic Bass Traps are rigid corner solutions that will split up the bass frequencies as they enter the corners of the room and are the most common used in rooms, especially recording studios. Mounts at a 90 degree angle.
They also pair quite nicely as general sound absorbers and with the two absorber options below.
Acoustic Corner Blocks can be placed in the corner of each room to stop the low frequencies (bass) from doing the most damage. Mounts at a 90 degree angle.
Male / Female Broadband Absorbers are long strips of ribbed, reversed cut foam that can be mounted on the walls and are best used on the opposite side of which direction the bass in the room is traveling. They are cut in a yin/yang pattern.
B) Eggcrate Foam is good for a general foam to place on walls to decently stop both high and low frequencies. It gets it's name because it simply looks like an eggcrate. It is a good option for those on a budget but for those that need precision, we suggest the options below.
C) Acoustic Pyramid Foam is similar to wedge foam in that it's high durability and great performance choice for deadening sound at an affordable price. It has a slightly different characteristic for absorbing sound than the wedge since it has four edges instead of two.
It absorbs slightly less sound but has different usage styles. This material is great for basic soundproofing needs for moderate sound control preferable on walls or ceilings. This material is better for basic usage for sound deadening and is not recommended for extreme audio soundproofing needs. It is most effective in mid-to-high ranges of frequencies.
D) Acoustic Triangle Wedge Foam is the most popular acoustic foam which outperforms and outlasts the "competition" at affordable pricing. Because the foam is machine cut, you can expect it to be nearly identical, side to side. Wedge foam provides outstanding sound absorption qualities, a professional appearance and minimal installation effort.
The wedge foam is effective against flutter echoes and standing waves in rooms such as vocal booths, control rooms and studios. The triangle wedge is also a great full frequency bandwidth absorber for any size of room when it's paired with corner blocks, bass traps or male/female broadband absorbers. They can also help absorb sound frequencies omitting from the other side of doors or by building panels that can moved around instead of mounted on walls.
E) Acoustic Sheets & Grids are the cleanest and simplest way to sound deadening because they have been aesthetically tiled to help reduce the sonic waves bouncing around the room. There are three types, acoustic grids, sheets and waves which all are cut in different dimensions to split the different frequencies in different ways.
They are large enough to cover large amounts of space on a wall in one fell swoop making them easier to install and less hassle for mounting. If you were to expand your studio (or room), they would never lose their patterns and would still keep their visual continuity.
F) Drop Ceiling Tiles are mounted on the roof to deaden any sounds from the top of roof outside from entering the room and the sounds from within the room from echoing off the roof.
G) Monitor Isolation Wedges can be placed under the monitor speakers to keep them from vibrating their sound frequencies through the objects they are sitting on and to keep them from moving as well.
6) SOUNDPROOF BLANKETS & CURTAINS are great sound absorbers of all frequencies in just about room size. Although they are not very pleasing to the eye, they do a fine job of reducing sound.
They can be placed in small closets, hung in rooms or used for carpets even. As long as they are placed in the room (more-so if strategically placed in a room) they will inevitably deaden the sound in the room. They are a quick, simple way to make you room quieter.
7) SOUNDPROOF PANELS are custom build panels using a wood frame, non-reflective (aka absorption) cloth and stuffed with any type of sound absorption insulation, most commonly Roxul.
Studios commonly use these in their rooms and love to have them custom built to best suit their studio needs as many people have different preferences and work with different times of music and recordings.
We plan on carrying these as a service and in our store in the future.
8) SOUNDPROOF ISLANDS are thick, carpeted and collapsable walls that can be move around to any room. They are very portable and are best used for those that need to quickly eliminate sound in the room, most likely for recording purposes. They are very large and take up space but great for those that need a quick solution to their sound issues.
9) ALTERNATE SOUND DIFFUSER OPTIONS WITH EVERY DAY ITEMS basically means that any items you have in your room will help deaden the room. Great items that cover a lot of sound absorption are carpets, couches or sofas, chairs, art on the walls (that has a non-reflective surface) hanging clothes, etc..
Basically, anything in the path of the sound will slow it down and the more items in a room will make the sound "cut around it" which will slow it down and "absorb" it. If the material is cloth or fabric based, it will do the best results. We've even noticed people using egg crates on their walls for a simple solution to split up the sound frequencies.
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So there you have it! 9 ways to diffuse sound in your room! Hopefully we've added value to your life and helped you find a solution to a massive headache plaguing you. We always love to help out!
Please feel free to comment in the bar below if you have questions we didn't answer and share this blog if you think it adds value or maybe know someone else that may benefit from reading it.
In the meantime, check out our store and see what affordable acoustic foam products we have for purchase!
Cheers!
