The sound is wonderful like the sound of Beethoven or birdsong. But he sounds you don’t want to hear, in the wrong place or at the wrong time is simply a noise. It can be a nuisance that can make your life stressful and work, study, or sleep impossible. If you are fed up of the noise problem, the simplest way to get rid of it is to kill the sound at its source, but sometimes that’s not a good option. If you live near a near bar or nightclub, a construction site then killing the source is not possible. Or maybe you have a reverse problem, you have a noisy occupation or hobby and you want to spare the people around you from suffering the sounds you make. You need to follow these steps to soundproof a room.
Steps to Soundproof a Room:
1.) Blanket and Bookcases to Soundproof a Room
You need to install sound curtains or thick blankets. You can absorb a little sound by placing thick blanket to the wall. If you are will to spend a money and you have a budget so you can prefer to buy a heavy sound curtain.
If you have a thick insulated wall, this will give an additional effect on your walls.
You can make your wall thicker and more soundproof by simply placing bookshelves on the walls. Cover a wall with bookshelves and books for an effective sound barrier. You will also get a nice library out of the deal.
2.) Mount Shaky Items and Put a Door Sweep
If you ever had a neighbor turn their music up really loud so you will have noticed the buzzing, rattling vibration sound more than anything else. this is the reason you are going to mount items like a speaker. Use vibration insulin pads when you are mounting to keeps items like speaker from annoying everyone around you.
Or you will also need to install a door sweep. Nail a rubber loop to the base of a door to block the gap of the door. If you find the gap is too large to cover with a sweep, then nail a strip of lumber to the base of the door first.
3.) Acoustic Wedges Panels to Soundproof a Room
Buy 12’’x12’’ panels with a 2’’ depth curve relief. these panels will work well to absorb low to high frequencies. Some panels come already with an adhesive peel. You can use adhesive to glue the panels to the walls and ceiling if the panels doesn’t come with the adhesive peel. You can cover all or just parts of the surface, it also depend on the amount of dampening you desire. This cuts down on the noise inside the room and keeps your ears happy.
Use a panel that is mostly fiberglass with a thin Mylar perforated facing. These types of panels are best in sound absorption among all but the most expensive specialty tiles. They are very cost effective and give a good result.
4.) Use Thick Material to Soundproof a Room
The thick and denser material will be, the more sound it will absorb. Consider using 1.6 cm drywall instead of the thinner sizes.
If you are improving you existing wall then build a basic wall basic wall frame and attach it to the surface, anchoring it to the existing studs. Cover this with a new layer of drywall or sheetrock.
5.) Separate the two layers of wall to Soundproof a Room
Whenever the sound travels into a new substances, some of its energy is absorbed and some is reflected. You can increase the effect by building the wall from two sheets of drywall or sheetrock, keep as much as space in between them as possible. This is called decoupling.
Decoupling makes the wall worse at blocking low frequencies due to the resonance of the wall. If the gap is only about one inch or less a damping compound is recommended to fight this effects.
6.) Plan your Stud Placement
Most of the wall contain a single row of studs touching both layers of the wall. Sound travels easily though these studs, which can cancel out a great deal of work. When you are building a new wall you can choose one of the following stud placement instead.
You can either choose a double row of studs one along each interior side. This the most soundproof method, but require enough space to leave a gap between the two rows. Or you can choose a staggered row of studs, altering placement along one interior side then the other.
7.) Sound clips or Channels to Soundproof a Room
Sound clips and channels are placed between the studs and the drywall and provide an additional barrier for sound. There is two main option for the barrier.
Sounds clips are the most effective method for absorbing sound with heavy rubber components. Screw them into the studs, insert a hat channel and then screw the drywall into the channel.
Then other is a resilient channel. It is a springy metal designed for soundproofing. Screw this into the studs and drywall using offset screws. This can improve high frequency blocking at the expense of low frequencies.
8.) Fill Walls with a Damping Compound
You will need to fill the walls with a damping compound to soundproof a room. This is a magical substance convert sound energy to heat. This can be used between layers of wall, ceiling or floor. This sound absorbs low-frequency noise. This quality of it makes it ideal if you expect loud bass from music and home theater systems.
- This is also known as noise proofing glue or viscoelastic adhesive.
- Some of these compounds might take weeks to cure to their full potential.
9.) Insult with other Material
Damping compound is one of the best for all the purpose of soundproof a room but there are also many other insulation materials.
You can buy a fiberglass, it is a cheap and fairly effective
Foam insulation is a poor soundproofing. Its major advantage is thermal insulation.
10.) Acoustical Caulk to Soundproof a Room
You can fill cracks with acoustical caulk. Even a small cracks and gaps between material can decrease the effect of sound proofing. Special acoustical caulk fills these gaps with an elastic sound resistant material and sold as acoustical sealant. It fill all cracks as well as seams around the walls and window.
- Water based caulks are easier to clean up. if you are using a solvent based caulk, then first check the label to make sure it will not harm your materials.
if the calk doesn’t match the color of the wall, choose that one which you can paint over. - Consider using normal caulk for the smallest cracks, but acoustical caulk is more difficult to handle.
11.) Soundproof Ceiling and Floors
You can soundproof ceiling and floors using many of the same system suitable for walls. Most commonly people add an additional layer of drywall with damping glue in between. As a simple addition, you can cover the floor with soundproofing mats then install the carpet.
You don’t need to soundproof the floor if there is no room below.
The heavy concrete ceiling will not give many benefits from the additional mass of drywall and damping compound. You can add a drywall layer with an air gap in between, or fill the gap with fiberglass insulation.
12.) Install Soundproofing Panel to Soundproof a Room
If the soundproofing in you room is completed, but not substantial enough, you can use acoustic panels. There are cheap options available but expensive acoustic panels would be more effective.
Be sure to attach these to wall studs or other strong structures.
Tips and Warning
- Replace the rigid cellulose ceiling tiles. They mostly reflect sound.
- Caulk gaps around any opening for lighting etc. or the perimeter of the drop ceiling.
- Construction or heavy modification of floors, wall, and ceiling should be done under the experienced supervision only.
- The standard STC soundproof rating is not always useful. It doesn’t take into account any frequencies below than 125 hertz which also includes sound from music, airplane, traffic and construction.
