How to Soundproof a Room or Apartment Affordably and Easily
Soundproof a room with these simple, low-cost solutions
Reviewed by Kelly Bacon
Soundproofing a room can be as simple as adding home decor items like rugs, furniture, or fabrics, or with special materials like acoustic foam or acoustic panels. Learn how to soundproof walls, doors, windows, floors, and ceilings to maintain peace and quiet.
The Spruce / Letícia Almeida
How to Soundproof Walls and Rooms
To soundproof walls and rooms, add ordinary home decor pieces of furniture like bookcases or install permanent or non-permanent soundproofing materials like acoustic panels, acoustic foam, or drywall.
Home Decor Items
Bookcases: Bookcases can add mass to the wall or partition to effectively reduce sound transmission. Materials and objects of sufficient mass resist vibration and reduce sound transmission.
Cabinets: Cabinets are dense enough to reduce sound transmission, too. Add a wall-to-wall faux built-in to muffle noise from the apartment next door. The built-in should not touch the back wall.
Furniture: Upholstered furniture like couches, loveseats, and sectionals can help absorb sound and dampen noises—the larger the piece, the better.
Pillows: Enhance the soundproofing qualities of upholstered furniture by adding plush pillows and throws.
The Spruce / Gene Yoon
Specialty Soundproofing Materials
Mass-loaded vinyl (MLV): Mass-loaded vinyl is thin, 1/16-inch, highly dense vinyl embedded with metal particles. It's the perfect soundproofing solution when cost is an issue (about $1 per square foot) and when the material needs to be thin.
Acoustic panels: Acoustic panels are available as boards or fabrics that you hang on walls to reduce sounds. There are two types: those that stop noise from bouncing off of hard surfaces internally and others that block noise from entering through a door or window.
Acoustic foam: Acoustic foam absorbs sounds in a room by limiting vibrations that cause sound. Acoustic foam panels are made from soft, porous open-cell polyurethane. Sound vibrations that impact acoustic foam lose much or most of their energy. Acoustic foam carries NRC ratings generally from 0.14 to 1.27.
Conventional drywall: Heavy, dense building materials like drywall add mass to a room's walls to prevent sound from traveling through thin walls. Two sheets can be laid on top of each other.
Soundproofing drywall: Soundproofing drywall costs more than conventional drywall, but one layer gives you almost as much soundproofing as two layers of conventional drywall.
What Is Noise Reduction Coefficient?
Noise Reduction Coefficient, or NRC, measures and rates a material's ability to absorb sound. The scale ranges from 0 (absorbs no sound) to 1.0 (absorbs all sound).
How to Soundproof Doors
To soundproof your door, add weatherproofing to seal gaps around the door where sound may come through and dampen the door itself. Draft stoppers or door sweeps work well for the crack under the door. Curtains can soundproof the door.
Replace door: Replacing hollow-core and other thin doors with solid-core doors is an effective deterrent against sound.
Door curtains: Create another layer of soundproofing by hanging heavy blackout curtains over the front door. When closed, the curtains help to absorb any noise that leaks through the door.
Draft stoppers: Draft stoppers—long fabric tubes filled with dense materials—are normally used to limit or prevent cold air from entering rooms during the cold months. But they can also be used for soundproofing. Purchase a draft stopper or make one by filling a long sock with beans and tying off the end.
The Spruce / Gene Yoon
How to Soundproof Windows
Block noises through windows by adding clear window inserts, installing soundproof curtains, or adding weatherstripping or caulk to window gaps.
Window inserts: Window inserts are clear panes of glass or acrylic that are placed over existing windows. Inserts create an airtight seal that reduces outside noise. Most inserts can be easily removed when they aren't needed.
Soundproof curtains: An acoustic curtain for an average-size window can weigh 15 pounds and it lies flat against the wall or window trim to block sound. Some noise-absorbing curtains glide along tracks for easy opening and closing.
Weatherstripping: Close the cracks and gaps around windows that transmit noises indoors. Reducing airflow into a room reduces sound, and one way to do this is to caulk or add weatherstripping in window cracks. Not only will you reduce external sounds, but you will also save energy.
The Spruce / Gene Yoon
How to Soundproof Floors
Soft floor coverings soundproof a room in two ways: by reducing the sound of traffic and by muffling other noises in the room.
Area rug: Place an area rug in the center of the room to absorb sound for a quieter room.
Runners: Use carpet runners down hallways or to lead from one room to another.
Pads: Slipping a dense rug pad underneath will boost the rug's noise-muffling potential. Rug pads also reduce sounds coming from downstairs neighbors.
Flooring underlayment: Whenever installing hard flooring such as laminate, make sure that it has an underlayment of polyethylene foam, acoustic foam, or felt.
The Spruce / Gene Yoon
How to Soundproof a Ceiling
To soundproof a ceiling, install non-permanent items like fabrics or permanent devices like ceiling clouds.
Ceiling fabric: Drape fabric over wires stretched between two walls. Attach the wires to eye hooks screwed into studs. Remove the fabric and hooks when moving or if the soundproofing is no longer needed.
Ceiling clouds: For a more permanent solution, install acoustic ceiling clouds. Ceiling clouds are panels hung parallel to the ceiling that absorb the sound waves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the thinnest soundproofing material that is still effective?
While there are a number of very expensive thin soundproofing materials, one of the more accessible thin soundproofing materials is mass loaded vinyl (MLV). Mass loaded vinyl is about 1/16-inch-thick and has STC ratings from 10 to 36. MLV costs about $1 per square foot.
Is there one-way soundproofing?
While some scientific efforts have been made to develop one-way soundproofing, there is still no practical way to block sound in only one direction. But you can soundproof one side of a wall with soft items on the walls to limit the transmission of sound waves to the outside.
What material blocks the most sound?
Heavy, dense masonry materials like concrete and brick block the most sound. To a lesser extent, it's possible to soundproof a room with dense home decor items, too, like cabinets, decorative tapestries, wallpaper, bookcases, and upholstered furniture.
Does sound travel through cracks or gaps?
Sound travels through cracks and gaps. If there are gaps or cracks around an outside door, for example, then any sound can come in or go out. Soundproof it by putting up weatherstripping and a door sweep.
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