Topic: Sound proofing

[ober]

Totally random question.  Does anyone know much about sound proofing?  I work from home a lot now and my wife said she can hear me through the door to my office.  I'm wondering what the best way is to sort of sound proof the door to my office.  Has anyone done anything like this?


And to give you the layout of my office, I drew it up here:

[hans]

That's probably not going to do much. It's a game of density and decoupling. The walls themselves are going to transfer quite a bit unless they're decoupled from each other, staggered studs or z-channels.

You might have some success reducing the volume with diffusers to spread the sound around. But good sound proofing is early in design.

Still, mitigation, look into Roxul or DIY 703 fiberglass panels. I have some resources I can dig up.

[Mike]

Easy solution - speak softer?

[ober]

Keep in mind, I'm only trying to reduce the noise, not eliminate it.  And if it matters, I face the door when I'm sitting at my desk.  I was thinking I could maybe cover the back of the door and the walls to the left and right and see if that helps at all.  I really don't know much about this stuff but maybe it's worth a shot.  That's not expensive at all even if it doesn't end up doing much.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08519Y4TQ/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?pd_rd_i=B08519Y4TQ&pd_rd_w=FIbC4&content-id=amzn1.sym.999c0877-3704-4f0f-9726-eebf80846a35&pf_rd_p=999c0877-3704-4f0f-9726-eebf80846a35&pf_rd_r=QCWZ1RGF8N1C6S8CHPQ7&pd_rd_wg=F71qd&pd_rd_r=4a7f3626-a233-4530-8b4d-11f3bdd52637&s=musical-instruments&smid=ABZJC0ZX82FPL&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMkRLWTJWWExSWDZXJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTM1NDM2MkM1QlhQWkVBUFVKSCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODkzMzQ2RFdYRVREUFpFTzI5JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

[jkim]

You can try the foam panels, but if there's a door in the picture you should add soundproofing to the door perimeter to fill in gaps there too, especially the floor gap.

[ober]

I already have this under the door but I don't think it does much: https://www.amazon.com/Holikme-Stopper-Weather-Stripping-Adjustable/dp/B082W6F8DJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=under%2Bdoor%2Bdraft%2Bstopper&qid=1658501437&sprefix=under%2Bdoor%2B%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1-spons&smid=A2SR39RXU22X19&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMFZaMThIOUZNNzc3JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTc2OTExT1RRVFRUREtTWlhSJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMTU1NjMzTDc3TEhYQjFIUTdGJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

I thought about trying to hang a thick panel of something at the same level of where the closet doors are (where the door inset starts).  But I don't know if that would help at all.

[hans]

Just make sure whatever panels you get are high density. The egg container thing is not super helpful.

Also, keep in mind that sound bounces, so ideally you want to place the absorbers in the path of the reflections (e.g. side walls for speakers, behind desk for voice etc).
Bass builds up in corners and your voice is probably reaching lower frequencies, so look into some corner traps as well.
Like these:
https://www.acoustimac.com/bass-traps/dmd-bass-traps/corner-bass-trap-bt2400c-g-1


Good video on concepts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tap5WBfJZBM


These look cool:
https://output.com/acoustic-panels


I'm a big fan of the absorber/diffuser combo units. You get the benefits of both treatments in one panel.

[ober]

That's a great video.  Maybe I should explain my situation further.  I don't care so much about the noise in the room.  I wear headphones with a mic basically all day.  My voice is bad enough but if I used speakers my wife would probably kill me and my kids that are home during the summer would be standing in line for their turn.

All I'm trying to do is prevent noise from escaping the room, primarily through the door into the hall.  My office has carpet but the hallways is laminate.  I suspect that's the primary issue but it's not like the door is super thick either. 

All I'm looking for is a way to dampen the noise headed towards the door.

[Mike]

I've heard (but not tested) that solid core doors will help dampen the sound.  Since you are facing the door I wonder if it'd help to rotate your desk so that you are facing away.  Also, you can try a white noise machine right near the door (I've seen them both inside and outside) to help breakup/mask the sound.

[ober]

I specifically rotated my desk this way because it works better for the room.  Plus she indicated that it wasn't any better when I was facing the wall.  Maybe I'm just loud AF lol.  A white noise machine might work.  We have a few so I could easily try that.

[Mike]

So, any like with this?

[ober]

I haven't done anything with it yet.