Hello everyone,
I managed to acquire a home (with my girlfriend).
It’s a rental and it’s nice, also it’s my first home (before I’ve always lived with my parents).
Now i-am still a student so budgets are tight but i think i’ll need to sound proof a couple of rooms.
I like to play on my bass guitar, my home cinema set has huge speakers ( mainly 8 * 30cm woofers and then the rest haha ),
and my girlfriend and i like to game in the evening with some shouting so.,…
What tips and tricks do you guys have to sound proof a room.
On a budget, budget depending on how effective the solution is.
Also it’s an old house and in the Netherlands so if the soundproofing solution also insulate’s it’ll be an added benefit.
Keep in mind that’s it’s a rental so i won’t be able to drill into wall’s and such to much.
Tip and trick list:
Putting the speakers on cheap foam tiles [ costs ± 6 Euro’s ] highly effective against sound transmitted trough floor vibration.
Wooden frame (on wheels) filled with insulation and finished with thick blanket on the sides [ costs ± unknown ] Effectiveness unknown.
Thick/heavy curtains from ceiling to the floor [ costs not that much (thrift-shop?)] Effectiveness helps dampen the sound in the room and prevents sound reflecting from the windows.
A rug on the floor (as fluffy as possible) [costs cheap (thrift-shop)] Effectiveness great to average depending on type of floor. prevents sound vibrations from entering the floor and absorbs some air vibrations as well.
Don’t put speakers facing the oposite wall dead on (especially if it’s the wall to your neighbour) but put them if possible on an angle of atleast 60 degrees (the sharper the angle the better) from the opposite wall. This way more sound will bounce off of the wall and less will travel into the wall. [ costs FREE ] Effectiveness Highly effective if room has other ways to “catch” the sound waves
get cloth (or atleast soft) furniture to catch sound waves (No plastic chairs or hard couches). [ costs depends ] effectiveness Great depending on placement of speakers and type of furniture.
if you’ve got a high ceiling, cover the ceiling with a big fancy (moving)blanket or rug. mount it on the least amount of positions possible. (or make a fancy patern) [ costs cheap ] Effectiveness Highly effective especially if combined with tip 4. helps against sound bouncing from the ceiling.
There are a number of different DIY acoustic panel solutions out there but essentially they consist of Owens Corning or Roxul rockwool or rigid fiberglass, a wooden frame, and acoustic fabric to make the panels more attractive. The acoustic insulation dampens high frequency very well but when properly placed can also dampen some low frequency. Its recommended you place panels every meter or so along the sidewalls and also in the back of the room. The ceiling isn’t as necessary but it would certainly help your neighbors. As far as mounting goes you could probably use something on the sturdier end of a picture frame hanger.
Large square wood frame with cloth stretched over the front, sftudd the back loosely with what ever soft stuff you have around or cotton wool or something. Is very cheap and will go quite a way. Not the most professional or technically superior solution but cheap and at least dampens sound a bit.
Also foam panels, with egg boxes on top ponting out. Bonus points for also stuffing the egg boxes with stuff as above. Looks ugly but works.
Well I’m not entirely sure about availability in your part of the world but relative to most other solutions its about as cheap as it gets. So usually the panels come in packs of 6 and sell for around $30-40 US and the fabric and frames are also sold at somewhat similar prices and in large packs. But again I’m unsure about availability.
I like that idea,
I already thought of egg boxes alone stuffed, however that’d be a fire hazard (insurance) and not so effective.
making a wooden frame (on wheels) filled with insulation and finished with a blanket on the sides could be a pretty good idea.
If you DIY it, pretty cheap. Some small wood stock you can cut up and nail/glue together and fabric (pretty much any) can be cheap.
In was thinking of hanging them like pictures, but I see also having them like a box would be good too. You could even make the boxes into side tables and so on if you put a top on them, multi functional. If you do it like pictures frames then you can also make itmlook interesting with coloured or patterned fabrics, all modern art style.
That’s what they look like finished. Some people build cheap wood frames and other people just wrap them in fabric and use adhesive spray and sew up the edges like a fitted sheet but then mounting to the wall is harder as there is nothing to hang off the back. The fabric has to be permeable to sound (as opposed to Zibob’s solution where it should be very heavy and dense) however my solution will definitely be heavier overall so that is a factor to consider.
Yup. Any and all heavy fabric will help a little. Curtains being all wavy and so on would capture sound from all directions. If possible hang them from ceiling to floor, rather than just over the window, more area and might help the sound not go around them so much to the window.
While not strictly sound proofing it will help deaden sounds so definitely worth the try if you have to get curtains anyway.
Also a rug or something similar for the floor.
Basically, and you know this all ready yourself, hard surfaces will bounce the sound around more so covering them with some thing soft that will trap or reduce sound will help on every surface.
jup lots of fluffy and less hard stuff.
But it still has to look nice and you should be able to live in it without it taking up to much space.
That’s the hard part hehe
On the plus side, curtains also insulate quite a bit. i’ll add it to the list.
I once worked on the construction of a radio station. The most important thing was that none of the walls met at 90 degree angles. All the studios were oddly shaped to prevent reflected sound. How about getting one of these Shoji screens…
and backing the panels with sound insulation boards. It’s kinda like taking @ZenAnarchist 's idea of making a frame and insulating it, but using a pre-made decorative frame that can be moved to the best location to break up reflected sound.
