Is it worth trying dampen sound through a hollow door?

November 4, 2014 12:09 PM

My bedroom door exits into a hallway leading to living room/kitchen, and a fair amount of sound can leak through the door. There is a 1 inch gap at the bottom of the door and a tiny air gap around the sides/top of the door. Given that it is a hollow door, is there any value in trying to "plug" those gaps or should I save up for a more solid door?

Some extra details:
- I understand that I'm not going to get complete sound proofing without a major overhaul of the door/wall structure . Even if I can achieve a 25% reduction in volume without buying a new door I think it'd be worth it for me.
- If this is worth doing, are there any products I should be looking for? Some kind of weather stripping tape for around the frame?
- What's a good way to reduce the gap at the bottom of the door?

posted by sputgop to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

As a temporary solution, I'd get a big thick rug and hang it above the inside doorframe. You'd need to move it aside like a curtain to get in and out, but it would work.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:14 PM on November 4, 2014 [5 favorites]

I too would hang drapes over the door, floor to ceiling.
posted by jbenben at 12:16 PM on November 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

You can also hang a rug on the door. Or use some kind of stick-on rug tiles. Won't be pretty, but will help.

There's probably no reason not to try a sweep kit on the top as well as the bottom. (Never have attached one to the top of a door maybe it's a terrible idea.)
posted by Lesser Shrew at 12:20 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Packing blankets work well for this purpose and are very inexpensive. Fold to size of door and nail 'em on. If you aren't goin in and out a lot tuck one under the bottom of the door.

Depending on what kind of sound you're trying to block you'll have different results. Unfortunately none of these options will help with bass frequencies from real stereo systems or movies with a lot of explosions. If you're trying to drown out normal TV volume or just people talking I think you're good to go with the rug or the packing blankets.

My room has a false wall with just a plastic screen separating it from the next room over and I just hung up a couple packing blankets left over from moving. It cuts out most of the annoying sounds (typing, regular talking, streaming media from the guy's computer) but I still hear muffled bass sounds when he's listening to music or watching action movies.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:40 PM on November 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

You should block the gap at the bottom of the door. That is where the majority of the sound is getting in. Consider installing a threshold, if there is not already one. Then a door sweep, which is a rubber skirt that hangs down from the bottom of the door and hits the threshold when the door is closed. Note that if this gap is where the heating and air conditioning get into or out of your room, there may be reduced airflow.

You can buy a solid core door, and install it in the existing frame, if the size is the same and the hinge locations match. This will not gain you as much sound insulation as the door sweep, however. Remember the James Bond movies, where Q has the padded leather door? This is to blunt sound transmission. You can attach a blanket or rug to the inside of the door for that effect.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 12:49 PM on November 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

And don't forget a white noise generator. They have plugin devices out there which you can run when exterior noise gets too much. I might consider the door sweep or just roll up a thick blanket when you're inside and see if that helps.
posted by amanda at 1:30 PM on November 4, 2014

A couple things - if you put a blanket on the door or put in drapes on your main means of egress, please treat the fabric to be flame retardant. To hang a blanket, you probably want to put a couple over the door hooks and hang the blanket from that. This will cause the least damage to the door.

To block the underside of the door, consider using a draft stopper/draft dodger instead of a sweep. Does your dwelling have forced hot air heating and/or central air? If so, that's why you have to gap: to help with passive return of air. If you use the draft dodger, at least it will only affect that when you're in the room and not 24/7.
posted by plinth at 4:11 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, you can probably do this not too expensively with one or two king-sized flat sheets and some kind of curtain rod. You haven't really given a lot of architectural details and pics might help folks give better suggestions, but I hung bunches of king-sized flat sheets gotten off the clearance table (or something like that) in a small apartment as ceiling-to-floor drapes and it helped enormously with noise control. Having enough material for gathers, so the sheet(s) is/are not just flat, seemed to do a lot in terms of noise control.
posted by Michele in California at 4:13 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

If you can't fix the door situation you might want to try ear plugs. I wear wax earplugs to sleep because city. They are surprisingly effective. Far better than foam.
posted by srboisvert at 4:16 PM on November 4, 2014

I'd do all of the above: Thick rug tacked to the door on outside as sound barrier. Draft stopper under door. Sheeting or fabric hung along wall and over door (with gathers.) If you use sheets, thread wire through the top hem, then string the wire across room from two eyebolts.

Could you also put an upholstery cloth curtain across the entry to the hallway?
posted by BlueHorse at 4:50 PM on November 4, 2014

Rubber door sweep like this one. Comes in a roll, adhesive back.

Another idea, I have not tried this myself, but I have heard of filling in the hollow door.

Also, this won't win any prizes in home decor, but you know how cats like hiding in cardboard boxes? I can't speak for the cats, but one time I was moving, I had a long sturdy shallow one propped up on its side like a headboard by my bed. It was surprisingly quiet behind/in there. It was just like sitting in a zen ball chair (looks like this). So relaxing. I was really hoping someone somewhere had translated this concept into an awesome bedframe, but I haven't found it yet. Maybe when 3d printing gets bigger.
posted by ana scoot at 6:29 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ana scoot, that's a nifty idea. It would be easy to put together out of cardboard and look neat covered in fabric.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:00 PM on November 6, 2014