soundproof a door

Tough one without replacing the entire door with something considerably more substantial. Maybe sliding glass or at least the same door in a solid core format?? If not, you might consider filling the door cavity with low expansion foam to at least deaden some HF leakage, though this will do precious little from around 2-3 kHz on down. If anything, make the gaps around all sides of the door (and frame) as well sealed as possible. Good luck - and I think the reason more of us don't have this problem is that we have dedicated areas (or rooms) for our gear that makes this problem moot.

-Richard

I just returned from checking the new offices my coworkers and I will be moving to. It looks like I'm being put into a room that was "soundproofed" for recording reasons. There's a large double paned window between my room and the outer offices with glass that's about 1/2" thick each. When I rapped on it, it felt like my knuckles were hitting granite. Solid and quiet. The entry wasn't anything special except for a solid core door that seemed very heavy. Whether this room is soundproof or not is yet to be tested, but I think Richard is correct that replacing a hollow core door with a solid one would be a good step. Your bi-fold could get expensive though.

A solid core is better of course, but unless it's 3 inches thick and totally sealed when you close it you won't really accomplish much. Funny thing that sound, it's always gettin in somebody's ears.

I have built sliding panels similar to pocket doors. It would have to hang inside your room. If you want, email me and I'll explain and send you some pics.

Larry

Maybe you could build a couple of gobos (short for 'go-between', a portable partition used when recording to prevent sound leakage between adjacent microphones) to fit in your doorway while you are listening to music that can be rolled away to another part of the room when not in use. You could fill them with fiberglass and put acoustical tile on the surface. Let your wife decorate them to fit in with the decor.
Just a thought.

I disagree that your Solid core door needs to be "3 inches thick and completely sealed". You can get a decent STC rating (probably around 55-60) with a regular stock solid core door, and full gasketing all around. Use gasketing from the autoparts store for car doors, and you'll be fine. Trying to get an STC rating above that in a residential environment is fairly ridiculous, and would involve a triple layer, triple sealing multi-thickness monstrosity.

Be sure to gasket around the floor as well, or use a neoprene buffer.

Hueske, I think you are right but also that a solid door even if gasketed will much satisfy someone in the next room. I think his only real answer is to find another room.

The room situation is all I have but it is a very good room. 20' x 14.5'. Not bad. I'm going to look into a solid door and gasket it well. "Soundproof" is a poor choice of words. A 70 percent reduction would be worth it. Thanks. But please let ideas keep coming.

Good thread and good responses!

i have an idea. buy her a pair of earphones used to block out the sound, especially suited for people who work in a very noisy environment.

if that doesn't work, ask her to move the tv into another room so you can enjoy the stereo while she watches tv.

3 inches thick may be overkill to some, but if it cost me an extra couple hundred bucks so be it. For that matter, if you're planning on living there for several more years you could throw up an extra layer of drywall. Personally I listen fairly loud at times and when you're running a couple thousand watts of sub, a little extra mass is always good. Music is MUCH more enjoyable when the wife is happy !!

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I like Mrtennis' idea.
Get her some earphones.

In my old listening room (a basement in a condo), I bought some rubberized sound deadening material. This is normally used to wrap around ducts to shield them from noise. I used it to insulate the shared joists where I thought sound might leak into adjacent units. I had some left over so I peeled my flimsy hollow door apart and put a sheet in inside. This provided a lot of isolation and damping.