Are your kids getting some loud gifts this Christmas? Perhaps you have a teen who wants to play in a band or maybe your bringing home a new puppy and don’t want to annoy your neighbors too much while you crate train! Maybe it’s the other way around and you need relief from your neighbor’s noisy habits. This is a large problem for those living in urban environments. Between garbage trucks, loud music, and honking cars it can be surprising just how much noise people can create. Room soundproofing at a low cost might sound like an impossible task but there are a surprising number of steps you can take to make your situation better. Even on a budget.
Room Soundproofing At a Low Cost, Keep Yourself And Your Neighbors Happy.
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Simple Steps To Soundproof A Room
Muffle Sound With a Bookcase
This is a perfect solution for book lovers! Your favorite hobby can save you from reality once again. If you have loud neighbors and your problem comes from one wall you can just set up a bookcase. For this to work well the bookcase should fit snuggly against the entire wall. The trick here is that mass adds protection from vibrations and sound. If there are no air gaps, the noises will have no medium to be transported. This is a straightforward solution that can fix your problem in a few days. And give you another excuse t buy a bookcase!
Fill Any Cracks In Your Doors
If you can hear everything that people are saying outside your home then you have a significant problem. This means that there are likely large air gaps in your doors. The most common place for a noticeable gap is at the bottom. If you can see light leaking out under your door then you might have found your problem. You need to stuff all these gaps! Sound travels through air, if there is no air, there will be no sound. If you have a gap on the bottom of the door, you can just add a door sweep. This has the added benefit of keeping out dust, drafts, and bugs too. You can find some alternative ideas here – https://soundproofliving.com/soundproof-room-cheap-free-ideas/.
You can use a cheap commercial door sweep with a rubber strap. Make sure you seal it at the threshold and then, recheck to see if light or air is coming in from the outside. If the door doesn’t close tightly, a bit of foam weatherstripping to seal it can be very helpful. The front door is critical and number one on the list, you might want to seal your bedroom door as well, just for added comfort while sleeping.
Carpets Can Be A Great Solution For High Traffic Areas
You might have noticed that a lot of apartments have carpets. This is more out of necessity than anything else. They get dirty fast, can be hard to clean and collect a ton of dust and lint. But, on the upside, you might have a more tranquil life. A carpet can muffle the sound of cars and traffic almost the same as professionally soundproofing your room. People who have hard floors can throw down thick rugs to help too. If you want a bit more soundproofing, you can put a density rug on the floor as well. This improves your rug’s sound diminishing qualities, and you will really feel the difference. Read more here.
Add Window Inserts
Adding window inserts can create an airtight seal that reduces the noise from outside by fifty percent. This is the ultimate solution to noise that is not coming from the building you live in. Window inserts are simple acrylic or glass panels that you put over your windows. If you’ve ever slept near wooden or older windows, you might have felt a draft.
That’s because air is getting through, even though there’s a window, and much like the gap under your door we talked about earlier this conducts sound. With an inexpensive pair of window inserts, you can again feel the difference. They can even be removed in seconds to open your windows and let fresh air inside when you want!
Hang Some Blankets
This is a solution that you can do with items you already have at home. Rugs, curtains, and tapestries absorb sound. You can hang them on the walls relatively easily and there are multiple products that you can use without causing damage. This makes it a great option for people who are renting. Of course, if you use older blankets they might not be as aesthetically pleasing, but, it will still get the job done. For the best results use a rug or blanket that is as thick as possible. Recent trends online suggest that using wool blankets absorbs sound the most. As you can see there are a lot of ways you can soundproof a room.
If you’re not overly worried about aesthetics you can use heavy moving blankets. Those are the kind that’s used to cover essential objects when moving. They are thick, dense and have a lot of soundproofing advantages over typical blankets.
Soundproofing Your Home Might Be Worth it!
You might not be able to completely rid yourself of noisy living conditions but you might be able to make it more tolerable with a few simple fixes like those mentioned above. Improvements like this might help you sleep a little sounder at night and in the case of window inserts and door sweeps might even improve your home’s heating and cooling abilities! If you have been struggling with sound pollution I highly suggest giving some of these easy and simple solutions a try!
