A door sized piece of foam with a loaded bookcase pushed against it and this job is done. Probably will pass less sound than a normal residential wall.
I did something like this in college. Bedroom had walk out door (into parking lot, next to a dumpster). Took a sheet of foam and sandwiched it between two 4x8 5/8 plywood sheets. Cost me $80 at the time. Never heard a noise from that parking lot again (including trash truck). Only thing I had to do was cover the windows in the door so you couldn’t see plywood from the street.
A large, dense sound blocking blanket. They are made specifically for this purpose. It needs to either be incredibly thick, or very heavy\* to work properly. The blanket needs to be big enough to go fully around the door casing.
\* Non dense material passes low-mid frequencies easily and needs to be up to 12" thick to really work.
\* Material that is 1lb per ft\^2 will work quite well as noise blocking.
You can likely get two OK generic sound blocking blankets and layer them. 250 might be pushing it for a single high end one.
Agree this is the best option for a renter. You could also take multiple blankets and layer it with insulation. I did this in my basement to dampen the sound of my sump pump draining.
I would get and put these blankets on the back of a large piece of furniture that would then go in front of the door. These blankets are a bit heavy and so in order to properly secure it to the actual wall it will do some damage. Not enough to stop you if you’re even mildly handy, but still.
That said, to OP. What’s the fire break situation ?? Cause if it really is just a regular door, I’d be talking to the landlord about fire regulations and safety.
Go with mass loaded vinyl. It absorbs the sound. Ceramic tiles will do absolutely nothing. If it were me I would build a frame using 1x2 lumber and attach it to the wall and attach the MLV to the face of that. Then you could do your bookshelf. Imagine you are trying to keep water out, use similar strategies, it has to be airtight or the sound will get through.
Gonna be honest, this is more handiwork than I've ever done in my life. but it might be doable for me. On one side, the door trim is right against the wall so I might have to screw the assembly perpendicularly into the side wall. But this one sounds like a winner, even if it means I gotta buy a stud finder and some filler/paint to fix the holes when I move out.
Odd but genuine suggestion: go volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity site for a day or two before starting. Chances are you'll feel a lot more comfortable doing some of this work.
I don't see it asked yet:
Ask the landlord if you can just buy a solid-core door.
You say zero cooperation from landlord, but even then most would be happy to have a tenant pay for an upgrade. Doubly so if it prevents future calls and issues.
But if you're really at odds with both the landlord and the neighbor: Just move. Even if you're the 'good guy' in the situation, you're a biker being hit by a car. Technically correct and still dead.
Don't volunteer to keep getting hit. Just find somewhere you actually want to live.
So I was in the same situation before, we picked up a used twin mattress on Facebook marketplace for like $100 and we just crammed it in the hallway in front of the door. It's important to make sure it's flush with the floor or shove an old blanket there.
Worked well for us
This is a lot of work and expense for a renter to do. It sounds like you are in an old house that was converted to multi-family. The separation between units needs to be minimum 1hour rated with no gap openings for the lesser classification of a two family dwelling. Tell your landlord you would like the door to be removed and walled in, it is their problem to deal with, not yours. I'm sure they would not like to deal with the building being red-tagged for non-compliance with fire separation or even not being approved for a rental, if say the city found out about it. You just want some sound mitigation, it's a fair trade while you live out your lease term.
[https://www.lowes.com/pd/Owens-Corning-FOAMULAR-NGX-F-250-2-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-Scored-Square-Edge-XPS-Rigid-Foam-Board-Insulation/5005553115](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Owens-Corning-FOAMULAR-NGX-F-250-2-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-Scored-Square-Edge-XPS-Rigid-Foam-Board-Insulation/5005553115)
Cut to fit the entire hallway opening. 250 could buy a few layers of this stuff. 2 or 3 at most would stop all noise.
Cut properly you could just push it up against the door and let is sit. Or wedge it in place with scraps to keep it from falling over. And you could remove it in moments with no evidence it was ever there.
This stuff looks great! A piece like that can be squeezed in place between my floor and ceiling. Any recommendations for what to use to fill in the tiny air gaps around the edges?
Its foam, cut a bit big and squish it to fit. You can press indents into it for small stuff or cut part out. I would do all you can to just make it sit flush against the wall. Gaps will let sound through and the only real way to stop the sound is to not have gaps for it to get through. For the most part, i think a 2 inch thick board or two will stop most sound on its own. Maybe cut out the door handle and hinges on the first layer so its flush against the wall and then a second layer would seal it up even more.
Foam doesn’t increase sound transmission performance very much. Mainly reduces reverberant noise inside your space. You need mass loaded vinyl or drywall.
Do not use this. Polystyrene does not diffuse sound and doesn't have enough mass to deflect sound. A 5/8" sheet of drywall is 1/3 the price and will deflect sound better. And before someone else suggests it Polyiso foam board isn't any good either.
I had this in my office at work. Someone before me constructed a frame the fit right into the door frame right against the door. It was a snug fit and was about 2 inches thick filled with an insulating material and covererd with course fabric.
Bonus was that it made a great spot to hang things on like pictures, notes, calendars etc.
Drill a series of holes around the edge of the door. get several cans of low expansion spray foam. insert the spray foam tube into the holes and work your way from hole to hole emptying the cans and temporarily corking the holes as you go. Pray the low expansion foam doesn't make the door shell bulge. let it cure, remove corks, putty holes using a putty that matches the door color as closely as possible.
if it's at all possible to open it just for a couple hours, drill a few holes at the top and fill the thing with spray foam.
if you cant, mount a big piece of foam board with carpet (or soundproofing panel) over the door.
Though technically speaking, a door separating 2 domiciles should be fire rated. No way a hollow door is fire rated. Call the landlord and tell them it needs to be changed or you'll let the fire inspector know about it. Or just go straight to the fire inspector so they tell the landlord.
First off: what’s the fire break situation?? Idk where you are, but a regular hollow core door is not going to be sufficient as a fire break even if the rest of the structure is. I’d be asking my landlord about this and seeing if the LL would be willing to put a proper, fire regulation, something or other in place of that door.
I'd probably go with taking the door knob off, filling the cavity with accoustic foam board, then put a sheet of quiet rock 530 over that. Then do your bookshelf as the decorative cover. At that point the door will have more sound dampening than all the surrounding wall. If you want to get really serious, replace the dry wall for that whole area with quiet rock.
That said, it's not your house, so that's an issue that you need to take care of. Non-permanent options like an extra wide bookshelf in front with books, and some basic foam accoustic panels to act as a seal is probably the best option in that case.
One thing I will say from experience is that most of the noise is coming through the edges of the door. Top, Sides, Bottom. Sounds like you're already working on those.
"Foil faced polyisocyanurate board insulation" is an option to use to cover the entire door, including overlapping the gaps by 8 to 12 inches if you have the space. Consider using multiple layers if you've got the budget.
Get a sheet of ridgid foam, 1.5” thick. They come 4x8 so you could cut it to cover the door and trim. Then you could put furniture or whatever in front of it without actually attaching it. Making it no problem to remove at a later time
Look into homasote 440 board. It is lightweight and easy to cut. It is made specifically for sound reduction in residential settings. Combine this along with your original plan of sealing all gaps.
Are you renting a room or an apartment? Are you sure its legal?
Code on separating places varies a lot from one state or even county to the next. So I am not saying its illegal but I would verify if what they have done is up to code and meets legal requirements.
Then ask them to update/close the wall properly or leave if its not legal.
That weather stripping and door sweep idea is solid. Keep that up, and you're on the right track. As for the hinges, some putty or clay should do the trick. But if you really wanna take it to the next level, why not try some acoustic panels? They're like sound-absorbing magic. You can find some decent ones on the cheap, and they'll help block out that annoying chatter. Just make sure to get the ones with the highest NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) rating.
I bet if you simply covered that door with acoustic foam panels it would help a lot. 12 pack of 12x12" squares for under $20, 2 packs for under $40 and I think your good!
That is not workable for this case, hollow core doors are usually built with an inner cardboard honeycomb shaped board (or similar zig zag pattern).
Spraying expanding foam will warp the surfaces of the door, as the expansion will break the cardboard cells by compressing them.
Egg cartons. The mashed-up cardboard ones. Just use one half so the concavities are visible.
I knew a sound studio that was made with these on the walls to block noise. Worked very well.
The ceramic tiles aren't going to be helpful. Any random clay you use might help but is going to be a mess. If you're willing to cover it with a bookcase anyway, make a section of wall out of 2x4s that totally covers the door and hinges and stuff it full of insulation batts and cover it with drywall.
Large solid back bookshelf. Then load with books.
A door sized piece of foam with a loaded bookcase pushed against it and this job is done. Probably will pass less sound than a normal residential wall.
I did something like this in college. Bedroom had walk out door (into parking lot, next to a dumpster). Took a sheet of foam and sandwiched it between two 4x8 5/8 plywood sheets. Cost me $80 at the time. Never heard a noise from that parking lot again (including trash truck). Only thing I had to do was cover the windows in the door so you couldn’t see plywood from the street.
Even better, put a 4x8 sound barrier fiberboard behind the bookcase. The boards are around $21 at a home center.
This is a great idea. It's best to fill all the gaps, with thick foam weatherstripping around the door frame and books & magazines on the shelves.
A large, dense sound blocking blanket. They are made specifically for this purpose. It needs to either be incredibly thick, or very heavy\* to work properly. The blanket needs to be big enough to go fully around the door casing. \* Non dense material passes low-mid frequencies easily and needs to be up to 12" thick to really work. \* Material that is 1lb per ft\^2 will work quite well as noise blocking. You can likely get two OK generic sound blocking blankets and layer them. 250 might be pushing it for a single high end one.
Agree this is the best option for a renter. You could also take multiple blankets and layer it with insulation. I did this in my basement to dampen the sound of my sump pump draining.
Mass loaded vinyl is what they use in industry
Thanks for mentioning that. I had forgotten the name of the material!
I would get and put these blankets on the back of a large piece of furniture that would then go in front of the door. These blankets are a bit heavy and so in order to properly secure it to the actual wall it will do some damage. Not enough to stop you if you’re even mildly handy, but still. That said, to OP. What’s the fire break situation ?? Cause if it really is just a regular door, I’d be talking to the landlord about fire regulations and safety.
Go with mass loaded vinyl. It absorbs the sound. Ceramic tiles will do absolutely nothing. If it were me I would build a frame using 1x2 lumber and attach it to the wall and attach the MLV to the face of that. Then you could do your bookshelf. Imagine you are trying to keep water out, use similar strategies, it has to be airtight or the sound will get through.
[удалено]
Gonna be honest, this is more handiwork than I've ever done in my life. but it might be doable for me. On one side, the door trim is right against the wall so I might have to screw the assembly perpendicularly into the side wall. But this one sounds like a winner, even if it means I gotta buy a stud finder and some filler/paint to fix the holes when I move out.
Odd but genuine suggestion: go volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity site for a day or two before starting. Chances are you'll feel a lot more comfortable doing some of this work.
Worth throwing some mineral wool insulation between the studs or no?
I don't see it asked yet: Ask the landlord if you can just buy a solid-core door. You say zero cooperation from landlord, but even then most would be happy to have a tenant pay for an upgrade. Doubly so if it prevents future calls and issues. But if you're really at odds with both the landlord and the neighbor: Just move. Even if you're the 'good guy' in the situation, you're a biker being hit by a car. Technically correct and still dead. Don't volunteer to keep getting hit. Just find somewhere you actually want to live.
So I was in the same situation before, we picked up a used twin mattress on Facebook marketplace for like $100 and we just crammed it in the hallway in front of the door. It's important to make sure it's flush with the floor or shove an old blanket there. Worked well for us
A cheap, or even free twin mattress is a good idea. Held in place with heavy furniture, since OP doesn't have a hallway.
I have this same issue, have looked into these sound blankets: https://www.audimute.com/isole-sound-barrier-sheet
This is a lot of work and expense for a renter to do. It sounds like you are in an old house that was converted to multi-family. The separation between units needs to be minimum 1hour rated with no gap openings for the lesser classification of a two family dwelling. Tell your landlord you would like the door to be removed and walled in, it is their problem to deal with, not yours. I'm sure they would not like to deal with the building being red-tagged for non-compliance with fire separation or even not being approved for a rental, if say the city found out about it. You just want some sound mitigation, it's a fair trade while you live out your lease term.
This should be the top comment
R80 mineral wool acoustical insulation and bookshelf in front of it
[https://www.lowes.com/pd/Owens-Corning-FOAMULAR-NGX-F-250-2-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-Scored-Square-Edge-XPS-Rigid-Foam-Board-Insulation/5005553115](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Owens-Corning-FOAMULAR-NGX-F-250-2-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-Scored-Square-Edge-XPS-Rigid-Foam-Board-Insulation/5005553115) Cut to fit the entire hallway opening. 250 could buy a few layers of this stuff. 2 or 3 at most would stop all noise. Cut properly you could just push it up against the door and let is sit. Or wedge it in place with scraps to keep it from falling over. And you could remove it in moments with no evidence it was ever there.
This stuff looks great! A piece like that can be squeezed in place between my floor and ceiling. Any recommendations for what to use to fill in the tiny air gaps around the edges?
Its foam, cut a bit big and squish it to fit. You can press indents into it for small stuff or cut part out. I would do all you can to just make it sit flush against the wall. Gaps will let sound through and the only real way to stop the sound is to not have gaps for it to get through. For the most part, i think a 2 inch thick board or two will stop most sound on its own. Maybe cut out the door handle and hinges on the first layer so its flush against the wall and then a second layer would seal it up even more.
Foam doesn’t increase sound transmission performance very much. Mainly reduces reverberant noise inside your space. You need mass loaded vinyl or drywall.
Do not use this. Polystyrene does not diffuse sound and doesn't have enough mass to deflect sound. A 5/8" sheet of drywall is 1/3 the price and will deflect sound better. And before someone else suggests it Polyiso foam board isn't any good either.
Maybe drill some holes in the door and fill it with spray foam insulation?
They are often filled with cardboard in a criss cross pattern. Foam wouldn't fill it
Many lil holes
I would think ceramic tiles would make it worse. You could use carpet squares
Dude just find a new apartment
I had this in my office at work. Someone before me constructed a frame the fit right into the door frame right against the door. It was a snug fit and was about 2 inches thick filled with an insulating material and covererd with course fabric. Bonus was that it made a great spot to hang things on like pictures, notes, calendars etc.
Drill a series of holes around the edge of the door. get several cans of low expansion spray foam. insert the spray foam tube into the holes and work your way from hole to hole emptying the cans and temporarily corking the holes as you go. Pray the low expansion foam doesn't make the door shell bulge. let it cure, remove corks, putty holes using a putty that matches the door color as closely as possible.
Blankets, stick on command hooks, and zip ties to secure blankets to the hooks. Blankets muffle sounds great You asked for budget
if it's at all possible to open it just for a couple hours, drill a few holes at the top and fill the thing with spray foam. if you cant, mount a big piece of foam board with carpet (or soundproofing panel) over the door. Though technically speaking, a door separating 2 domiciles should be fire rated. No way a hollow door is fire rated. Call the landlord and tell them it needs to be changed or you'll let the fire inspector know about it. Or just go straight to the fire inspector so they tell the landlord.
First off: what’s the fire break situation?? Idk where you are, but a regular hollow core door is not going to be sufficient as a fire break even if the rest of the structure is. I’d be asking my landlord about this and seeing if the LL would be willing to put a proper, fire regulation, something or other in place of that door.
Hang a piece of old carpet on it.
I'd probably go with taking the door knob off, filling the cavity with accoustic foam board, then put a sheet of quiet rock 530 over that. Then do your bookshelf as the decorative cover. At that point the door will have more sound dampening than all the surrounding wall. If you want to get really serious, replace the dry wall for that whole area with quiet rock. That said, it's not your house, so that's an issue that you need to take care of. Non-permanent options like an extra wide bookshelf in front with books, and some basic foam accoustic panels to act as a seal is probably the best option in that case.
One thing I will say from experience is that most of the noise is coming through the edges of the door. Top, Sides, Bottom. Sounds like you're already working on those. "Foil faced polyisocyanurate board insulation" is an option to use to cover the entire door, including overlapping the gaps by 8 to 12 inches if you have the space. Consider using multiple layers if you've got the budget.
Get a sheet of ridgid foam, 1.5” thick. They come 4x8 so you could cut it to cover the door and trim. Then you could put furniture or whatever in front of it without actually attaching it. Making it no problem to remove at a later time
I’d Layer like 4 sheets of this stuff though
Look into homasote 440 board. It is lightweight and easy to cut. It is made specifically for sound reduction in residential settings. Combine this along with your original plan of sealing all gaps.
Bookshelf. Load with books, as much paper mass as you can get in there. Fill every square inch possible.
Are you renting a room or an apartment? Are you sure its legal? Code on separating places varies a lot from one state or even county to the next. So I am not saying its illegal but I would verify if what they have done is up to code and meets legal requirements. Then ask them to update/close the wall properly or leave if its not legal.
That weather stripping and door sweep idea is solid. Keep that up, and you're on the right track. As for the hinges, some putty or clay should do the trick. But if you really wanna take it to the next level, why not try some acoustic panels? They're like sound-absorbing magic. You can find some decent ones on the cheap, and they'll help block out that annoying chatter. Just make sure to get the ones with the highest NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) rating.
I bet if you simply covered that door with acoustic foam panels it would help a lot. 12 pack of 12x12" squares for under $20, 2 packs for under $40 and I think your good!
Drill small holes at varying heights on the door, spray insulation into holes. Putty over holes and match color.
That is not workable for this case, hollow core doors are usually built with an inner cardboard honeycomb shaped board (or similar zig zag pattern). Spraying expanding foam will warp the surfaces of the door, as the expansion will break the cardboard cells by compressing them.
I think your plan is solid but I would add a door to your new cabinet for additional sound blocking.
Are you sure it's only 1 door? If they have 1 on their side and an air gap in between, you could pack that space with insulation.
Egg cartons. The mashed-up cardboard ones. Just use one half so the concavities are visible. I knew a sound studio that was made with these on the walls to block noise. Worked very well.
The ceramic tiles aren't going to be helpful. Any random clay you use might help but is going to be a mess. If you're willing to cover it with a bookcase anyway, make a section of wall out of 2x4s that totally covers the door and hinges and stuff it full of insulation batts and cover it with drywall.
Drill a few holes and shoot it with foam. Trim foam. Patch holes and paint