How to Soundproof a Door

Soundproofing a door of a room, or your apartment door can be an effective solution to prevent noise coming from outside, or avoid disturbing your neighbors in case your room is a bit noisy. With soundproofing, you can sleep soundly, even if the neighbors are partying at night.

Also, it will give you the freedom to play loud music without having to hear complains from neighbors. It can also be very effective to block sounds of vehicles or barking of dogs. Soundproofing a door is a simple and an easy DIY project and a great way to soundproof a room. But, one needs to know what will work effectively for their door type.

There are many products that will help you soundproof your door. Let's have a look at the options we have in hand in order to soundproof a door.

The first thing you need to do is check the door. Many doors have a hollow core. These doors don't provide any soundproofing. So, you will need to invest in a medium density fiber (MDF) filled or solid wood door. It is possible that your landlord might not allow this. In this case, ask the landlord if you can replace the door back again when you are leaving.

To replace the door, start taking measurements of the door and the door frame. Measure the door's width, height and depth. Take width measurements at three places and then take out the average. Do the same for height and depth. Then buy a good quality door, which provides soundproofing, and fix it.

Now, you need to find out from where exactly is the noise coming. The best way to do this is to turn on the light in the hallway and turn off the light in your room. Then close the door and check, where is the light coming from. Once you identify them, then these are the possible areas you need to work on to block the sound.

These areas generally tend to be - the sides of the door, the gaps between the door and space between the hinges. To block noise coming from the gap between the door and flooring, add a door sweep. Metal door sweeps not only block the noise, but they also help to keep the cold out. They are screwed to the door bottom and can be found in any hardware store.

To block noise coming from the side and top of the door, you can use a cell foam tape. For this, you can also use gaskets which are ordinary thermal sealing foam strips. They are available at a hardware store. To stick the foam, you can use a adhesive tape which has glue on both the sides. Make sure you install it properly so that no sound escapes.

Also, check behind the molding in the door frame. If you find there is space, then you need to fill the space up to stop noise from entering or leaking. For this purpose, you can use soundproofing caulks. Again you can find them at hardware stores. These are easy to use and you can apply it on all small gaps from where you think that sound could be leaking.

You can also do this in case you want additional soundproofing. These come with an adhesive back, so you can simply peel off the sticker and stick the door mat onto the door.

These were the various solutions to soundproof a door. So, simply mix and match these solutions to do a good job of soundproofing the door. The soundproofing will last for a long time and will give you as well as your neighbors peace of mind.