Replies

1. 
   Chris_T | Mar 20, 1999 02:36am | #8

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   Make certain that the space between the door jamb and the trimmers is blocked. This space usually only contains shims for installation but allows sound to pass through as well. Some insulation or a "very" light application of foam should do the job. If you you put too much foam in, it will bow the jamb as it expands and dries. Better to go extra light a couple of times than one heavy application. You'll need to remove the casing on one side in order to accomplish this.

   A solid core door is also helpful.

2. 
   Guest_ | Mar 20, 1999 03:00am | #9

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   We need to make some interior doors more sound proof. These are bathroom and bedroom doors. Don't want to install solid core doors. What is the best method to do this?

   How about drilling holes in the cavities, shooting with non-expanding foam, plugging and refinishing? They need to be refinished anyway. Or, are there inexpensive insulated doors that my supplier hasn't heard of? Something else?

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 16, 1999 07:19am | #1

   *Premdoor Safe & Sound doors

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 17, 1999 10:32pm | #2

   *Thanks I'll check it out.

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 17, 1999 11:12pm | #3

   *It's spelled "premdor". An internet search for "premdoor" will turn up nothing.

1. 
   Carole | Mar 19, 1999 05:18pm | #4

   *But what about existing doors? Can they in fact be filled and plugged? With what? I guess the space at the bottom of the door also would need to be negligable, or covered somehow???

2. 
   Guest_ | Mar 19, 1999 05:37pm | #5

   *Carole, seems to me that most "hollow core" doors in fact have kind of a cardboard honey-comb interior, which would make it impossible to fill the core with foam. You could add something to the door, depending on how much extra thickness you can handle. A layer of 5/8" drywall on each side, attached with construction adhesive might help, maybe even with 1/2" of beadboard under the drywall, and weatherstripping the door all around is essential. At some point your soundproofing job on the door exceeds what the floor and walls carry through anyways.

3. 
   Guest_ | Mar 19, 1999 07:01pm | #6

   *Gaskets is first step - basic, high quality, weatherstripping, carefully installed and adjusted for an airtight seal. The best solution for the bottom is a drop sill - where the gasket drops when the pin on the end of it hits the jamb. These can be attached to the surface or routed into the bottom - but probably not into hollowcore.Beefing up the mass of the door is next and adding drywall is the least expensive way I know and works quite well - one side would be a big plus.

4. 
   Guest_ | Mar 19, 1999 09:11pm | #7

   *There's two kinds of sound: airborne sound and impact sound. Airborne comes from things like conversation, impact sound comes from things like footsteps on a floor. We hear them differently depending on our proximity to the source and ambient sound around us.Picture five guys in a living room watching the Final Four on T.V. The tv is pretty loud and everyone's yelling at the ref. The guy at the refrigerator hears everyone yell, and he runs accross the hardwood floor (in cowboy boots) to see a replay. If you were in this room, you'd likely hear the television and the yelling. You'd hardly notice the sound of the cowboy boots. If you were in an adjacent room, you'd hear both roughly equal. But if you were downstairs, almost all you'd hear would be the sound of the boots running accross the floor. The yelling would much lower.Airborne sound is transmited by the excitation of air molecules from source (tv) to receptor (ear). These molecules mostly reflect when they hit a solid surface. At this point a small amount is converted into impact sound and transmited through the molecules of the structure. If the sound hits something "soft" such as a blanket, the surface tends to muffle the sound. What's happening is that the sound molecules are reflecting repeatedly back and forth and around in the blanket's fuzzy surface. Each little fiber that a sound wave hits reflects it in a different direction and each time it changes direction a little sound is "lost" as impact sound. The key is surface area -- the more, the better. Acoustical ceiling tiles are engineered such that the sound keeps getting reflected inwardly and it's very hard for any to escape back out.You're probably trying to stop airborne sound mostly. Sound isn't only coming through the doors, it's coming under and around them. In fact it's coming mostly from under and around them. Install some type of gasket around the doors and put a rug at the base. Then sound will be coming mostly through the doors, and you can gauge how well your door is stopping sound. You can improve it's performance by thickening it's mass or increasing it's surface area (or both). Try hanging your bathrobes on it. And towels. Drilling holes and filling with foam is not an option you'd want to persue as you'd need to drill holes approximately every 3 inches along bottom, middle and top. That'd be insane. Making the door thicker by laminating sheetrock or something else will indeed cut down on sound transmission maybe 5db or so but coupled with gasket seal ought to cut the noise in half roughly.Perhaps you can find a second hand door that'll fit the space and is solid for a resonable price as opposed to thickening your existing door...Holding a running skilsaw next to your ear for at least an hour a day also helps imensely with sound proofing .Hardly hearing,Dan Morrison

3. 
   Guest_ | Mar 20, 1999 03:00am | #10

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   Guess I ought to say how the question came up. I have this remodel to do and about the same time there was an article in a local store about just filling the doors vs installing new doors. I didn't think much of the idea but thought I'd give it a try here to see what the reaction would be. After all, if there is a flaw in something someone here will show it in the light of reality, unless too busy with personal biases:):)

   What I'd like to do is find sound isulating doors that are already made. I'm going to check out the recommendation.

   I understand how sound is transmitted and realize that short of an acoustic chamber there is no way to do more than mitigate sound transmission.