How to Soundproof a Home Office: 10 Easy Ways
There is nothing more frustrating when trying to work from home than how loud it can be. Whether you are working in your bedroom or in an office, the sound of traffic, people walking on pavement outside or even talking in another room can make it hard to focus when you are trying to work from home. Even worse is when these sounds come through the phone lines!
How Soundwaves Come into Your House?
Sound moves through the air in waves. What you hear, including your voice and the sound of music or television, is how sound waves travel through air. Sound waves can pass through many constructive materials, including wood, metal, glass and drywall.
There are two main methods of reducing sounds that infiltrate your home.
- 1. To soundproof a home office or room in your house that wasn’t built with soundproofing in mind, you need to find ways to stop those sound waves from getting through your walls, doors, windows, floor and ceiling.
- 2. Also, you can add sound-dampening objects and materials to your home office appliances, which will help absorb sound waves and keep them from becoming irritating or overwhelming.
How Do I Stop Noise Coming into My Home Office?
There are several inexpensive methods you can use to block out exterior noises when trying to sound proof a home office space. Here are some easy tips for how to make it happen on any budget.
- Build a room
One of the easiest methods how to soundproof a home office is by building an inside room inside your existing space that’s used as an office. You’ll need help from other people or some extra hands if you’re doing it alone, but once everything is set up and in place, there isn’t much else required on your part to keep it running smoothly. It creates its own internal environment which reduces outside noise pollution significantly, allowing you to work more comfortably without having audio distractions hampering your focus all day long.
- Other methods
The first thing you can do is put up some sort of sound proofing material on the walls, ceiling and floor. If there’s space in your budget for it, adding insulation around exterior walls will also help reduce noise from outside sources.
- Hanging heavy drapes over doors is one of the cheapest ways to keep out exterior sounds while maintaining an airy open space.
- Buy inexpensive foam panels from hardware stores and cut them up yourself with a utility knife if necessary.
- Consider replacing your office door with a solid wood one to offer better sound-absorbing protection.
- Sealing the holes in the walls, such as gaps that are commonly found around outlets with all-purpose caulk can reduce the amount of sound that enters your office.
- Seal the gaps near the frame in the windows. Hang blackout curtains over windows to prevent street noise from entering the room.
- Place carpets or rugs on the floor – the thicker and softer, the better – will absorb harsh noises and prevent a reverberating effect allowing you to focus on your job.
- If the room has a lot of wooden furniture, such as chairs or padded desk, you can reduce the passage of sounds through it by covering the furniture with wraps or cauches.
- For the same purpose, large decorative flowerpots can be placed in the your office room.
If It Doesn’t Work
If it is not possible to complete all of these points, you can implement combinations of some of them. As a result, you will be pleasantly surprised that it really works!
And lastly, if any sounds get through all that noise reduction equipment you’ve installed, purchase yourself a white noise machine so nobody knows how long it took you to finish writing this article!
