Knowing the cheapest ways to soundproof your room is very important, especially if you live in a city or a densely populated environment. Noise pollution is fast becoming a global problem as so many people today live in areas that have high noise levels.
Asides from the frustration that comes with having persistent unwanted noise in your room, it can also keep you from concentrating and even relaxing. Read on to find out several cheap ways to soundproof your room from traffic, outside businesses, and even noisy neighbors.
Factors to Consider in Soundproofing a Room
When you start thinking of soundproofing your room, there are three things you need to first consider and address to ensure your efforts at soundproofing will be worthwhile:
Source of the Sound
Is the sound you want to conceal from a single source or multiple sources? Identifying where the source of the sound is the first key to soundproofing. Sounds could be from your television, neighboring apartments, and even outside traffic, and knowing where it is coming from will make it easier for you to address them.
Entry Point
The entry point may be the point adjacent to the source of the sound, your exterior windows or it may be an entire wall. In essence, it is the area in your space where the sound comes into your room. This location can make a room easily noisy and directly addressing it will easily reduce the noise in your room.
Reflection point
The reflection points of sounds in your room are another location you need to pay attention to. When sounds enter your room, they reflect at the same angle of entry. For instance, you may have to focus your soundproofing efforts on the headboard wall and the footboard wall when sounds that enter your room reflect or keep bouncing back and forth between the headboard and footboard.
Cheapest ways to Soundproof your Room
Very often, a lot of people believe soundproofing a room will be difficult and expensive but there are so many very cheap and easy ways you can soundproof your room from the inside. Some of the cheapest ways to do so include:
Use curtains and window treatment
Most people use curtains as visual barriers and other times to complement the aesthetics of a room but they can also help absorb both unwanted sounds from outside and ambient noise floating around a room.
There are special soundproof curtains made with thick densely woven fabric. These curtains are especially great to pad sounds from outside. To get the best out of this method, make sure the curtains are much larger than the widow you are covering.
Lay down rugs or carpets
Bare floors easily amplify sounds and If your target is to mask sounds from below your apartment or reduce the sounds of footsteps, you can lay thick rugs or carpets in your main living area. Asides from just laying an area rug, you can take your soundproofing efforts up a notch by adding a pad under the rug, this will further mask the sound without taking up more floor space.
You could also consider wall-to-wall carpeting to mask the impact sound from footsteps around your room. There are a variety of high-quality but cheap carpets and rugs that can easily serve this purpose.
Add upholstered furniture
Upholstered furniture provides more areas for sounds to be absorbed into. If you have leather or wood and other similar materials in your space, consider adding upholstered furniture especially if you have bouncing sounds. If you are not comfortable with adding more furniture to your room, you could add a few thick blankets and throw pillows to your existing furniture. The trick is to add softer or spongier materials that easily absorb sounds.
Use blankets
How you use blankets to soundproof will depend on if you are trying to keep sounds in or trying to keep sounds out. If you want to mask sounds within your room, you will need blankets on all sides but if you want to prevent sounds coming from outside, you will need to put blankets specifically over the source of the sounds. For instance, if you want to reduce traffic noise, you can hang blankets over the specific door, window, or wall the sounds come in through.
One great thing about using blankets to soundproof your room is that you do not need to spend extra money buying new blankets. You can simply make use of all the blankets and quilts you already have.
Hang acoustic panels
There are a variety of inexpensive acoustic panels that are perfect for absorbing unwanted sounds. For example, there are easy-to-install foam panels that you can hang around your room. These panels come in different colors so you can choose the ones that complement your existing room decor. Hanging acoustic panels is one of the best and most effective ways to soundproof your room if positioned properly. They are naturally lightweight and serve the dual purpose of damping sounds from outside your room and keeping sounds from reflecting within your room.
The general rule for maximum sound absorption is to position acoustic panels on the wall opposite the source of the sound.
Use soundproofing foams
Soundproofing foams can do a great job of absorbing sounds without costing you a lot. Its relatively low cost and optimum functionality have made it a go-to choice for several people with soundproofing agendas over the years. Soundproofing foam comes in a variety of colors and so can also add to the aesthetics of your room.
Add background noise
Adding background noise is one of the smartest and cheapest ways to soundproof a room. Simply playing soothing background music or adding some white noise is a great way to mask or drown out unwanted sounds. Background noises take your attention away from unwanted sounds so even if there are other annoying sounds around, you are oblivious of them.
Sound machines, air purifiers, and even fans can offer the perfect background noises for your room. Sound machines particularly offer you several options; from nature sounds, to rain and even white noise. Air purifiers and fans can also be pretty loud enough to cancel out other sounds in the room.
Conclusion
There are other cheap ways to soundproof your room including using weatherstripping tape, rearranging furniture, blocking air vents, and several other methods. The basic principles of soundproofing your room, however, lie in sealing all holes and gaps and adding more mass and softer material to absorb or block the sound.
