Soundproofing Your Dorm Room: The Ultimate Guide
Noise pollution is a staple in colleges, especially during the day in the college dorms, this is simply because that is the living area of the students. With such noise pollution, it is very easy to stay distracted or unable to concentrate on any brain work and proper thinking, but it does not have to always be like that if you know how to soundproof your dorm to keep out the noise from outside the dorm area.
Soundproofing your dorm room is one of the best ways to reduce noise pollution and improve living conditions for you and your roommates as students, soundproofing your dorm is a type of doing it yourself (DIY) project that you can take up and do yourself with proper guidance within a few hours.
What Is A Noise?
Before we go ahead with what soundproofing is let us understand what a Noise is that would make one decide that they are fed up with it to require soundproofing of their dorm room. Noises in the simple definition are any unwanted vibrations that can be heard by the human ear. Noise can be caused by several different factors including environmental factors, human activities, sound waves, wind, water, etc.
Noises can be of different wavelengths and frequencies these wavelengths and frequencies determine the effect of the noise on the human ear. Noise can be a nuisance in any living environment, and is particularly disruptive in dorm rooms, given the fact that most dorm rooms are located close to one another.
Types of Noise
There are several types of noise too with each type of noise having a different effect on people, some types of noise constitute a problem to some people, with others are not a problem to the same people. Some of the types of noise include;
- White Noise
- Air Movement Noise
- Impact Noise
White Noise
White noise is a type of sound that contains all frequencies equally and with no identifiable pitch. White noise helps to mask other sounds to make it easier to fall asleep or concentrate ignoring other sounds. White noise has different types including pink noise, brown noise, blue noise, etc.
Air Movement Noise
This is a type of noise that is caused by the vibrations of air molecules due to the movement of air. Air movement noise can be generated as a result of an airstream passing over an obstacle, or as a result of turbulent flow.
Air movement noise may occur when there is an increase in the speed of airflow in a duct. The air movement noise results from factors such as an increase in pressure, and a change in the angle of the airflow. This type of noise can lead to excessive distraction of students.
Impact Noise
This is a type of external noise that can cause deafening echoes in your room if the sound bounces off surfaces like walls and ceilings before reaching your ear. The impact noise can be generated from raindrops or other external loud noise sources.
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How To Soundproof
Soundproofing a room or home can be tricky, particularly if you are soundproofing a personal room. To soundproof a room or home you need to determine the type of noise that is affecting the room or home you wish to soundproof. Depending on the type of noise you want to soundproof your room against you can use wall hangings, acoustic panels, wall paddings, etc.
How to Soundproof a Dorm Room
Soundproofing your dorm room is very important because you require a noiseless dorm room as much as possible. This is to enable you to concentrate while studying, sleeping, or doing other tasks that require a lot of brainpower.
Note that no matter the method or material you use to soundproof your dorm room, you may not be able to eliminate noise from your dorm room. But these methods will drastically reduce noise from your dorm room to very negligible levels. Soundproofing your dorm room can be done in several ways using different materials and methods including:
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Cork Your Dorm Room Walls
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Add Furniture to Your Dorm Room
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Rearrange Existing Furniture
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Hang Decorations
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Use Acoustic Tile
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Use Soundproofing Paint
Cork Your Dorm Room Walls
Cork is an excellent soundproofing material because it absorbs sound vibrations and keeps them in without allowing such noise to escape into your dorm room. Placing corks on your dorm room walls can keep out noise thereby soundproofing your dorm room. The cork should be placed at the noise points of the walls.
Corks are good to use for soundproofing because they are inexpensive. Note that cork alone will not be enough to remove all noise completely therefore you will need to deploy other methods of soundproofing.
Add Furniture to Your Dorm Room
When you do not have furniture in your dorm room the room tends to be noisier, this is because sounds echo and bounce off around the walls of the room.
Adding furniture to your dorm room will help you reduce the noise in your dorm room by absorbing the noise that comes into the room and not allowing the noise to bounce and reflect around the room. Furniture and other dorm room items impede the intensity of the unwanted sound waves.
Rearrange Existing Furniture
The arrangement of your furniture in the house is very significant in reducing and impeding the noise coming into your dorm room. Therefore you should position your furniture against the walls at the point where noise gets into the room to disrupt, block and impede the noise. This arrangement is necessary because the bulk of the noise in your room comes from the walls.
Use Soundproofing Paint
Soundproofing paint is a simple, inexpensive solution to the noise issues that can plague college students in dorm rooms. When placed on walls, it will reduce the amount of sound that comes in and out of your dorm room.
There are specific paints that absorb noise coming into your dorm room when used to paint the inner walls of your dorm room such paints include drywall joint compound, drywall joint plaster, etc. Soundproof paints are produced from latex, which has thermal and sound insulation properties.
What Factors Make A Dorm Soundproof?
Several factors help you decide if a dorm room is soundproof to the extent you want. The level of soundproofing in dorm rooms varies from school to school therefore you will have to determine big the level of soundproofing in your assigned dorm room is enough for you. Some of the factors that make a dorm room soundproof include:
- Flooring Installation Type
- Type of Painting Used on the Dorm Room Walls
- Type of Material Used for the Dorm Room Door
- The thickness of the Dorm Rooms Walls
Top Soundproofing Materials
There are several soundproofing materials in use, but not all of them can be said to be top soundproofing materials. The too soundproofing materials include:
- Cork
- Furniture
- Acoustic Foam
- Carpet Squares
- Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV)
- Mass Loaded Vinyl Tiles (MLVT)
- Mineral wool
- Polyurethane
- Spray foam
- Foam core
Top Noise Canceling Headphones
There are several Noise Cancelling Headphones out there the top ones include:
- Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
- JBL
- Plantronics BackBeat PRO 2
- Sennheiser HD 4.50 BT
- Sony MDR-NC50 Noise Canceling Headphones
- NoiseHush i7 Aviator Active Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones
Cheapest Way to Soundproof a Room
Several materials and methods can be deployed in the soundproofing of any room but not all these methods are affordable. Some of these methods could cost thousands of dollars, while the cost less expensive methods and materials cost a couple of hundred dollars. Some of the cheapest ways to soundproof a room include:
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Use Thick blankets and Quilts to block outside Noise
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Use of Corks on walls to keep out external noise
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Use Curtains over windows
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Rearranging your furniture is probably the cheapest method as you spend no money at all to rearrange your existing furniture
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Use Blinds that are ticket
What Type of Soundproofing Should be Done to a Dorm Room’s Ceiling?
The best way to treat dorm room ceiling soundproofing is to deploy both sound absorption and sound isolation soundproofing methods to always isolate unwanted noise and absorb other noises coming from neighbors.
The sound absorption method insulates noise by converting acoustic energy into thermal energy, to reduce the amount of noise that passes through your ceiling. While sound isolation provides an airtight sound seal to physically stop sound in the form of acoustic energy from passing through your ceiling.
How to Soundproof a Room | DIY Soundproofing for Your Home 2022
There are a few different ways to soundproof a room, and the best way to do it depends on the type of noise you’re trying to block out. You can add soundproofing materials such as insulation, noise-canceling paint, soundproofing tiles to help deaden the sound, and acoustic panels to help absorb the noise to the walls, ceiling, and floor, of your home.
You can also use soundproof curtains or panels to help reduce the noise level in your home. If you want to soundproof your home yourself you will want to deploy methods that will not need too much expert installation to be achieved. Some of them do it yourself cheap methods of soundproofing include:
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Use blankets to block noise leakage points in your home by covering walls through which noise gets into your house
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Rearranging your furniture and other household items which are bulky can help you to soundproof your home on a DIY basis
What Should I Do if I Experience Noise Problems after installing Soundproofing?
Continued hearing and having noise problems after soundproofing your home points to soundproofing mistakes or deterioration in the soundproofing materials used.
It could be that your soundproofing was not properly done, your soundproofing was done with inferior materials, your soundproofing materials were placed in the wrong noise points, etc., hence why you still have a noise problem.
If you find yourself in a situation where you still have noise problems you have a few things you can do, with the main one being to completely redo your soundproofing and apply the methods and materials at the exact noise points, or adding more soundproofing to augment the existing ones.
FAQs
How to Soundproof Your Dorm Room
There are a few ways to soundproof your dorm room. You can purchase soundproofing materials like insulation, foam, and sound-dampening curtains. You can also try DIY methods like hanging blankets or carpets on the walls or stuffing towels or clothing inside the door.
What is Dorm Room Noise?
Dorm room noise is unwanted sound that can come from several sources in the dorm room including fellow students. Some of the sources of noise in the dorm include radios, televisions, stereos, CD players, computers, chattering by students, etc.
What Are Some Ways to Reduce Noise in a Dorm Room?
There are several ways of reducing noise in a dorm room including the use of Corks, using blankets to cover walls, rearranging dorm furniture, etc.
Can Changing Rooms Solve the Problem of Too Much Noise in a Dorm Room?
Yes, if the new room has soundproof materials installed or enabled or if the noise conditions in the new room are better. But the changing room is not a guarantee for ending your dorm room noise problems
What are Noise Cancelling Headphones?
Noise-canceling headphones use electronic sound waves to block out external sounds and make it difficult for the listener to hear the environment around them. The technology works by adapting to the surrounding noise and sending a different frequency wave in its place, thus reducing or completely blocking out the unwanted sound waves.
Is There a Cost Associated With Using Them?
There is usually no additional cost associated with using these headphones; however, certain models may come with extra features (i.e., wireless capabilities) that may incur an added expense.
There is usually no additional cost associated with using these headphones; however, certain models may come with extra features (i.e., wireless capabilities) that may incur an added expense.
