Sound moves a lot like water, it will find its way to the weakest point and can travel through the smallest of gaps. So the biggest key to stopping sound is sealing up gaps, just like you’d want your shower to be sealed up before running the water.  

Step One: Soundproof Your Home Office Walls (And Ceiling + Floor Ideally)

We mentioned STC ratings quite a bit when we talk about soundproofing, and for good reason!. An STC rating is a measure of how well a partition, like a wall, blocks sound. Here’s a quick reference on how much sound is blocked depending on the STC rating.

With that in mind, remember that a well sealed standard residential wall has an STC rating of 38. If you’ve taken all the steps above to seal gaps around doors, windows, and outlets, you’ve got an STC rating approaching 40 which is good enough for most home offices.

To increase your wall’s STC rating without breaking out the sledgehammer, you can add additional drywall to increase the mass. Use Green Glue to apply an extra layer of ⅝” drywall. This decoupler layer of drywall in addition to sealing gaps will take your STC rating into the low 50s. An interior soundproof blanket on the walls can also go a long way to block sound.

Protip: If you’re going to soundproof walls, you need to do the ceiling (and probably floor) as well. If you don’t, sound will “flank” over or under your walls into your space. Treat your ceiling the same way you would your wall with Green Glue and ⅝” drywall. For soundproofing floors you can add a rubber underlayment and then additional flooring on top.

Homes can shift and move over time, and even new homes may have gaps in the wall construction. Most contractors are not focused perfectly sealing a wall for soundproofing. Take a look at your base molding, electrical outlets, and vents. Use acoustic seal inside these gaps to seal up spaces so things connect tightly and less sound can get through. A well sealed residential wall has an STC rating of about 38, but most walls in your home have an STC rating of 30-34 due to lack of proper sealing. Acoustic caulk is cheap. This is a an easy fix and good place to start.

Step Two: Soundproof Office Weakpoints like Doors and windows

There’s often more space around your doors and windows than you think. The average door has roughly a square foot of space around it. Imagine a square foot hole in the middle of your wall, and it would be pretty clear where the noise is coming from.

First take a look at the door itself. If it’s a hollow core door, then it’s not dense enough to be a good sound barrier. Replace it with a solid core door. Then use a Sound Lock™ Adjustable Door Seal Kit Seal Kit to plug the gaps all around your door to completely seal up any remaining gaps. We often hear about using weather stripping from your local hardware store, which is actually a great solution for thermal transfer, but it won’t do much to block sound because those rubber seals don’t seal well enough to stop sound transfer.

For a true seal, we recommend a Sound Lock™ Adjustable Door Seal Kit. The kit is made up of 3 adjustable seals for the top and sides of the door, and 1 bottom seal. When the door is shut and the kit is installed, the seal will expand to apply pressure to the floor and edges to create a complete seal. The seal then retracts when opening the door so you don’t even notice it’s there.

Windows suffer from the same problems as doors. If you are wondering how to soundproof a window, you can replace them, but that’s even more difficult and way more expensive than replacing a door. Soundproof window inserts are a cost-effective and easy-to-install way to seal up the gaps around windows. They also help with thermal insulation which gives the added benefit of reducing your heating and cooling costs!

At this point you’ve probably done enough for the run-of-the-mill office job with a few meetings throughout the day. But if your job requires things like recording, performing, teaching or otherwise presenting virtually for extended periods, you may need to take additional home office soundproofing steps.

The Acoustic Pro fabric wrapped panels are not only immensely effective at improving sound quality, but they’re designed to look great with custom shapes, colors, and even designs. So even if you’re still wearing sweatpants on the bottom, you’ll look very professional on screen.

Need Help Soundproofing your home office?

Working from home has been a blessing and a curse for most of us. And while it’s great that our commutes are cut down to about 20 feet, it’s not always great for productivity. We hope our guide helps you carve out that quiet space to clear your head and get work done, but if you still have questions, reach out to us anytime, we’d love to help!