Acoustical Doors & Door Seals
D writes:
I have an office on my first floor and work from home. I hear every noise outside my office through my door which is just the $30 builder spec white hollow door. Are their any doors that provide noise dampening?
Thanks, D
I can tell you right now that you’re not going to want or need one of our ‘Acoustical Doors‘. They will not only be overkill for your needs, but are most likely out of your budget for this project. They are typically installed in recording studios, government sites, or incredibly noisy machinery rooms, and they are in the thousands-of-dollars price range.
My suggestion would be to replace the door with a solid-core wood door. After you get that installed, consider putting in one of our Adjustable Door Seal perimeter kits. These attach to the door bottom and to the door jamb and create an air-tight seal. The elimination of the air gaps from one side of the door to the other has everything to do with the amount of sound that is blocked by the door.
A one-percent air gap (1/8″ gap along the floor) around the door will leak up to 30% of the noise from one side of the door to the other. The automatic door bottom will lower a neoprene gasket to the floor. The door bottom works as a self-leveling unit so the gasket that is near the hinge will hit the ground first, and the rest will level to the ground as the door closes further and further.
The adjustable jamb seal is installed around the two sides and top of the door jamb offering the door a soft neoprene rubber seal to close onto, rather than the small gap between the door and the door jamb.
There are two thicknesses that we offer, the standard kit which is about ½” in thickness, and the heavy duty kit, which is 7/8″ in thickness. The advantage of the heavy duty kit over the standard kit is the increased amount of gasketing that makes the seal. The casings for both are an anodized aluminum finish – and we stock the clear. I can get gold and bronze finishes, but they are made on a per-job basis and are slightly more expensive.
You may need to do some field cutting in order to get these to fit exactly. We have found that the easiest way is with a “chop saw” or a compound miter saw and a metal blade. The adjustable jamb seals can be trimmed at any length, but there are some restrictions for the door bottoms. The 36″, 42″ and 48″ door bottoms can be trimmed up to three-inches. Any other size can be trimmed up to one-inch. Any door bottom between 18″ and 24″ can not be cut. If the bottoms are cut out of this tolerance, the mechanical parts inside the casing does not work.
The standard kit and the heavy duty kit can be purchased online. Other sizes can be made by request.
