Home Improvement → Soundproofing an interior door

Has anyone ever had to soundproof an interior residential door?

If you see in »Preparing for a new house - Subpanel? I have a lot of 'noisemaking' equipment, and it's going to get pretty loud in the hallway.

It doesn't seem to bleed through the walls at all, just the door.

I thought about the good 'ol 'eggcrate' foam, but i'm worried that it's not exactly fire-resistant.

And yes, I am going to do some research, I was just looking to see if anyone had any ideas to start off so I have a direction to look in.

Buy a new pre-hung solid-core door.

I assume the door is a hollow core door...

Cheap answer, get some non-expanding foam, drill a hole or two in the top and spray the foam in until the door is full. I suggest the non-expanding to minimize the chances of blowing apart the door.

That won't work - a hollow core door is not really empty inside. It is more of a honeycomb, depending on the door.

First thing I would consider would be weatherstripping and a threshold. A solid core door is also a good idea. Perhaps it would help to hang a second door on the hall side of the jamb?

solid door is the first step. second step if the noise is still too much is to use indoor/outdoor carpet to cover the inside of the door. it won't be pretty, but it will kill the sounds.

make sure the new door has no gap at the bottom when closed. IIRC you are running a MR Slim Ac in there, so it should not need make up air. if it does, you may have to put in a duct to pull air from somewhere else.

I think fill the door with foam.

Then go buy the egg shell foam sheets like they use in sound rooms. Cheap and effective.

Add the egg shell sheets on the interior wall as needed.

Not sure what the inside of the door is. Could be the honeycomb as some have said..

I'm thinking the majority is right about the solid-core concept. I didn't even think about that until I started looking around.

I'll give the builder a call on Monday and see where they sourced the doors from. I'd like to keep them all matching if possible. The door is right at the top of the stairs, and I don't want it glaringly different from everything else as soon as you walk up.

Thanks for the suggestions! The foam is an interesting one. We tried that stuff a couple of times back when I was doing car audio installs. Scary if you aren't right on with how much you put in..

if this is new just buy a solid door and and egg shell foam. That's as good as it going to get. End of story

have solved sound and noise problems within existing homes to a certain degree. The first thing to do is to try to block sound waves that travel through the air. If you are trying to soundproof a bedroom, then you need to install a solid wood or solid core door. Install high quality weatherstripping around the door to block air from leaking around the door. Switching an interior door with a high quality exterior door that has weatherstripping is not a bad idea.

Use a special acoustical caulk that stays flexible for long periods of time to caulk around all doors and windows and where woodwork touches the floor. Imagine the room is going to be filled with water. Use the caulk to plug any possible place where water might leak from the room. Caulk around all electrical boxes as well.

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What about making something like this. You could stuff it with some sound denting material and make the outer shell out of fire resistant material.