Soundproofing hollow-core door with cellulose?
Hello All,
I have a guest bedroom in my house connected to the kitchen via a very short hallway, and I’d like to decrease the sound transmission between bedroom and kitchen. There are no common walls between kitchen and bedroom, so most or all of the sound transmission is through the door.
I’ve been considering replacing the hollow core doors throughout the house with solid core doors, but from what I’ve been reading I’m dubious this will really cut sound transmission.
Now I know that cellulose blown into an uninsulated wall will cut noise transmission from the outside, can I try the same thing with a hollow door? I could cut a hole into the door from the top edge so that the hole could be filled afterwards without looking “DIY”. The bedroom has it’s own baseboard hydronic heat, so I’m not worried about blocking heat flow.
The logic seems sound, but I wanted to check with others to see if there is something I’m overlooking. (6A for what it’s worth)
Thank you,
Joshua
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Replies
Joshua,
It's far easier to just buy a solid-core door than it would be to try to fill a hollow-core door with cellulose and patch it.
Note that the first step to reduce sound transmission through a door is installing good weatherstripping. But a solid-core door is certainly better than a hollow-core door.
A hollowcore door typically is full of cardboard spacers to stiffen the door panel. You wouldn't be able to fill it without a LOT of holes.
You could potentially open up a hole spanning most of the top or bottom of the door, and pull the cardboard out. I don't know how successful one would be at filling the door with cellulose to the right density to keep it stiff, but not have it bulge. I think you'd have to value your time at next to nothing in order to make such a venture worth it.
This is one of the times a picture is worth thousand words
Walta
Great picture.
Thank you all for the advice, off to pickup the solid door then...
Joshua,
Before you choose a door look at it's STC rating. You may find some foam-filled ones perform better than solid-core wood.
As others have pointed out a lot depends on effective weatherstripping. Installing a wood threshold and sweep makes a big difference.
+1 on checking its STC
Noise is incredibly hard to mitigate after construction, having numbers makes an almost impossible job a bit easier.
But do be prepared to find out its not enough.
Weatherstripping or gasket around the door will make the biggest difference. The top and sides of the door are easy. Sealing between the bottom of the door and the floor is harder. If you've got hard floors, it might be easier to just use a rolled up towel. Some people may find that irritating, but it's easy if you can put up with it.