Soundproofing bathroom door

13 years ago

Hi everyone,

We finished our home a year or so ago, and I am finding our powder room has a noise problem. It is in the entry hall in close proximity to the family/living room. I think I have isolated the problem to the door. We have solid wood doors but they are Shaker-panel, and have quite thin panels. We have a fire door to the garage just opposite the bathroom and it is very effective at sound insulation. Problem is, it costs $900! Here is my (weird?) question: Would it help to put acoustical tile in the recessed panels of the door on the bathroom side? I could cover them with wallpaper or fabric or something...anyone ever tried anything like this? DH thinks it's no big deal but to me it is super embarrassing when we have guests, hearing all the bathroom noise.

Anyway, it will probably be a cold day in you-know-where before he replaces the bathroom door with a fire door. I have a door sweep on the bottom and we have staggered studs and rock wool insulation which seems to control the noise through the walls.

Any other suggestions? I know I could get a more solid door but it would be the only one in the house that's different, and there are three doors in the entry hall...it would just look funny.

I've gotten lots of good advice on the forums, hope you can help me with this one!

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Comments (5)

jejvtr
13 years ago
valley

That is a conundrum -

Glad to hear you did the staggered studs & rock wool

Isolating where the sound is coming from is quite difficult as there are likely many cavities it could be escaping from

1st - What type of sounds
- conversation, foot hitting floor sound, water running, toilet flushing

2nd - If you believe that it is coming from the door I would recommend removing the door & doing a mock up in the doorway - padding an old piece of sheet rock w/rock wool or acoustical tile - problem is how to get in/out to assess. ? is there a window that someone could get in/out? sounds silly I know - but you really could be chasing your tail or sounds on this one.

You could attempt the mock up with the existing door -

also- does the door fit snugly to the frame no gaping?

Best of luck
0
kitch_n_kat
13 years ago
Hi v-magpie,
When we put a new fan in our powder room off the living area...my dh pointed out that we should not get too quiet of a fan in there; meaning, if someone wanted a bit of buffer noise, they should have that option. If you have a fan in your powder room, you could put it on the same switch as the light so it turns on automatically with the light.

Place a rug in the room....just outside the room.

I made a mental note of a product I read about nicknamed "green foam" that could be used in crevices of electrical outlet and swith boxes. It could have been product hype but the source said these areas seeped a lot of energy.

Not sure of the material of your particular door sweep, but I'd suggest adding a solid piece of wood to fill the gap under the door...you can tack a piece of stain-matched wood to the bottom, that will basically disappear when the door is hung; we changed the flooring in a home and then had a 1.5" bottom gap that we filled in such a way and it worked very well for sound. I know the purpose of the gaps for hvac reasons...but if you keep the door open when not in use, this is not a problem.

Of course, the above suggestions may not be relevant to your issue, and I would consider your idea of veneering something to the back of the door or simply replacing it with a more dense wood solid door if you're confident that it's the main issue. Getting a door that suits the need will put the issue behind you for good- live and learn.

Update, please, if you find a way for improving your issue...I am interested in practical home sound control- in case you couldn't tell. : )
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valleymagpie
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your suggestions:

Jejvtr,

That's an interesting idea, making a mock-up of the door! I'm not concerned about any noise but--ahem, "bowl noise." Our pipes are cast iron and quiet, and our Toto toilets flush quite quickly (~20 seconds). Our bathroom is on the second floor and it would be quite difficult to climb in and out of the window (although possible). What I have been doing is leaving a radio on in the bathroom and seeing if different things lessened the noise. I know that's not perfect but it's all I can do right now. The door LOOKS tight in the frame, but we got some seal (weatherstripping) that I will put around the door tomorrow. I'm really trying to mock up the fire door, which of course has weatherstripping. I may look into acoustical tile and work on that mock-up idea...

kitch n kat,

I finally got around to the idea to hook the fan to the light (Dh can do that; he's really good at wiring, etc.) HOWEVER I tried the fan today and IT'S TOO QUIET! He sure as heck is not going to trade in a quiet fan for a noisy one (LOL) Nice that you thought of that idea first...

I really like the idea of "extending" the door. We actually did that with our front door when the door company cut it off too short! I was heartbroken since it was a beautiful knotty alder door and I complained to everyone I saw. Fortunately I complained to our dear cabinetmaker who told me it could be fixed...and it was, beautifully. You can't even tell.

We do leave the bathroom door open except when we have company (it looks a little tacky in our nice entry).

Getting a different door is probably the best solution but almost impossible since the style wouldn't match. There's only the $900 fire door...

I'll keep you posted if I make any progress.

- Magpie
0
valleymagpie
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your suggestions:

Jejvtr,

That's an interesting idea, making a mock-up of the door! I'm not concerned about any noise but--ahem, "bowl noise." Our pipes are cast iron and quiet, and our Toto toilets flush quite quickly (~20 seconds). Our bathroom is on the second floor and it would be quite difficult to climb in and out of the window (although possible). What I have been doing is leaving a radio on in the bathroom and seeing if different things lessened the noise. I know that's not perfect but it's all I can do right now. The door LOOKS tight in the frame, but we got some seal (weatherstripping) that I will put around the door tomorrow. I'm really trying to mock up the fire door, which of course has weatherstripping. I may look into acoustical tile and work on that mock-up idea...

kitch n kat,

I finally got around to the idea to hook the fan to the light (Dh can do that; he's really good at wiring, etc.) HOWEVER I tried the fan today and IT'S TOO QUIET! He sure as heck is not going to trade in a quiet fan for a noisy one (LOL) Nice that you thought of that idea first...

I really like the idea of "extending" the door. We actually did that with our front door when the door company cut it off too short! I was heartbroken since it was a beautiful knotty alder door and I complained to everyone I saw. Fortunately I complained to our dear cabinetmaker who told me it could be fixed...and it was, beautifully. You can't even tell.

We do leave the bathroom door open except when we have company (it looks a little tacky in our nice entry).

Getting a different door is probably the best solution but almost impossible since the style wouldn't match. There's only the $900 fire door...

I'll keep you posted if I make any progress.

- Magpie
0
jacobse
13 years ago
Befor eyou give up on the idea of replacing the door, are you sure the $900 door is your only option? Have you tried pricing it elsewhere. The reason I'm saying that is that as we're finishing up our 2 bathrooms + siding + porch + etc. renovation projects, I decided to replace the door from our garage to our laundry room/kitchen at the same time as we're replacing the front door. I wanted a 6-panel door to match our interior doors in the kitchen, and it needed to be a fire-rated door since it comes from the garage. Our contractor is getting one made and installing it for about $350. So I'm just wondering if you might be able to find the door you need for less somewhere else. Just a thought...

-- Eric

Soundproofing bathroom door

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Soundproofing bathroom door

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