A 1 3/4" solid core fire rated exterior door would not necessarily be more resistant to sound transfer than an 1 3/4" interior solid core fire rated door.

What makes the biggest difference is the perimeter gasket and sill treatment that can be installed at the factory.

Go to TruStile.com and choose a standard one or design a custom one with their software or google any door manufacturer and look for thier sound resistant doors.

TruStile doors:

Here is additional information.

A solid core door by itself, no matter the STC rating, will not soundproof the room unless all the flanking paths are blocked. And that is rarely even thought about in these forums until after the fact.

I know this could be a dangerous question, but architects need to know certain information to properly advise; What are the extenuating circumstances that require you to have a nearly soundproof door?

Wouldn't. Weatherproofing around an interior door might be worth considering ... you could attach weatherproofing to the door frame -- above and both sides -- and even to the bottom of the door ... or for the bottom of the door just create a fabric draft dodger that slides beneath the door and has a round tube of fabric both inside and outside the door to muffle noise.

https://www.ebay.com/i/202119891856?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=202119891856&targetid=883584567266&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9011025&poi=&campaignid=6469750552&mkgroupid=92738162767&rlsatarget=pla-883584567266&abcId=1141176&merchantid=113390590&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1vDOiZOi6AIVWdyGCh1Dkw0eEAQYASABEgK2NvD_BwE

@Mark Bischak, Architect If I am in a conference call I would want as little sound disturbance as possible.

Is this for a planned home or is it past the point of construction started?

Construction is almost ending. The walls/windows are fairly well sound insulated. The door is the one I am trying to improve.

Its all in the links from my earlier post. Here is the direct link for the necessary hardware and gasketing.

Skip the exterior door and take RES's route.

What are the ages of the potential noise generators?

Age is not the only problematic factor. Sometimes my wife needs to do another conference call in an adjacent room and that is noise for both of us. And for the past few days even kids' classes are online and they generate significant amount of noise too. The last part is hopefully temporary, but I feel it is better to do the isolation now rather than later.

Home Depot sells doors advertised as reduced noise. They are stocked in SOCAL stores.

@Joe,

I will miss your posts once your project is completed. Yours may be the very first home ever produced based solely on crowd-sourced advice here on houzz.com On further consideration, I think that may be how Frank Gehry designs his stuff. Never mind.

Don't take this the wrong way, but is selling the house once completed and building a new one that meets your needs an option?

Your solution may not be architectural. I wonder if they make microphones that pick-up only sounds generated within a close distance? My wife worked from home today and was in three meetings where she wore a headphones with a microphone attached. I will have to ask her if she knows if it has that capability.

@Mark Bischak,

I know the airline industry has been affected by the coronavirus. Please tell me you wife isn't an air traffic controller working from home.

LOL IMO there is no such thing as a completely sound proof door but a good solid wood one will help. I have those and we have international students that are often on the computer with friends late at night because of time difference and I never hear them with my bedroom door shut. Maybe the sound proofing could have been done while under construction now i can’t see a fireproof door making one bit of difference. I think you would have been much better to have hired pro help from the beginning instead of all this back and forth and still not the house you want.

They make very good quality headphones/microphones that cancel outside noise to both you as well as the people on the other line. Even at the $100 pricepoint, you can get a great earpiece that delivers crystal clear sound but not from noisy children.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting the fire rated solid door was considered not for the fire ratedness but because it is solid (feels more solid than a solid core interior door) and and fits snugly with the sill+threshold as compared to the solid core interior door.

I got that but I still say it won’t make a bit of difference and will look odd.

Just stick a pool noodle with a towel to stuff in in to cover the gap in the floor under the door and see if it helps.

An exterior door on a bedroom (used as an office) is just wrong, don't do it. Check out this site:

https://aquietrefuge.com/soundproof-doorway/

Besides, if you become intoxicated one night, more than one fire rated door will make it harder for you to find the garage.

Have you considered The Cone of Silence?

@Patricia Colwell Consulting I know it will look odd. Hence I was asking what can be done to make it look less odd. But I still feel that a fire rated solid door (similar to the one from home to garage) has better sound reduction than a regular interior solid core door. As many have said putting a noodle like gasket at the bottom to an interior door is an option. I do agree that is a option. Doesn't look great but it is much cheaper and easier to remove in case it has to look like a regular interior door. And I feel even with that setup it doesn't have as much sound reduction than a fire rated solid door that comes with gaskets around the edge.

Well IMO do what you want then.

What did you do to the bedroom/office walls to attenuate sound transmission?

Once again you have started a thread based on an uninformed assumption and then stubbornly defended it in spite of professional advice.

First try the Cone of Silence, then try an interior door with applied soundproofing, then try working outside of the home, then try build a different house with isolated offices, then try an exterior door installed on the interior of the house as a last resort.

There are interior doors made for sound reduction, they have STC ratings and there are exterior doors that have STC ratings you could compare the numbers to each and compare them to your wall assembly and see what would work. 1 3/8 interior doors can have a better STC rating than The wall. You could retrofit a wood threshold to the existing door to close the gap at the bottom or just lower the door assembly if it is on carpet and use the carpet as a friction fit . If your dead set on on an exterior door you remove the threshold , cut it down and modify if with wood and also shorten the width, you could remove the aluminum sill, cut the frame down and put a lower profile sill in or let the weatherstripping graze the floor.. If you like the aluminum sill just replace your flooring with aluminum flooring to match the threshold. There are many options but lack of details to help assist.

I worked in an office building that was built with commercial doors designed to stop sound transmission under the door. They had an extendable piece on the bottom of the door that sealed the gap between the door and the floor. There was a pushbutton actuator in the side of the door on the hinge side, and when you shut the door it pushed the button in and a lever inside the door moved the bottom extension down to close the gap. It was automatic and seemed to work well.

Bruce

I have a 60 year old hollow core exterior door w single pane glass between my laundry and computer nitch. The old school interlocking metal weatherstripping and rubber bottom cuts down dryer noise tremendously so I can have a phone conversation. That's the first line IMHO. Any solid core door w foam or rubber weatherstripping plus a $50-100 automatic door bottom would perform as good or better.

If the walls can be insulated plus a product such as quiet rock on one or both sides. This is a preassembled factory product with a sound deadener between which is more cost effective labor wise unless you're DIY (you're not).

This is what sound treatment of the bottoms of interior doors looks like:

The automatic door bottom drops down when the pin is pressed by the door jamb. They are commonly used for weather stripping of exterior door too.

I have one on my front door that was installed 130 years ago.

Don't try to reinvent the wheel.