ᐅ Soundproofing – Differences in Interior Doors?

Created on: 2 Aug 2016 11:32
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Basti2709
Hello dear forum members,
I would like to ask for your experiences regarding sound insulation in interior doors.

Last year, we had our own house built and also did a lot of the work ourselves. Among other things, my father (a longtime carpenter/joiner) and I installed the interior doors by ourselves. I have read a lot about home construction... but some topics, like the one mentioned above about interior doors, took a bit of a backseat. Honestly, we focused more on appearance and price than on function. In the end, we chose what we think are visually appealing interior doors with honeycomb core. After several months, however, I have realized the reason for the low price... in my opinion, the doors provide almost no sound insulation. Since we have a very open living area, a lot of noise carries into the upstairs rooms. I might be able to live with that if we didn’t have small children who are very light sleepers...

By now, I have come to the conclusion that “buying cheap means buying twice.” So at least I want to replace the doors on the upper floor. But how much improvement does such a replacement really bring? Since the doors need to fit the existing frame, the selection is limited. I have now found doors with a tubular chipboard core... does that already offer a meaningful improvement? Or do you need a solid core door?

With the current interior doors, I cannot notice much difference between closed and open. Does anyone have experience with how much sound insulation different door cores provide? For example:

- Honeycomb core / 20 dB
- Tubular chipboard frame / 40 dB
- Tubular core / 50 dB
- Solid core / 55 dB

The goal is to figure out whether it makes sense to choose a certain core type. If the difference between solid core and tubular chipboard frame is small, then tubular chipboard is enough for me... if only the solid core really improves sound insulation and the difference between tubular core and honeycomb core is barely noticeable, then I can save myself the tubular chipboard option...

What kind of doors do you have and how satisfied are you with the sound insulation?

Best regards,
Basti2709
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toxicmolotof
2 Aug 2016 20:25
Neige schrieb:
Ventilation can also be done through the top frame.

Of course, but even then you can skip using solid core, because the "noise" will find its way through the frame.
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Legurit
2 Aug 2016 20:38
Is the ventilation system really that critical? After all, the room isn’t sealed off airtight for the rest of its life...
Neige2 Aug 2016 22:48
Does anyone here know the Planet minE-S system?
It is an overflow duct that allows air to circulate and equalize pressure. To ensure sound insulation, the lower door gap is sealed tightly. I recently came across this system on the internet.
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toxicmolotof
2 Aug 2016 23:52
I have to admit I’m not sure about that. I just know that sound always takes the path of least resistance (so to speak).

As our architect said... what’s the point of a 180mm (7 inch) sand-lime brick wall and a well-insulated window if the noise (in our case, aircraft noise) primarily comes through the roller shutter box and the opening for the range hood?
Basti27093 Aug 2016 08:59
I have measured again… the gaps under the door are between 0.4 and 0.6 millimeters (0.02 and 0.02 inches)… so it can’t be caused by that, right?
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toxicmolotof
3 Aug 2016 11:49
You probably mean cm (centimeters), right?

That’s not much, but already quite a bit for sound.