How do I stop the sound from getting through my dorm's room-connecting door?

[amdskip]

What about just a 2" thick piece of styrofoam insulation covering the whole door and the cracks?

 

[bleeb]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
its called putting a huge subwoofer next to that door and just using it at the strangest times. whenever he makes noise, you suddenly start blaring.

Yes.... turn on the SUBwoofer to Daft Punks "Around the World" on repeat and that will annoy the HELL out of everyone!!! including that neighbor.

 

[vegetation]

Not much you can do physically, as the door is hollow it won't matter how much insulation you put around it. Since you probably can't do permanent construction, I suggest you take this to an administrative level and perhaps even move out.

 

[KnickNut3]

OK, I'll look into the various insulation options. Where would these be? A simple hardware store? Walmart?

Again, striking back is not an option because it's not fair to the decent roommate, and the school doesn't let you move (it took another kid 4 months of complaining about HIS roommate before they reluctantly let him move--I doubt complaining about someone next door will do anything), and talking to an RA has done nothing.

 

[bigredguy]

I'm guessing that its a fire door so i don't think you can do anything permanent to hinder its opening. For a temporary solution try duct taping a matress across it. Or if you can get some cubicle walls, they absorb sound well. They also make sound board, you see it hanging in large enclosed spaces to cut down the echo. Also i think a wall of empty egg cartons might cut down on sound as well.

 

[brigden]

I'm in a similar situation. For the last year and a half my roommates have been awesome. Quiet, neat, and all in bed by midnight. I'm an extremely light sleeper, but sleeping was never a problem. Three months ago one of my roommates bought a house and moved out. I placed an ad and found a new guy. I thought he would be fine, and explicitly told him the first day he moved in that our house is generally quiet, and by 11pm I didn't want to hear a peep.

Of course the first week he moved in it was Frosh Week and as a result he was out drinking all week, coming home late, and making too much noise. I decided to let it slide as it was Frosh Week. After that, once I was in bed and he was making too much noise I would tell him to STFU.

Then, Thursday night, he came home at 2:30am, crashing and banging around. I woke up, went downstairs, told him to STFU, and went to bed. He continued to keep me up until 6am, despite my repeatedly banging on the wall that separates our rooms. I start work at 7am. I had been up since 2:30am, and got a little less than three hours sleep.

When I came home yesterday I ripped into him good. I took him down a few pegs and hopefully the days of his waking me up are past.

 

[Walleye]

who's side has the empty space for the door frame? how deep is it? if it's like a 4 inch deep door frame, get some foam (from soundproofing links) and cut it about 4 inches long on all sides, compress it into the doorway.

if necessary, get a sheet of plywood and cut it to fit the doorway. compress stuff in, then somehow lock the plywood in.

not sure how. maybe some wood blocks screwed into the wall on either side of the doorway, holding the plywood in?

edit:

I'm talking about THICK foam. like 6 inches thick.

edit 2:

Or use fake shake.

 

[KnickNut3]

Yeah, we don't have 6 inches to work with... maybe 2...

Nah, it's not a fire door. Just a connecting door like in a hotel (except it's only 1 door, not 2). Have no idea why they'd ever want to rooms to connect. The space is all on their side, but they're not against a solution (although them paying for at least half of it better be a definite).

 

[Hossenfeffer]

A) Making noise, banging on the door, telling him to "STFU" will do nothing.

B) Spending money on sound insulating material(s) will be far from satisfying.

If you're dead set on spending money on this, get some sort of deadening material for the door, then maybe invest in a small (but rather loud) fan to create some white noise.

Might try just talking to the guy. Not in a threatening way, but try to get some understanding out of him. You're paying money to be there and it's unreasonable that you should have to put up with his noise.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: KnickNut3
Yeah, we don't have 6 inches to work with... maybe 2...

Nah, it's not a fire door. Just a connecting door like in a hotel (except it's only 1 door, not 2). Have no idea why they'd ever want to rooms to connect. The space is all on their side, but they're not against a solution (although them paying for at least half of it better be a definite).

if you're good at compression, then 2 inches is good enough.

get maybe the 4 inch thick foam, and compress it into the doorway. cover it over with a plywood sheet. half inch AC will work well. AB would probably be best. the only problem i dont know how to solve (cause i havent seen this IRL) is how to anchor the plywood so that it isnt pushed back out. like i said, i'd reccommend a wood block over the top and bottom, but i dont know how well that'd go over with the dorm dudes.

 

[KnickNut3]

Might try just talking to the guy. Not in a threatening way, but try to get some understanding out of him. You're paying money to be there and it's unreasonable that you should have to put up with his noise.

Been there, done that. As I said, he's ignorant to the fact that others can't sleep when it sounds like people are right next to them talking and laughing...

I'll head to the store and check it out.

 

[bigredguy]

how permanent can this be? Can you nail stuff into the doorframe? Or is it something that you have to be able to tear down when you leave?

 

[KnickNut3]

I'd assume tear-downable