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We have a square-shaped, corner room that we use as a piano room. The room has doorways into both adjacent interior spaces. One doorway has large French doors with a transom. The other is just open - no doors.

We're remodeling by moving the French doors to the open doorway and closing off where the French doors currently are. The sound of the piano carries quite a bit into the adjacent spaces. Moving the doors and closing off the wall will help with that.

I'm wondering if it'd be worthwhile to also add sound-dampening insulation to fill the space in the new section of the wall. That would mean about 30-40% of the wall would have sound-dampening insulation. Or would it be insignificant to insulate only part of a wall?

Rohit Gupta
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Nick Petrie
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  • Doing a partial job will give partial results. Imagine the person/s playing are decent players, so partial softening of the sound might be enough for you. You don't mind hearing it, but turning down the sound a bit, is enough. – crip659 Feb 11 '23 at 00:34
  • Exactly, we're not trying to shut out the sound completely... just make it so someone in the next room could watch TV or talk on the phone without cranking up the volume. :) (Due to the direction of the speakers, I'm guessing, the TV audio doesn't really carry into the piano room almost at all compared to the sound from the piano to the TV room.) – Nick Petrie Feb 13 '23 at 15:43

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Adding the sound insulation in the new wall obviously can't hurt. However the money spent on the insulation may be better used to purchase acoustic sound insulation panels to stick on the 2 interior walls.

I guess it depends on how you feel about the aesthetics of the walls inside the room.

RMDman
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  • Thanks! We'd definitely prefer to keep the room looking as "normal" as possible. The French doors are mostly glass, so whatever we put in there would be visible as you walk into the house. Additional soft surfaces have helped too - chairs, cushions, area rug, etc. - so we'll do that as well. – Nick Petrie Feb 10 '23 at 22:46
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insignificant depends on your sound reduction expectation.

We could go scientific and do some measurements to determine the impact.

For that one needs directional microphone and sound (Decibels) meter.

Now place an insulation panel of your choosing and measure the sound and then measure next to it to read the difference.

Acoustic mineral wool works well, Fiberglass not so much.

The most elegant and functional solution would be to use triple glassed window in place of the french door. This way you keep the open space feeling from French door snd significantly reduce the noise. Some report reduction by 50% (for example from 100 DB (airplane taking off, to 40 DB (regular conversation level).

But that will depend on your budget. Just go to places (stores) and notice how much the triple glazed window reduce the street noise. You would be surprised to hear noting while watching car and trucks passing by.

asinine
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  • Thanks for that answer. I didn't know about the triple glassed window. That would certainly achieve the result. My only concern is I don't think that would fit the aesthetic. Acoustic mineral wool is exactly what I was thinking. I guess my point on "insignificant" is - say for example you were insulated a space for heat/AC... if you put insulation in 30% of an exterior wall, it'd basically do nothing. 70% of your wall would let in the outside temps. Is it the same with acoustic insulation on interior walls? – Nick Petrie Feb 13 '23 at 15:37
  • Definitely using the directional microphone would give a scientific answer. In my case, I'm curious if anyone has tried or would recommend this before we buy the additional materials and labor. – Nick Petrie Feb 13 '23 at 15:40