Soundproof foam or acoustic foam is an open celled material made of polyurethane foam and extruded melamine foam, and is used to improve the speech clarity and also the quality of the sound created in a space. Let’s see what are soundproof foam pros and cons.
What is Soundproof or Acoustic Foam?
Acoustic foam panels are used to improve the quality of the speech and sound by absorbing the residual sound present in a specific space such as a room, a hall, etc.
This type of foam is usually installed inside recording studios because it has the capacity to reduce (not entirely) the resonance inside a room (by absorbing the echoes and the background noises).
If the resonance is no longer present in the room (almost all the background noises have been absorbed by the foam), the speech and the sound quality will significantly improve.
The acoustic foam is usually cut into tiles with different sizes and colors.
These tiles can be found in column, wedge, pyramid, cones or triangle shape, and are used to seal the walls, the ceiling, the doors or any other places in the room that could reflect the sound.
Acoustic foam can reduce high frequency sounds
To reduce the mid and the high frequency sounds normal tiles of acoustic foam are used, while to reduce the low frequency sounds thicker pieces of acoustic foam are required.
The acoustic foam is used to improve the quality of the sound, while the soundproof foam is used to block any sound that tries to enter or escape a room.
However, the acoustic foam installed in churches, synagogues, concert halls, conference halls, corporate offices etc. will improve the quality of the speech and the general sound inside the rooms, and at the same time will keep the sounds only inside those rooms, and away from the people outside.
As we can see, acoustic foam is used inside rooms and large halls to soundproof them from the outside world.
Acoustic foam can also be used to soundproof your room or your house from the noises that are coming from outside.
Soundproof Foam Insulation
If you live close to a railway, a busy road or you simply can’t sleep due to the noise produced by your neighbors, or you are the person that produces sound pollution in the area, you should always soundproof your room and maybe even the entire house.
To stop the sound waves that are coming from outside or the sound waves that are produced in your room or house you need to soundproof your room or the entire house using acoustic foam.
From the beginning, you need to know that doing an acoustic treatment inside a room is different from soundproofing the room.
How to Improve the Sound Inside a Room Using Acoustic Foam?
To do an acoustic treatment of your room/studio that will improve the sound and the speech quality inside the room, you need to use quality acoustic foam panels that have thickness, and are flexible and also light.
To improve the acoustics in your room/studio even more, you can use a bass trap kit that will stop the sound waves from hitting the corners of the room.
This bass trap kit is perfect in the room if you are using a sensitive microphone to record your voice.
To install the acoustic foam panels on your walls, ceiling and maybe even on your doors, you need to use mounting strips.
If the kit does not include mounting strips, you can use this double coated foam tape to install the acoustic foam panels on the walls.
How to Soundproof a Room?
Soundproofing a room is a different activity from installing acoustic foam to improve the sound quality inside a room.
We can soundproof a room using a cheap method or the professional method.
The cheap method can be used if you want to soundproof a room on a small budget or simply because the room is rented and you can’t damage the paint on the walls to avoid losing your deposit.
In this case, you can use acoustic foam to soundproof the entire room on a low budget.
To install the acoustic panels you will need picture hanging strips that will stick the acoustic panels using stick on tape.
This method is effective on soundproofing a room only if the walls are painted.
If you have brick walls or you have wallpaper using the low budget method will not work very well.
To soundproof any room you can use the professional method which will require walls made of wood frame that are filled with mineral wool.
You can use mineral wool in order to soundproof the room like a professional because the mineral wool can add density to the walls, which is required to block the low frequency sounds such as the bass.
Pros of Soundproof and Acoustic Foam
Being a material that is helping us to reduce the noise that comes from outside or the sound that is produced in our room/house, the soundproof acoustic foam has more advantages than disadvantages.
1. Can Improve the Sound Quality Inside a Room
Acoustic foam is a great material that can improve the quality of the sound produced in a room, hall or studio because by absorbing the echoes and the background sounds it will highly improve the quality of the speech and the sound inside that space.
If you are using a very sensitive microphone to create your music/videos inside the room/studio you will definitely need to improve the acoustics inside that space, otherwise your work will have sound bad due to the echoes and background sounds that will travel freely from one wall to another in the room.
2. Is a Great Material for Reducing Noise Pollution
Soundproofing a room such as a studio, a home theater, a workshop, etc. will reduce noise pollution in the area and will improve the comfort of the people living around.
If you have a small budget to soundproof a room you can buy cheap soundproof foam that will do the job if the noise inside that room is not very loud.
However, if you want to stop almost all the sounds produced inside a room, studio, hall, etc. you need to do a professional soundproofing job for the entire room, studio or hall.
This will involve building materials such as wood, mineral wool and at least one or two workers to do the job.
It will cost more, but it will reduce almost the entire sound or noise produced in that room.
3. Acoustic Foam Can Improve the Design Of Your Room
Today, you can find on the market, many types of acoustic foam (with different textures) that are painted in different colors such as black, grey, red, white, black/red, white/black, white/red and so on.
This way you can choose a nice combination of colors to improve the design of your room/studio.
A soundproofed room will always improve the privacy inside the room and will also help you to work more focused and more efficient in that room.
Cons of Soundproof and Acoustic Foam
Like any material used in construction or in room design, the acoustic foam and the soundproof foam have both at least one disadvantage.
1. Cannot withhold fire
It is true that both acoustic foam and soundproof foam are treated against fire with substances that are slowing or stopping the spread of fire or are reducing its intensity.
However, because they are both manufactured mainly from polyurethane, they will release a black smoke while being in contact with fire, and they could also burn entirely in case of a big fire that involves the room or the entire house.
2. Soundproofing or Improving the Acoustics of a Room is Not Effective if the Foam Tiles Are Placed Incorrectly
The main foam tiles (not the ones placed in corners) that are used to improve the acoustics of a room have usually a square shape and need to be placed on the walls that are responsible with the echoes and the background sounds inside that room.
If you manage to absorb the unwanted sounds with the acoustic foam tiles placed on the walls, you will greatly improve the quality of the sound and the speech produced in that room.
Conclusion
Soundproofing your room or the entire house will protect you from the outside noise, or will reduce the noise pollution in the area if you are the source of the loud noise produced inside your room or house (maybe you have a studio or a workshop there).
By installing acoustic foam tiles to improve the sound quality of your room/studio you will also create a new and interesting design for your room, which will make you feel more comfortable there.
Thank you very much for presenting this data about soundproof foam pros and cons, it’s known how to get approved but what are the next steps after getting the approval. Wonderful information, thanks a lot for sharing this kind of content with us!
It’s great to know that by using acoustic foam to soundproof a room, you could improve the quality of sound and speech in the space because it absorbs the echoes and other background noise. My husband and I are renovating our basement into a theater room. Once we contact a reputable soundproofing service company, I’ll make sure that we discuss using acoustic foam for the room.
Thanks for the advice to use mounting strips to hold up acoustic foams panels. I want to make my game room soundproof so that I don’t wake up my kids when I am playing games. I’ll look into getting some of the foam acoustic panels and mounting stirps.
We are looking to soundproof a room in our home. I do like your tips here along with the pros and cons. I might be able to do it myself as I don’t think it will be that hard to do.
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I learned some new things after reading it, so I hope that you will keep up the good work and you will write more useful posts like this one.