Almost every teenager wants to play the drums. Maybe you have a knack for playing the drums. Whatever the reason is, drums are very loud to be played indoors.
If your neighbor is constantly complaining about the racket, or you are simply tired of hearing your son play the drums in the house, then you have come to the right place.
I’m going to teach you how to soundproof a room for drums in just 3 steps. There are many different ways to do this, but after all the research I have done, I have found the most effective way to do this in as little effort as possible.
Effectively soundproofing a room for drums is going to take a bit of effort and also some money.
The amount of soundproofing you need for this type of room is substantial because of how loud the drums are and how much they echo.
Choose a Location for Your Drums
The first thing you need to do is figure out the room you will be soundproofing for your drums. Try to choose a room that is farthest away from the living quarters as possible.
Creating distance from the source of noise is a free and effective way to lower the noise from your drum room indirectly.
Many people like to designate their garage as the official drum room since sound usually doesn’t travel as easily into the house from the garage.
Another benefit of using your garage for your drum room is that most garages don’t have windows. This means you can skip soundproofing a window altogether.
Although you may be able to skip out on soundproofing a window, you must now worry about having to soundproof the garage door.
Most garage doors are horrible at preventing sound from passing through due to the lack of density in today’s garage doors.
If you don’t want to use your garage as your drum room, then you can pick any room in your home based on your personal preference.
Just remember to choose a room that is farthest away from the main living quarters in your home.
Step 1. Soundproof the Doors, Walls, and Windows
The first step to creating your soundproof room for a drum set is to make sure the doors and windows are soundproof.
Sound will travel through the path of least resistance. Doors and windows tend to have many cracks and gaps, which easily let noise through.
This is why we must first focus on these areas of the room. Doors are very notorious for not having good seals and having a huge gap at the bottom.
Windows are usually not as bad as doors when it comes to letting noise through since most of them are pretty air-tight.
There are a few things you can add to your window to increase its soundproofing capabilities which I will get into more detail below.
If the room you choose doesn’t have windows, then you’re in luck because you only have to do half the work.
Soundproofing the Door
The door is a very important area if you want to keep the sound inside the room. There are a few things you can do to keep sound from going through your door.
The first thing you should do is cover up the gap a the bottom of the door. The best way to do this is to add a door sweep.
After a door sweep is installed, it would be very beneficial to thicken the door. A good way to thicken a door without replacing it is to use some type of soundproof blanket.
Most homes and apartments have cheap bedroom doors that are hollow.
Have you ever noticed how much more sturdy your front door feels than your bedroom door? That’s because your front door is most likely solid to help keep sound out.
Instead of using a soundproof blanket on your door, you can simply replace it with a solid wooden door from your local home improvement store, but this may be pricey.
Installing a Door Sweep
Measure the gap underneath your door first before making any purchases to make sure the door sweep will fit your door in question.
You want the door sweep to fit snugly underneath your door, which will help it create a tight seal.
Installing a door sweep will close the gap underneath your door. This will effectively stop a lot of sound from leaking through.
A door sweep is a must-have item, even if it is the only way you decide to soundproof your door. The price and convenience of this item are far too good to pass up.
Install a Soundproof Blanket on the Door
This is the next step you must take to soundproof your drum room door. Adding a sound blanket does two things.
It thickens your door, and it effectively helps absorb the noise trying to go through. Many doors that are installed in homes are usually cheap and hollow.
A hollow door has almost no soundproofing capabilities, which is why it is key to use a soundproof blanket.
This soundproof blanket is available on Amazon and is perfect for this situation. It comes with grommets which makes it easy to install.
How To Hang The Blanket
You can always use a hammer and pound a few nails into your door, but that would definitely ruin it. I definitely do not recommend ruining your door to hang a blanket.
A more practical approach to hanging the soundproof blanket on your door is to use hooks. These adhesive hooks are perfect for this job.
These hooks are strong enough to hold up the blanket and will also not damage your door. If you ever decide to remove the blanket and hooks, you can do so without ruining your door.
On the other hand, if you use nails or screws, then your door will be left with holes if you were to remove the blanket at a later time.
If you want a more in-depth guide for soundproofing a door, you can check out this article I wrote about soundproofing a laundry room door.
Soundproofing the Garage Door
The garage door is probably the easiest area of a garage for sound to leak through.
This is mainly due to the fact that garage doors or usually made of sheet metal and are fairly thin.
Older garages are made more of a solid wood which is actually better and deflecting sound than newer garage models.
An easy and effective way to soundproof your garage door is to use thick blankets. These moving blankets are great at just that.
They are very thick and wide, which means that you will be able to cover the garage door with just a few blankets.
Before purchasing anything, make sure that you measure the height and width of your garage door, so you know exactly how many blankets you will need to cover up the door. So how does covering your garage door with blankets work?
Thick blankets over your garage door will act as a sound barrier by preventing sound from passing through.
The reason this is so effective is because of what I stated earlier about garage doors. They are usually thin, which means they don’t block sound very well.
Adding thick blankets to your garage door is a cheap way to give it more mass and density. The more density sound has to travel through, the quieter it will be once it reaches the other side.
Soundproofing the Walls in Your Drum Room
Soundproofing the walls is a very important aspect when soundproofing a room for drums. Your room is mostly made up of walls.
The door and windows are just a very small piece of the bigger picture. The best thing to install on your walls is acoustic panels.
These acoustic panels from amazon will work perfectly in this case. So what exactly does installing these panels all over your wall do?
The purpose of acoustic panels is to absorb the sound that is trying to get through. Since it absorbs the sound, this means that it will also drastically decrease echoes and reverb.
These types of panels are also used in music rooms, rooms for podcasts, and any other room that needs to have the echo and reverb reduced.
Installing the panels is fairly simple. You will need to purchase drywall anchors and screw hooks. Drill a small hole in your wall and insert a drywall anchor.
Once the anchor is secure, go ahead and place a screw hook inside. The anchor prevents the screw hook from falling out or stripping by giving it something to bite into.
As a bonus tip, you can also install acoustic panels on the ceiling of your drum room. When installing acoustic panels on the sealing, it is important to make sure they are not installed flush on the ceiling.
The acoustic panels would absorb the reverb and echo better if you were to leave a 2-inch gap between the panels and the ceiling.
An easy way to do this is to use hook screws on the ceiling to install the panels. The screws will leave enough of a gap so you can get the most out of the panels.
Soundproofing the Windows in Your Drum Room
After your door is nice and soundproofed, you will then want to move to the windows. Windows can be tricky to soundproof.
There are not too many options that don’t cost a fortune. Installing double pane glass, a thicker window, or adding an extra layer to your window are all viable options, but they can be very pricey.
I personally recommend installing a window plug.
A window plug is simply a frame that fits airtight over your window space to completely block out noise.
The great thing about a window plug is that it can easily be installed and removed at any time, which means it doesn’t have to permanently stay on your window when the drum set isn’t in use.
How to Make a Soundproof Window Plug
Making a soundproof window plug is fairly simple. There are a few supplies you need in order for this to work effectively.
You will need soundproof foam, a wooden board, and handles. You can find wooden boards and handles at your local home improvement store.
The picture above shows how the plug will look when it is put together correctly. When putting together your window plug, you must make sure that the soundproof foam/mat is a few inches bigger than the wooden board.
This is to make sure there is a tight seal when you go to place it into your window.
If you make the soundproof foam too small, then it may not create a good seal which will render your efforts pretty useless.
A soundproof window plug is very convenient because it is a very cheap alternative to the more expensive methods that are available for soundproofing windows.
Simply install the window plug before using your drum room, and then pull them out once you are finished.
You can check out my in-depth article about soundproofing a window to get many more ideas and methods if you don’t want to use a window plug.
Step 2. Use a Drum Rug
This drum rug is a good example of what to put underneath your drum set. You are probably asking what is so special about a drum rug.
Placing a drum rug underneath your drum set is very beneficial. The main benefit we will be using it for is to absorb the shock and vibrations that your drum set will be emitting.
This is extremely effective if the floor in your drum room happens to either be made of wood, concrete, or tiles.
Hard surfaces create lots of echo and noise. By adding a drum rug, you will effectively eliminate this.
The other benefit of adding a drum rug is that it prevents your drum set from slipping around on the floor.
This also helps soundproof your room. A drum set that slides and moves around on the floor during use will do two things.
The first thing it will do is eventually ruin your floor. The second thing it will do is cause extra vibration and scratching sounds.
Using a drum rug is a great idea because it will help soundproof your room and make it easier to play the drums if it’s currently resting on concrete or wood flooring.
If your drum room is covered with carpet, it would still be a great move to install a drum rug since it will help absorb even more echo and impact noises.
Step 3. Install a Drum Shield
A drum shield is very effective at keeping noise to a minimum.
A drum shield literally encloses your drum set to stop it from echoing through all the walls, windows, and doors of your home.
The word drum shield is just a fancy sound enclosure box for your drum set.
This drum shield from amazon is well priced and has numerous positive reviews.
When looking for a drum shield, you will want to make sure it is effective without making a dent in your wallet.
The best place to install your drum shield would be in the middle of the room. The middle of the room should be furthest away from the walls, windows, and door.
This creates more distance that the sound must travel in order to escape the room. Distance is your best friend when it comes to sound dampening.
I know it may sound like nit-picking at this point, but every little thing you do will add up in the long run.
Final Thoughts
These 3 steps are the best ways to effectively soundproof a room for drums. The drum shield effectively eliminates a lot of the noise that will be trying to pass through your window, walls, and doors.
Soundproofing the walls, doors, and windows are like the insurance for your drum shield. The little noise that does escape your drum shield will be stopped by your additional soundproofing efforts.
The last but not least step is placing a drum rug underneath your drum set.
The drum rug will help decrease the vibrations and echoes from the drums as well as prevent your drum set from moving around while you are using it.
All three of these steps work together in harmony to create a very effective soundproof room for your drum set.
If you plan on soundproofing a drum room, then I highly recommend that you perform all the methods provided above.
Only doing one or two soundproofing methods will most likely cause your efforts to fail simply because they are very effective when used together.
