Bathrooms can be noisy, due to the toilet flushing or people showering, and if your toilet is close to your dining room, you probably don’t want to hear flushing noises while you’re entertaining guests.
Fortunately, soundproofing a toilet room or bathroom can be a really simple process, which I’ll describe for you in three main steps below.
How to Soundproof a Toilet Room
When soundproofing your toilet room, your main goal should be to contain the sound within the room and stop it from leaving. This makes soundproofing a bathroom different from soundproofing other rooms in your home, as with other rooms, you’ll typically be trying to stop sound from entering.
1. Soundproof the Door
The bathroom door is one of the main places through which sound will escape from the room. Most doors inside a home are hollow, and hollow doors normally let a lot of sound pass through.
Soundproofing your bathroom door can either be cheap or expensive, depending on which route you take. For instance, to fix your noise problem, you may want to order a custom door that isn’t hollow. Home Depot can create customized doors for clients, but the price will vary, based on the size of the door.
However, if you don’t want to break the bank, then we recommend that you get some self-adhesive weatherstripping instead. This should be installed around the entire doorframe, to cover any gaps and cracks, and it’s so versatile that you may be able to use it on your windows as well.
Install a Door Sweep
A door sweep basically seals the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Aside from trapping noise, a sweep will also help keep cockroaches, other insects and dust from escaping the bathroom and into the rest of your home.
There are some expensive and hard-to-install door sweeps on the market, so to make things simple for you, I recommend that you use the Idealcraft Door Draft Stopper. You can easily cut it down to size with a pair of scissors., based on how big the gap is underneath your door.
Use Soundproofing Blankets
Soundproofing blankets are quilted fiberglass panels that’ll hang from the inside of the door. While hanging there, they’ll absorb sound and stop it from traveling through the door.
If you want an affordable soundproof blanket, you should check out this Grommeted Industrial Blanket. The grommets will make it very easy for you to hang.
Swap in a Solid Door
Purchasing a solid door, as opposed to continuing your use of an existing hollow one, is the most expensive way to effectively soundproof a bathroom.
If you’ve tried the above steps and they didn’t work for you, you can opt to remove your door completely and replace it with a solid core door. All you’ll need to do is measure the door and buy the same exact size from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
This method is effective since it will allow you to completely block sound from escaping your bathroom, but you may need professional help to install your new door.
2. Soundproof the Walls
Thin walls with cracks can let out just as much sound as a hollow door does, but you can add drywall to soundproof your bathroom walls.
You can purchase drywall at your local hardware store, and you should be sure to add some Green Glue and Mass Loaded Vinyl in between the sheets of drywall and your existing walls. You may need a second person to help you with this task.
For more information, you can check my guide to soundproofing a wall cheaply.
3. Soundproof the Toilet
A toilet, when flushed, can create a lot of noise that may be very embarrassing when you have guests over. Plus, the slamming of the toilet seat can sometimes be heard in the hall or in the bedroom that’s closest to the bathroom.
To diminish the noise of your toilet, the first thing you’ll need to do is get yourself some adhesive tape. Make sure the tank and the lid are completely clean, and then add the adhesive tape around the edges of the tank and lid. The adhesive tape will help reduce the noise the toilet makes when it’s flushing (or when it’s refilling the tank after it’s been flushed).
Another important thing to do is soundproof the toilet seat. One of the easiest ways to stop your toilet seat cover from banging and clanking is to install gel pads that have actually been made for shoes.
You should apply the first gel pad to the top of the toilet seat cover, and then add the second pad to the bottom of the seat cover where it touches the toilet seat.
The Ins and Outs of Hiring an Expert
If you don’t have the time, or you’re not a handy person at all, then hiring an expert to help you soundproof your bathroom can be a good idea.
To find someone to do the job, you can do a quick search on Google by typing in the name of the nearest town and city, along with “sound-insulating expert.” All the experts in that field near you should pop up in the search results. Depending on your chosen professional’s specific level of experience, their labor should cost you around $200 to $400.
Conclusion
For the best results possible, I recommend that you make use of all the steps above—minus hiring a professional, if you don’t want to. You don’t need to get everything done at once, though; just take your time and do everything step-by-step. Just by sealing the gaps in your bathroom door, you may notice a big difference.
If you’re a music enthusiast, you may want to take a look at our guide to cheaply soundproofing a drum room.
image: Pixabay