How to soundproof french doors: French doors have become an important inclusion in modern homes. In fact, if you want class and beauty, these doors are designed exactly to give that strong visual look.
Normally, they are thin and larger than the ordinary style doors. And, they consist of light construction with glass panes covering the better length of their structure.
As beautiful as they appear, you will have to learn a few tips on how to soundproof French doors, because sound and all unwanted noises can leak in at their own pleasure.
Leave alone that, all your secrets from the house can easily be heard outside. Courtesy of the same immaculate thin glass.
You don’t want to risk that much.
In this article, I want to give you simple, practical hacks on how to approach and handle the noise problem with your elegant French doors. I perfectly understand that you adore them.
Here are Practical Tips on How to Soundproof French Doors.
Most of the methods I will talk about here are something you might be familiar with. But I still find it very important to mention in regard to this specific scenario.
While trying to soundproof these doors, you should know that they can be a heck of work. Why? Just look at their overall design.
They are normally made to be thin and the materials used to construct them are lighter. As you know, noise or sound would relish such easy conditions.
Under these circumstances, soundproofing glass French Doors becomes a challenge. But with that said, you can still find a way around this.
Let us look at these tips.
1. Use Noise Blocking Curtains
Noise-canceling curtains can be a good point to start off the project. Curtains such as NICETOWN Extra Wide Patio Door Curtain (Click to Buy on Amazon) can be very handy.
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These are thick, heavy and dense drapes that use their mass to block sound from coming into the room or escaping outside. Since they come in different designs, be careful to get the right ones.
You can check them to see if the color and size are things that meet your cut off. The good news is that they come in different color schemes and sizes.
Choose the large ones which can cover the door right from the top to its bottom.
These curtains are quite affordable on the market. To have them on your French door, simply install rods above the door and hang your curtains.
My solid advice is that you should have as many layers as possible to ensure that greater thickness is achieved for the curtains to be able to block sound effectively.
So, having a double curtain rod, to begin with, means that you can hang two curtains. Noise reduction would also be cut down twice as much.
2. Install Moving Blankets on the Door
Besides the above soundproof door curtains, one would try their closer complements, the soundproof blankets. Or better known as moving blankets. (Click to Buy on Amazon)
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These also use the same principle of thickness and density to reduce noise. Except that they are more efficient compared to curtains because of the aforementioned properties.
Blankets can do a better acoustic job but are not the kind of attraction you want to display in a serious décor. Nonetheless, they are a great technique.
Find the grommeted types because they will be easier to install. The other ones require that you nail them on the door – I don’t think you’ll fancy nails poking holes in your new French door.
The best practice is to avoid placing the blankets closer to the door. It can ruin the aesthetics of the door.
3. Find Gaps and Seal Them Off
The third advice is to ensure that you carefully observe the door for cracks or gaps. If these are present on the door, trust me they will spoil your party.
That’s why you need to check the frame of the door. And also check if there are others in between the door and the frame.
Then once you are sure, applying a stripping around the door frame can help. Plus, the gaps can also be sealed by suitable acoustic sealants.
These two strategies can possibly stop any leaks coming from those gaps. The advantage with this method is that the weather-stripping kit (Click to Buy on Amazon) and sealants are cheap and very easy to apply on the door.
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Do the same thing if the previous stripping just wore down because of taking too long without replacement.
4. Block the Bottom Part of Your Door
Insulating sliding glass door to the highest level of noise reduction encompasses taking care of the bottom part. You don’t overlook this section of the door.
Especially if there’s sufficient space below the door that can allow enough noise to cause a headache.
This problem can be solved cheaply and effortlessly. Just locate a good door sweep from Amazon and use it to block the space.
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The door sweep can be stuck to the bottom part of the door. And if you want to ensure that the material is properly secured, use screws or nails to fix it permanently.
You will be amazed that not only will the door sweep prevent crawling insects from outside but also improve your room acoustics. Of course by blocking unnecessary airflow that sneaks in sound.
5. Soundproof the Air Vents Above the Door
This approach might be slightly off the major thing I am talking about. But not too offside and at the same time a worthwhile consideration.
Air vents are the best when it comes to the transfer of fresh natural air from the outside. But you can also agree that air vents clearly draw in tons of noise.
You may have done everything it pertains soundproofing. You may have invested thousands of dollars with the hope of killing the noise pattern in your home.
Though this is done, if air vents are not part of the project, it’s simply a waste of money and time. Some people have gone ahead and removed the vent and sealed off space completely with drywall.
This is effective and the perfect way; only that it would at the same time deny you the necessary ventilation in a home.
To avoid that, I would advise that you create a small maze and fix in this gap. The maze can slightly reduce noise but still allow complete airflow.
6. Lubricate the Door Hinges and Handles
Another out-of-the-box method on how to soundproof glass French doors is this simple trick of lubricating the hinges and the handles. It’s very much possible that another notorious source of noise is these essential door parts.
These parts usually need oiling to keep their motions quiet and basically numb. Without grease or oil, the obnoxious squeaks that are produced every other time of opening or closing the door would piss even the deaf!
You want to fix this quickly. After all, it is not the hardest thing to do.
Do you have any type of oil around? Vegetable oil, machine oil, old used oil? You can definitely put it to use to help with this badly-behaved hinges.
Obviously, there’s nothing special you are supposed to do to apply this oil. It is the easy task of simply but carefully pouring oil on the hinges and handles.
The key thing is to avoid messing around by overspilling. As I said, you could as well put to use the grease in the house.
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7. Expensive! But Very Efficient – the Double-Glazed French Door
The best tip to conquer the problem and achieve the actual soundproof glass doors is replacing the entire French door with the double-glazed type.
But the major challenge is how expensive this venture turns out to be. Unless the budget allows for it and you have enough money to guarantee the project, don’t try.
Otherwise, the double-glazed French doors, being the penultimate solution, guarantees the following: great thickness and mass. Sound waves “hate” these two impediments as you’ll almost completely solve the problem once and for all.
When you have the new door, you need a great professional to do the reinstallation part for you. Remember everything starts from how the door is mounted.
These doors need a lot of efforts to set them. They are labor-intensive and time-consuming.
With the right size that fits on the frame, a double-glazed door should help deal with most of the noise around.
In Conclusion
To that end, I want to create a picture that your home is soon going to be the perfect place to stay. For your life’s sake, these methods may just help keep off the unwanted sounds out of the ear.
I know that the current French door is amassing some prestige. They are unbelievable – they create quite an attractive scene.
But you cannot sacrifice your health and safety for elegance. I am saying this because I know some of the methods here come with a bad effect to the overall look of the door.
Nevertheless, these are some of the best ways on how to soundproof French doors and I probably my hope is that you find one or two that you can apply for your door.
Last update on 2023-06-04 at 08:06 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API