The basic material that most people use for sound reduction is insulation. There are lots of types of insulation out there. But some are definitely better than others. One in particular has already been mentioned here -- Bonded Logic UltraTouch. Use it in your exterior walls to reduce the sound from outside, and use it in interior walls and between floors (in R-13) to quiet the noise from adjacent rooms. It absorbs sound better than fiberglass insulation, and has the added benefits of using recycled material and being MUCH nicer to work with.

Next is under-floor sound insulation such as Homasote. Homasote is particularly nice since it’s made out of recycled materials and is compatible with most typical home flooring products, like carpet or wood. But there are other types of sustainable under-floor insulation made out of cork and recycled rubber. The advantages here are less noise transmitted to the floors below and damping of sound in the room where the material is located.

The crowning achievement in sound reduction technology is sound-attenuating sheetrock. There are a number of products out on the market but QuietRock is the one that I have used. It costs about 10 times as much as regular rock, but when you’re doing just a room or two, the cost is probably worth the value you get out of it. When combined with a hat channel, the effect can be impressive.

Anyone else have less traditional (read: more creative) ways of reducing sound you want to share?

Peter Kellner
Columnist, Going Green Blog