How To Reduce Echo in a Room With Hardwood Floors (Cheap Solutions)
Hardwood flooring brings a chic vibe to a home.
Its versatile design and natural charm give your place a unique character. However, these floors are the prime culprit behind unwanted noise and echo.
This happens for obvious reasons—the base reflects the sound waves, which bounce from one point to another, producing reverberation.
Besides making the room feel hollow, the wooden floor interrupts ordinary sound dynamics.
This makes it tricky to have a coherent conversation or musical experience in that place.
Learn how to reduce echo in a room with hardwood floors
Echo reduction is one of the primary issues discussed by the soundproofing communities.
Several components contribute to producing echo in a room. But, the most common factor is the wooden floors.
The sound bounces from one point to another, creating echoes that you hear repeatedly.
Luckily, you can take different measures to minimize echo in a room once and for all. So, without further ado, let’s check them out:
Cover floor with rugs
You have to start by working on the floors.
The cheapest and most effective way of reducing useless noise in a room is to place a plush rug over the wooden floor.
It will dampen the noise in the room and control the echo.
Rugs will deaden or absorb the noise coming from the floor. The thicker and plushier the carpet, the better and more it helps to cut echo.
You don’t need to cover the entire room with wall-to-wall carpet. Placing one or more area rugs will do the work.
All you need is to learn how to position these rugs strategically across the room, so they absorb the most sound waves.
This may require moving the rugs around as you check the noise level before deciding its placement.
That being said, if you can afford and don’t mind spending some extra bucks, you can choose to cover the entire area. You don’t lose much.
Plus, you can choose a rug with an elegant design that enhances the appeal of your room too.
Or, you can increase the sound-absorbing quality of the rugs by installing sound-absorbing padding beneath the mats.
Install soundproof curtains
There are many soundproofing curtains available in the market. These can cut the sound, echo, and reverb in a room.
Nonetheless, relying on these curtains to eliminate noise isn’t enough.
Remember, not all curtains are effective.
So, you must ensure you purchase heavier and tightly woven ones. It should extend from the ceiling to the floor several inches beside each window corner.
You will block the outside noise by hanging the heavy and soft material on the glass. Also, it cuts down the sound that comes back as an echo.
There are plenty of soundproof curtains you can find in the market. The price of each varies according to design and quality.
Fill the space with furniture
Another easy and cheaper solution is to fill the room with furniture. We all need a few essential furniture items in the house.
How about having some extra pieces along?
This will help with the echo and bring you the convenience of organizing your stuff.
For example, consider getting a bookshelf and filling it up with your books if you are an avid reader.
Combined with hardwood floors, this will bring a sophisticated and nerdy appearance to your room.
The furniture doesn’t need to have integrated soundproofing technology. It makes sure there are few open areas and hard surfaces for the sound to bounce off and produce an echo.
The best type of furniture for this job are soft and heavy items like chairs, sofas, bookcases, and pictures.
They absorb the sound as they are made of thick and tough materials. Put them against the wall to reduce maximum echo.
Another excellent furniture item you can use for this job is the couch. A soft couch will absorb some sound waves, making the room balanced.
In fact, you can add any furniture piece you want unless this doesn’t make the room look overcrowded. The main goal is to ensure that the room doesn’t look empty.
Install acoustic foam panels
If you are done with the boring rugs and curtains, acoustic foam panels could be another best option. They can transform the style of your room and make it aesthetically appealing.
Hardwood reflects the sound, making it revolve all around the room. It would be a long struggle to cut all that echo.
An easy and cheap option is to install acoustic foam panels. These are squares of foam with dents in them.
The egg crate structure will break the flat surface on which it stands. This makes it effective at reducing echo.
The science behind acoustic foam panels is that the sound waves penetrate the foam. It gets converted into heat, reducing their ability to reflect and produce an echo.
On the other hand, you can also use an acoustic foam roll.
You can choose to lay it on the floor to reduce echo or purchase acoustic foam in the shape of corner or bass traps.
Bass trips fit in the corner and have a valley-peak structure. It disrupts and absorbs the low-frequency bass sound waves.
A primary factor to consider when buying acoustic foam is the price. The ready-made shapes could be a bit more expensive than the acoustic tiles.
However, a bit of roaming in the market will help you spot the best bargains.
Use wallpapers or decorative paints on the walls
Given that you are looking for a cheap solution, this one could be a life-saver!
Installing sound-absorbing wallpapers is one of the methods you can adopt to reduce echo in a room. The best part is that these wallpapers don’t have appealing colors and distinct patterns.
Instead, it has particular layers crafted to deal with echo in a room.
Canvas paintings, decorative wall hangings, and tapestries will absorb the sound to reduce its echo. Make sure there isn’t a glass coating on the artwork as it will also reflect the sound waves.
Add plants around the room
A plant is the ultimate solution if you want a natural way to reduce echo.
The potted wonders will enhance the aesthetic appeal of your room. No one can deny the effectiveness of natural décor and the freshness it brings to the room.
Any leafy greens can minimize echo in the space. Large plants are more effective than small ones.
Plant parts like leaves, branches, stems, and wood absorb the sound. The rough bark and thick leaves effectively absorb sound because of their active surface area.
Some of the plant factors that will improve sound absorption in a room include:
- Size of the plants
- The surface area of the leaves
- Number of plants
To make sure you reduce most noise in the room, place plants around the perimeter of the space. This way, sound reflects from the walls and straight into the leaves of the plants.
Bring in cushions and blankets
Cushions and blankets can reduce echo in the room, like curtains and sofas.
Blankets work effectively for soundproofing and also improve their acoustics. Some musicians use fabric and blankets to ensure their audio misses reverberation and echo.
In the same way, you can hang these blankets on walls like curtains. Try finding the most effective blanket stuff in the market.
For example, thick moving blankets can greatly help to reduce echo.
They are thinner and cheaper than foam panels. You can occasionally hang them around the room when sounds create havoc.
Purchase inexpensive soundproofing material
They may not be good-looking, but Styrofoam and egg cartons can do an incredible job of sound diffusion/absorption.
If you can find clean and large portions of this material, it will come in handy to reduce the echo of your room.
Cork is also a cheap and practical material that traps sound waves like acoustic foam. It isn’t as effective, but it is an excellent option for rooms requiring mid-level treatment.
These materials would work for a place where you don’t need to highlight the aesthetics—for instance, a garage, a wendy house, or the basement.
FAQs
How to reduce echo in a room with hardwood floors and high ceilings?
It is essential to learn how to deaden the distracting sounds. You can use several strategies to combat the noise problem.
Sound-absorbing qualities of such material will reduce the echo and enable cohesive sounds within.
Do hardwood floors reflect sound?
Hardwood floors have a resilient surface, more weight, and are quieter than lamination.
Solid hardwood floors have the best acoustic properties. For people who love acoustics, solid hardwood is the best choice.
Final Thoughts
These are the best methods you can deploy to reduce echo in a room with a hardwood floor. They are light on the pocket, so you don’t have to calculate a lengthy budget before purchase.
Each of these measures will make a notable difference in the acoustics of your room. Try combining several of these methods to reduce echoes in your wooden-floored room.
