How Heavy Is A Soundproof Door?

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A soundproof door needs to be really heavy to stop sound, but how heavy is heavy enough? Today we will answer that question.

Wall Mass and Door Mass

It is all about mass with soundproofing. The more mass the better. Your door is no exception. Your door must weight at least as much as your wall that the door is on. So how do you figure that out. Well it is just some basic arithmetic.

What Is The Mass Of Your Wall?

For this exercise I will use my own studio as an example. The outside of my wall is an outside wall since I built my studio in my backyard. There for we used OBS or Oriented Strand Board and Hardie Plank. Here are the weights of those two materials:

OBS 19/32" = 2lb/sqft

Hardie Plank = 2.3lb/sqft

Now for the inside wall we used two layers of 5/8" drywall.

5/8" Drywall = 2.2lb/sqft

Our total wall is then: 2 + 2.3 + 2.2 + 2.2 = 8.7lb/sqft

Now that we have the total weight per square foot of our wall let's take a look at our door.

How Much Does Our Door Need To Weigh?

To answer this let's first figure out the door size. My door is 32" x 78" or 17.34 sqft. To find the total weight our door needs to be to match the same square footage weight of our wall let's multiply the door square footage by the wall weight per square foot.

17.34 sq/ft x 8.7 lb/sqft = 150.86 lbs

Now we know our door must weight at least 151 lbs to give us enough mass to be as soundproof as our walls. Now it is best to shoot even heavier if you can.

How Much Does My Studio Door Weigh?

Let's see how much my door weights in my studio to see if it is massive enough to equal or surpass the weight of my walls.

My door is made of the following materials:

3/4" Solid Core Door = 65lbs

8 psf of Sheet Lead = 138.72lbs

3/4" plywood = 60lbs

If we total all those weights up then we get:

65lbs + 138.72lbs + 60lbs = 263.72lbs

You can see that my door weights well over the needed weight. This is ideal for a soundproof door. The added mass helps make up for the fact that the door does not have the same acoustical properties of the wall like an air gap, decoupling and green glue.

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