The laundry room is most likely the loudest room in your house—minus the playroom if you have little ones.
While some people don’t mind the background humming of a washing machine, the disturbance can get quite annoying when you’re watching a movie in the next room, and the washer or dryer goes on the final spin.
Washing machines and dryers often vibrate, shake, rumble, and sometimes even “dance” across the floor—even more so when they have bulky items in there such as sneakers or zippers.
This creates airborne and impact noise that is spread throughout the house, both in the structure and in the air.
If the noise has become unbearable and you’re wondering how to soundproof a laundry room, we’ve come up with 10 methods that will help lower the noise and make your home a quieter, more enjoyable place to spend your time.
1. Anti-Vibration Mats
The most significant cause of noise in your laundry room is the appliances that create vibrations. These vibrations penetrate through the walls and door, leading to impact noise throughout your home.
The most effective way to prevent the vibrations and noise from your washing machine and dryer is by using anti-vibration mats under the appliances.
These work to absorb most of the vibrations and prevent noise and disturbance traveling to other rooms in the property.
What’s even better about this method is it’s cheap and easy.
The mats are affordable and straightforward to install under each machine.
2. Make the Door Denser
Compared to walls, doors are pretty hopeless when it comes to blocking sounds.
They’re often quite thin and have air gaps that allow noise to travel easily through to the rest of the house—making them the key when it comes to how to soundproof a laundry room.
Reinforcing the door of your laundry room along with other soundproofing methods will help to keep the noise inside of the room.
The easiest way to make your door denser to block sound is by using a soundproof door curtain or blanket. You can hang it on the inside of the door by using nails, glue, screws, or hanging it on a curtain pole or hooks above the door.
Alternatively, you can always replace the door to your laundry room with a sturdier, solid one that will block more noise.
3. Install a Door Sweep
Another easy method to prevent noise from escaping through the laundry room door is by installing a door sweep.
Almost all doors have gaps underneath to make sure they open and close smoothly, but this allows noise to travel out easily.
A door sweep will close this gap and make your door even more soundproof.
4. Seal the Edges of the Door
If your door is not tight around the top and sides, as well as the door sweep, you’ll need to seal these gaps to stop the noise coming out of the laundry room to the rest of the house.
Purchase weatherproof seals or weather stripping tape that are used to insulate doors and windows and install them around the edges of the door, ensuring there are no spaces in between.
This affordable and easy step should minimize any sound escaping through the door and frame.
5. Use Soundproof Blankets
As well as hanging them on the door to dampen sounds, soundproof blankets can also come in handy in other ways and are ideal for absorbing excess noise from washing machines and dryers.
You can lay them on the floor under your appliances if you don’t have anti-vibration pads, and tape the edges to the sides of the machine to hug it from underneath.
If you have another soundproof blanket (or even just a heavy rug or blanket), you can use it to lay over the machine once you’ve switched it on.
It’s not a very advanced technique, but it’ll do the job of damping noise when the washer or dryer is working.
6. Insulate the Walls
While the walls are denser than doors and windows, they still fall victim to structural noise.
As vibrations from your laundry appliances hit the walls within the room, they cause them to vibrate, leading to vibrations and noise on the other side of the walls in your home.
If you’re serious about dampening as much noise as possible from your laundry room, soundproofing the walls is a great idea.
Start by checking if there’s any insulation in your walls, as this is the best place to start.
Following that, you can install mass loaded vinyl, acoustic foam pads, or even soundproof blankets to the walls.
These will insulate the room, absorb soundwaves and vibrations, and prevent noise from the laundry room creating a disturbance in the rest of the home.
7. Add More Layers
If insulating the walls seems like too much effort, another way to soundproof the laundry room is by adding more layers to the walls.
An empty room will create echoes, especially when there are so many vibrations bouncing around.
Simply store stuff from around the house in the laundry room to bulk it out and reduce the empty spaces. Build shelves around the walls and store boxes, blankets, towels, etc. The more you layer, the more it will help with sound reduction.
8. Acoustic Curtains
If you have windows in your laundry room, another suitable method to dampen sounds from your appliances is hanging acoustic curtains over them instead of regular curtains.
These are made with layers of thicker fabric to make them dense and insulating against sound.
While you may not care about the noise the laundry room is spreading to the outdoors via the window, the curtains will help absorb the overall noise in the room—lowering the noise indoors as well.
9. Soundproof the Floors
Just like with the walls and doors, soundproofing the floor will help with structural sound caused by vibrations.
Bare floors such as wood, stone, or tiles allow sound and vibrations to bounce and spread easily.
Get better acoustics and lower noise by installing foam tile flooring or thick rugs that cover all of the floor space.
10. Replace Your Appliances
Unfortunately, all laundry appliances create vibrations and noise to some degree, but machines that are old or damaged make much more of a ruckus.
If you find your washer or dryer is almost dancing across the room and creating an explosion-like sound every time it’s on spin, it may be time for a replacement.
Modern laundry appliances are much quieter than older versions, so while they require a hefty investment, it’ll be worth it to see such a decrease in noise.
Remember that regular maintenance is critical for your washing machine and dryer to stay in the best working order. Also, don’t overload them, as this can cause a more considerable disturbance when they are too full.
Finally, always ensure your washing machine and dryer are level to the ground and aren’t touching the walls behind them.
This makes it easier to transfer the vibrations from the machine to the structure of the house.
Final Thoughts
With these 10 ways on how to soundproof a laundry room, you won’t have to dread doing laundry at home any longer.
Whether you use just a couple or all the methods we have suggested, you’ll certainly notice a difference once you switch on the appliances and close the door to the laundry room.
Hopefully, your home no longer shakes, and you can eat with the family in peace.
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