my office door has a full-length frosted glass panel, which has been quite nice in helping illuminate our mudroom/garage entry area when it’s closed. however, the door almost useless for muffling sound in the room, particularly when the drum kit is in use.
let’s do something about it
in the process of downsizing my mom’s living situation, i had collected a 70×80″ moving blanket, and wanted to try out its sound absorption properties. not wanting to drill or otherwise adhere anything permanently to the door, i bought a pair of steel over-door hooks and strong spring clamps, and fabricated my own over-the-door spring clamps. behold:
these 4″ clamps are beefy enough to pinch multiple layers of blankets or even rubberized sheets. the heavy-duty felt protects the upper edge of the door from scratches, and at least in my case, provides a cozier fit than the hook provided out of the box.
having 8′ doors creates a bit of a length issue with the 80″ blanket at hand 😅, but there are some other non- or seldom-used blankets that i’ll try next, possibly in combination with this for even more absorption power.
so does it work?
with the blanket in place and a preexisting foam under-door sweep, my lovely assistant banged on the snare and cymbals for a bit, while i stood outside the door and measured decibels with my apple watch ultra (yes, it was super scientific). then i removed the blanket for comparison testing.
based on an average of peaks observed during each test, I can conservatively say that there was about a 5 dB drop with the doubled-over moving blanket in place. still “loud”, but so close to not triggering watchos’s hearing safety warning.
i’m concluding that YES it does work, and will add additional (and lengthier) layers, and share results in a future post.
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