For the price of spray foam, the effort you had to put into doing this, and the time it took (plus the time used to drive to home depot, and the money spent on gas to drive there) I will say this video was exactly what I needed to see to now know I should just cough up the extra $80 and buy the solid door over the hollow door at home depot. Thanks for taking the time, and effort to making and uploading this video.

1.5x speed

i came here for the diy, i stayed for the ASMR

Thank you for this tutorial, i was so frustrated with the noise from outside until i figure out how to close the gaps on my door, and then this foam filler hopefully will improve on what I already did

You have to seal around and under the door as well. That would have gotten you down some more. Also, the ambient noise in your house is probably around 32dB.

At the decibel levels measured, that is actually a big improvement. The Decibel scale is not linear so a change of 10 dB would make a sound twice as loud so 2-4 dB at that low of a sound level is significant. For your before check, using a louder sound level likely would have shown a more detectable improvement.

Thanks for posting this, I was researching the same idea. You are saving a lot of people from wasting time. Solid core doors are pretty expensive with everything fitted correctly. Informative either way. You showed before and after DB on your video. I was hoping it would improve it much more than 1 DB ish.

Really interesting. I have solid doors, but the "super long zip tie" dip stick is a brilliant idea for all sorts of things. Never occurred to me.

If you put wall board over the insulation on the stairway up to the basement door then you will have sound bouncing of the walls all the way up to the door. Putting some sound dampening panels or material on the walls should help prevent this from happening. Start by hanging quilts or comforters before you buy anything special.

Really appreciate you doing this. I have seen a hollow core door that has been severely damaged. There are internal supports that will not allow the spray foam to get everywhere. Yes you will get a lot in there but will never fully fill it. But, any additional sound deadening can’t hurt.

You need to do 3 tests. 1. Music playing 2. Ambient noise, such as a white noise machine or a dryer running. 3. Someone talking. Put on a KZfaq of someone’s speech. The door will react differently to different sound frequencies. Bass tends to travel through most things, but higher frequencies are drastically cut. From the sound of your video after the foam was installed, your camera is picking up more of the low end than the higher frequencies. The music is definitely not as clear as before. If you used acoustic foam, you’d get better results.

Hey. Thx for sharing. There are a couple of things that didn't help you there. One is that you need a close cell foam and the big gap can is not the ideal one. It expands a lot but is not dense at all. The other issue is that those doors are not completely open between the chambers. They have cardboard spines across the panels which prevent the 2 faces from collapsing. So even if you had the right foam it's almost imposible to completely fill it up with it. I just not worth all the work. Thank you for sharing cause I am general contractor and had a customer with that exact issue. I think I will just replace the door for them. Good luck!

Good video! Always wondered about doing this until I saw the Inside crazy cardboard maze. But you got a lot in there! Maybe I'll just do an insulation sound board and cover it w wallpaper or fabric and of course the bottom gap. Jeeze all that sound insulation and still?! Like water and drafts it's gets through!

"I'm having a lot of noise come through that door...If somebody's in the basement, kids are screaming..." I almost called the police cos I thought this was a horror film XD

I had this idea independent of this video and hoped someone out there had tried it so thank you for sharing this and actually having measured the decibels. I saw the comments about also sealing under the door and other areas sound can through. Be interesting if you did a part 2 after doing that.

Expanding foam cans need to be held upside down!

I've got that same receiver. Lol Smart idea btw. Thanks for this.

with the big gap filler, did you notice he door expanding and bowing? im worried it might apply too much force

You have to do the the bottom and do some weatherstripping where the door hits the frame when closed top and sides and it should be perfect good luck

Thanks. Id wondered about this for a while. Good to see it works. But will look for an alternative now given the limited effect.

Just curious, why not buy a foam core door? With what you spent on foam you might have saved money.

Thanks for doing this. I was thinking about it but seems like it more work than I want to do for the small gains.

It looks like you've also got some gaps between the molding and the walls on the basement side. I would seal those up as well, because I'm sure the sound is coming through the walls there too.

Need weather stripping and door sweep to cut it down even more

I'm thinking of trying this but instead using the 2 part post hole concrete substitute. its a 2 part high density foam.

I believe you would have to make it air tight to make it even quieter because sound will travel through the cracks.

Whoa that is a Crocodile Dundee size screwdriver!! :-)

Great idea, probably not enough to make a noticeable difference vs the work.

I was thinking of doing exactly this but just for the purpose of making the door sound less cheap

Maybe take it off and add sand from the top. Adding some weight would be nice also.

You cannot get an accurate decibel reading like that, as there is background noise on the main floor too. Test that by not playing the music in the basement and you’ll probably get a similar reading (from the background noise). You don’t mention how many cans of spray foam you used. I noticed you had various sizes of cans. Did you notice any warping of the door skins from the foam expanding outwards? Did you wait for the foam to dry between sprays? More details please

In the past, I have sprayed foam to fill some frame gaps (not within an enclosed area) and I have noticed some part of the foam mix never expands and precipitates to the bottom of the treated area as a yellow liquid that takes more time to dry up (vs the foam). Any experience if the said liquid may soak the door walls from within and stain the paint finish?

Great, been thinking about this because my wife works from home. Any idea of the weight of the door increased a lot?

One thing missing here was to measure the baseline dB with the door closed and no music playing. It seems like "silence" would have been in the low-mid 30s.

Are there reliable ways to tell if the door is hollow without making a hole?

Thinking about doing this yo same kind of door. Why i am on utube. Worried about door bursting open from 2 much foam..

Id say way longer drill bit and longer tube.

Can I do this with doors that have glass or will it show up behind glass?

it would be interesting to see the waveforms of the sound files, to pinpoint where is that 3-4db in the frequency spectrum. before and after.

Sounds to me like you have a ghost in the house. You hear the breathing at the end of video? Lol

Wouldn't it be easier to just replace the door with one that is already sound insulated?

Spray foam in a hollow core door will not reduce sound transmission. It simply don't have the mass needed to reduce sound waves. A solid core door with proper weather stripping is the way to go.

how many cans did you up using?

How many cans did you go through?

I would like to know how many cans and at what expansion?

fyi every 3 DB is a perceived 2x volume

How sealed are the seams?

“Yup we got it all stuffed so it’ll be nice and quite for ya man” “w wats dat sound fakk solid everything but the door”

A wood door is best way to go.

noise coming through the door but i am the only one inside the house.

At least you cant easily punch a hole JK LOL

While noise does travel through a door 99% of noise travels around the door a cheap door seal kit will yeild much better results

Interesting

next time hold the can upside down

I probably would have used lead sheets, green glue and 5/8 rocksheet

Seemed more like 2-3 db reduction, not 3-4 db.

Not a lot of noise control.

It doesn't work at all

A solid wood door would have been better.

I learned on another u tube tutorial that the first and most important thing is to seal beneath and around the door. Check if and where light penetrates around the door. SEE- kzfaq.info/get/bejne/brKAdcd7tcu9XWQ.html

Some asshole showed up saying my assembled fir doors were actually cork filled doors.. My doors are heavy so why is this dude saying this?

This does not work.

First 6 minutes where not necessary

That was a bit creepy. “I have a lot of noise coming through this door from the basement. Kids screaming and such.”

Nice idea I have a video for the same thing I came up with this idea. My video is a little easier to understand and its shorter.

Answered my question. Thanks. Not worth my time

For parents who are to passive to tell their kids to turn down the volume and STOP SCREAMING! I don't know why parents today allow their kids to run around like a pack of wild animals terrorizing their lives and their neighbors.

Hollow-Door: $40.00 GreatStuff Expanding Foam: $10.00/can # Of Cans Needed For Hollow-Door: 6 Primered Solid-Core Slab door: $80.00 You do the math ‘cause Bright-Eyes apparently did not....

total waste of time...you are lying..it was 38 before and 37.5 after...total waste of time!!!