How to Quiet a Room with Hardwood Floors

Quiet a Room with Hardwood Floors

How to Quiet a Room with Hardwood Floors

How to Quiet a Room with Hardwood Floors 1920 2560 Roberto

Hardwood floors provide an instant upgrade to your home interior. These floors warm each room’s appearance and provide upscale quality that enhance your home’s resale value. But at the same time, having hardwoods where you once had carpeting can make a huge difference in how your home sounds. Yes, a room with hardwood floors can be noisier. That is, unless you know how to decorate to quiet the room with hardwood floors.

In a room with hardwood floors where you once had carpet, some new noises you might notice include:

  • Clicking heels
  • Dog or cat claws tapping and scratching
  • Squeaking floorboards
  • Carrying voices
  • Louder atmospheric sounds

A Room with Hardwood Floors has Increased Volume Because of the Sound Waves Bouncing Off of the Hard Surfaces…

… such as the floors themselves and nearby cabinets, countertops, walls, ceilings and hard furniture. You need to interrupt these sound waves to quiet your room. Because your new floors added hardness, your next task to turn down the volume is to add more soft surfaces.

By adding textiles to your room with hardwood floors, you can break up the sound waves.

In turn, you can enjoy greater quiet and serenity than you might expect. At the same time, you do not diminish your ability to hear conversations or your favorite television show. Instead, you enhance the sounds you want to hear while quieting the ones you need to filter out.

Below, we look at some specific ways to quiet a room with hardwood floors.

Windows and Walls

You can easily create an environment that absorbs unnecessary sounds in a room with hardwood floors. Start by adding pillows and chair cushions to seating. Place one or more woven area rugs on your new hardwood floors.

Hang cloth draperies or curtains at each window to disrupt the sound waves. Using thick materials like tapestry, suede and velvet will work better for sound absorption than thin materials like linen, cotton or lace. It is also better to line your drapes with fabric for greater sound absorption.

If you still have too much noise in a room with hardwood floors after the above enhancements, try adding fabric wall hangings. You can suspend a woven rug, quilt or tapestry to reduce the sound bouncing from the floors to the walls.

Furniture

It is best to use upholstered furniture in a room with hardwood floors. These types of pieces immediately reduce sound levels. Consider adding a comfy chair, ottoman, sofa or upholstered headboard. The best pieces for sound absorption are those wrapped in heavy fabrics like microfiber, velvet, corduroy or chenille.

To the upholstered furniture, add throw pillows and blankets. If you have a metal, glass or wooden table in the room with hardwood floors, consider adding a tablecloth.

Floor Treatments

If you are about to have your wooden floors installed, ensure your flooring has a quality underlayment. This material provides cushioning to make standing and walking on the floors more comfortable. At the same time, the underlayment can reduce atmospheric noise in a room with hardwood floors.

If the wood floor you select is LVP flooring, then the underlayment is built into the flooring planks.

Once you have had your hardwoods for awhile, you might notice a squeaky floorboard here and there. These squeaks typically occur after the boards have had time to settle and one rubs against an adjacent board. Have your flooring professional fix these squeaks as desired to keep the room quiet and peaceful.

Other Tips for Quieting a Room with Hardwood Floors

Having a room with hardwood floors where you once had carpeting can mean making some slight lifestyle changes for noise reduction. For example, you may wish to invest in some soft-soled slippers to reduce the sound of shoes on your floors. Or, simply embrace how great hardwood feels on bare feet by kicking off your shoes when indoors.
Also keep your pets’ toenails clipped to reduce their traffic noise.

Benefits of Having a Room with Hardwood Floors

Despite the potential noise associated with having a room with hardwood floors, this flooring provides so many benefits.

Benefits of having hardwood flooring include:

  • Visual appeal
  • Low maintenance and easy cleaning
  • Strength and durability
  • Home resale value
  • Improved air quality
  • Timelessness and versatility
  • Long-lasting and cost effective
  • Can be refinished
  • Improved acoustics

Yes, improved acoustics are one of the major benefits of having a room with hardwood floors. While you can also hear some atmospheric sounds you would rather avoid, you will enjoy hearing clearer conversations. With all of the other benefits hardwoods offer over other types of flooring, accepting some noise is a no-brainer.

If you are considering having hardwood floors installed in your Raleigh, Cary or Apex, NC home, schedule a free consultation with one of Tri Point Flooring’s hardwood experts. Call us today at (919)771-7542.

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