There are different ways you can reduce echo in a room cheaply if you’re on a budget or wouldn’t want to incur extra costs.
Reducing unwanted noise in a room involves soundproofing- and as we all know it, soundproofing can be expensive or cheap as you want it- and can cost up to $3,000 depending on how you want to sound to dampen your room.
In this article, we’ll discuss some of the affordable room soundproofing techniques. You’ll be able to implement these techniques DIY.
What Are the Causes of Echo in a Room/ Flutter Echo
If you’ve been inside a public hall or an empty room with bare wall and hard surface floors, you may notice ringing sound known as flutter echo.
That phenomenon occurs when sound waves created inside a room bounce back and forth between walls, floor, and ceiling making simple conversation impossible. Below are affordable ways to combat this acoustic problem for an improved conversational and audio atmosphere.
Two opposing walls will reflect sound waves back and forth in a repetitive manner resulting out of focus/ blurred/ or delayed interior acoustics. Long rooms and tall ceilings can amplify these echoes affecting conversations, or the sound quality of music or TV at home.
6 Top Ways to Reduce Echo in a Room on a Budget
Luckily, with little effort and placement of the following noise/echo reducing solutions, you can tame the distracting sounds and create a more peaceful space without echoes.
a) Hang Wall Art and Textiles on Opposing Walls
Fancy some artistic painting/wallpapers in a room? Why not hang several of them on parallel walls. Alternatively, you can hang large cloth textiles or curtains to add a little sound absorption to help combat echo.
The idea is to position soft surface items on parallel surfaces of the room to disrupt the ability of the echo sounds bouncing back and forth between the adjacent surfaces of the room.
However, you should avoid wall art with heavy oil paint. When dry the art will resemble a hard surface and cause reflection and diffusion.
b) Acoustic Panels to Enhance Sound Absorption
Acoustic foam panels are effective in absorbing echo and sounds as the reach room surfaces.
You’ve probably seen these panels in a drum rooms, recording studio or night clubs. They are specially designed to absorb echoes/sounds hence improving room acoustics. In recording studios they help enhance the quality of recordings.
A DIY solution is to cut the panels and glue them to the back of canvas mounted art. One of the most recommended acoustic panels is the Foamily 12 Pack Foam Wedges.
c) A Tall Bookcase/ Fill up the Room
The main concept here is to, by all means, cover the walls with materials that will instead absorb the echoes rather than bouncing/reflecting them. A large bookcase filled up with various sized books can dampen echoes by forcing the sound waves to bend around and scattering sound throughout the room.
The idea is to place the books on the shelves at different depths to enhance the sound diffusion effect, thus dispersing up the flutter of echoes.
d) Rugs and Thick Carpet
Hardwood floors or floors made of concrete or tiles can have reflective effects on the echoes.
You can use thick fluffy carpets or an area rug to make the surface softer hence reducing echoes in a room with a tall ceiling. Additionally, fluffy carpets will add warmth and accent the room decoratively.
e) Fill the Room with Furnishings
A room filled up with furniture and accessories helps reduce echoes. Plump recliners and couches, for example, absorb sound reflection. Fabric furnishings typically absorb sound effectively than leather or vinyl.
Ideally, the more a room is stacked up, the less sound will bounce around its surfaces.
Use soft room accessories like blankets or decorative throw pillows to complement your furniture and your interior décor and reduce flutter echo.
Kitchens and bathrooms have many hard and reflective surfaces such as tiles. Reverberations and echo can be reduced by hanging plush decorative items such as tablecloths, bath towels, and fluffy dishtowels.
f) Cover windows and the walls
Walls and window coverings significantly reduce sound reflecting off through them. Heavy window curtains and shades that extend to the floor help muffle sound reduce echo and ambient noise from inside and outside the house.
Note: framed photos and other artwork enclosed behind glass reflect as much sound as windowpanes.
On Reducing Echo in A Room Cheaply
Sound reflecting surfaces such as stone, glass, hardwood, and tile – and high ceilings often create unwanted echoes. If the reverberations affect you, you don’t have to break the bank to find ways to dampen your room. Above are affordable ways to reduce echo in your room.