We all love the elegant look of quality wood floors, but let’s face facts: wood floors can also make a room seem “noisier.” You may especially hear the difference if you’ve just replaced carpeting with wood flooring. Hardwoods can drastically change the acoustics of a room, making it sound more “live” or “echoey.” The reason? Carpet absorbs sound waves, and wood reflects them.
Now, some people don’t mind the sound either way, but if you’re the kind of person who likes a room to sound quiet and cozy, the additional noise caused from hardwood floors might bother you a bit. Fortunately, there are creative ways to dampen the sound so you can enjoy the look and feel of your new floors without the added noise. The following five tips should help.
Use Area Rugs
Strategically placed rugs offer a great way to reduce the “echo effect” in a room with wood floors. Rugs can absorb sound waves, providing an extra layer of insulation that helps to dampen the sound. You don’t have to cover all the floor space for this to work–in fact, you should notice some improvement with every area rug you add.
Decorate the Walls
Just as rugs diffuse sound from bouncing off the floors, wall hangings do the same for the walls. For best effect, consider adorning your walls textile hangings, which can be an excellent sound-absorbing solution–but if you prefer framed artwork, almost anything hanging on the walls should help somewhat. Even a bookshelf placed against a wall will help to dampen sound. Not only do these pieces absorb the sound waves bouncing off your hardwood floors, but they also add warmth and texture to your room, creating a more inviting space.
Consider the Kind of Wood Flooring
The type of wood flooring you choose can also have an effect on how much noise it reflects. Generally speaking, the softer the wood, the more sound it absorbs. Pine, one of the softest woods used in flooring, will generally produce the least amount of noise. Maple is harder and more “echoey,” while oak (the wood used most often in flooring) is somewhere between them.
Consider Wood Flooring Alternatives
If the “echo effect” of hardwood flooring truly concerns you, there are other alternatives to consider that will emulate the look of wood floors while also dampening the sound. Certain types of engineered wood flooring can be quite absorptive of sound waves, and luxury vinyl plank (LVP) is even better at reducing ambient noise from a room. Both are technologically designed these days to resemble wood flooring, and many people prefer them.
You don’t have to implement all these tips to reduce the echo of wood floors–only one or two should help. And at the end of the day, having a bit of exposed hardwood (along with other materials) can actually “warm up” the sound of your room. (Some recording studios even prefer hardwoods for just this reason.) Just know that when you’re choosing wood floors, you have options for dampening the sound if you’re sensitive to “echoey” spaces and want a quieter room.
Whatever you choose, quality workmanship and installation will go a long way to making sure your wood floors last for generations to come. For a complementary quote in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Catoosa, Norman, and other parts of Green Country, contact us here today.