“Does soundproof foam work” this is really a good question and this same question was came into my mind at the time of soundproofing of my room. So I tried to find his answer and then some truth came out and that is what I am going to share with you.
Does Soundproof Foam Work
Now first I give the answer to your question Does soundproof foam work or not?
So the answer is Yes soundproof foam does work but it doesn’t completely block the noise. It absorbs the noise to its certain level.
Now the question is What is its certain level? and to know this, you need to know some basic things and that is,
- What is sound absorption
- What are the basic principles of soundproofing &
- What is NRC
If you know these things then I assure you that you will easily understand does soundproof foam works or not. So let’s start,
1. What Is Sound Absorption?
Sound Absorption: Sound absorption is the absorption of sound or you can also say that it is the loss of sound energy when it comes into contact with an absorbent material such as acoustic foam or soundproof foam.
And Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) is the criteria to measure it. It measures that how much sound is absorbed by the sound-absorbing material.
This NRC rating stands between 0 to 1, a larger number indicates good sound absorption. NRC rating is applicable only for absorbing material.
If the NRC rating is 0.8 then it indicates that 80% of the sound is absorbed by the absorbing material and 20% of the sound is reflected, so always use high NRC rating absorbing material for better result.
From the above description, it is clear that you can reduce the sound by using absorbing material and soundproof foam is one of the good example of sound absorbing material so here it prove that soundproof foam does work.
2. What Are The Basic Principles Of Soundproofing?
There are 5 basic principles of soundproofing and they are as follows
a. Mass: Any thicker, denser, and heavier solid object is blocking the sound which is mass. There can be no better example than MLV and drywall for this.
b. Distance: You can reduce noise by increasing the distance between the source and the receiver.
c. Dampening: Noise is reduced by reducing vibrations it is called dampening, green glue is the best example of it.
d. Decoupling: Reducing noise by adding air space or a gap in between the parts of the structure is called decoupling.
e. Absorption: By absorbing noise you can reduce echo and reverberation in the room and by doing this, noise is reduced indirectly and acoustic foam is the best example of it.
Hope you understood the 5 basic principles of soundproofing. Now here you can see that absorption is one of the basic principles of soundproofing and foam is the best example for it. It means absorption helps in soundproofing.
Hope you understand what I want to say, here I want to say that foam is the best example for absorption means it proves that soundproof foam does works because foam is the best sound-absorbing material.
It absorbs the sound and reduces echoes and reverberation in the room and by doing this it indirectly reduces noise.
Now the question is How much sound this foam is absorbs?
So the answer is it all depends upon the NRC rating of the acoustic foam. If the NRC rating is good then the sound absorption is good and vice versa.
So let’s know what is NRC rating?
3. What Is NRC Rating?
NRC stands for a Noise Reduction Coefficient, you can see that the name indicates its function.
The noise reduction coefficient indicates that how much noise can absorb by the acoustic product. It means how much a room it makes quieter by reducing echo and reverberation.
NRC stands between 0 to 1, the larger number indicates good absorption and the lower number indicates poor absorption.
Generally, the acoustic foam has an NRC rating of 0.6 to 0.8, it all depends upon how thicker, denser, and heavier it is, so I recommend that always use at least 2 inches thicker acoustic foam because it gives you a good NRC rating,
I try to explain it with the help of a graph so that you can understand it well.
This graph is obtained from one of the calculators available on acousticmodeling.com. Now here we put the value 12.5 mm as the absorber thickness (acoustic foam thickness) and pressed on the “calculate” button then this chart is obtained.
From this chart, we have got a 0.12 NRC rating on 1000 Hz for 12.5 mm thick foam.
Now we will calculate it for 50 mm (2 inches) thick foam and then we will check how much NRC rating we get.
From this chart, we have got a 0.8 NRC rating on 1000 Hz for 50 mm thick foam.
Now you can see the difference, from chart 1 we have got 0.12 NRC rating on 1000 Hz for 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) thick foam, and from chart 2 we have got a 0.8 NRC rating on 1000 Hz for 50 mm thick foam.
It means if you increase the thickness of the acoustic foam then you will get the larger NRC rating, and a larger number indicates more sound absorption.
If you selected the acoustic foam whose NRC rating is 0.8 then this 0.8 indicates that 80% of the sound is absorbed by the foam and 20% of the sound is reflected, and that’s why always select a good NRC rating foam for a better result.
From the above description, it is clear that you can reduce sound by using absorbing material and soundproof foam is a good example of sound-absorbing material so here it proves that soundproof foam does work.
Final Wording
Here you can see that you can reduce noise by using absorption and soundproof foam is a good sound absorber so here it clears that soundproof foam does work but If you use this principle with some other theory then you get good results.
Hope this article “Does Soundproof Foam Work” will help you in the right direction.