How To Get Privacy In A House With Thin Walls

If you’ve never lived in a house with thin walls, then you are among a small group of people. Many people have lived in houses, apartments, and duplexes with thin walls and a lack of privacy. That’s why you’re not alone if you’ve ever struggled with how to get privacy in a house with thin walls.

If your walls are thin, you can push bookshelves and couches against them to absorb sound and get privacy. It also helps to absorb sound by putting an area rug on the floor. Adding drywall, reinsulating the walls, and using room dividers can also help you get some privacy, despite thin walls.

Otherwise, it helps to run some fans to generate white noise and block intrusive noise. Follow along as we highlight some essential privacy tips for houses with thin walls.

How To Block Sound In A Home With Thin Walls

1. Push Furniture Against The Walls

If nothing is near your thin walls, sound will travel through them more easily. You may not be able to reinsulate your home right now, but you can at least push your furniture toward the walls. Doing so will help add mass and muffle sounds.

This is most effectively done with bookshelves, couches, and heavy tables. Not only will this help you get some privacy, but pushing furniture against the walls will also maximize the space in a room. Tall bookshelves are the best option because they cover the most vertical and horizontal space compared to the average couch. You can get creative and plan the rest of your room’s layout around your sound-dampening plans. This is one of the best ways to get privacy from your roommate in an apartment.

2. Cover The Floors

The floors in your home have a bigger impact on noise than you may realize. Just as cold air can come up through the floor, sound can travel through your floor. You can combat this by putting thick rugs on the floor to absorb sound and get some privacy.

Hardwood floors can amplify noise, which makes it hard to get privacy, so putting area rugs in the common areas in your home will help. That’s especially true if you have roommates, which makes getting privacy quite difficult.

In that case, you can see if they want to split the cost of an area rug. This is one of the easiest ways to prevent sound from travelling and interrupting your tranquility.

3. Seal Gaps

If your walls are thin, there’s a good chance that the doors are thin and have gaps beneath them. In that case, the only solution is to seal the gaps with doorsweeps and weatherstripping. These items not only block sound, but they also keep air conditioned or heated air in the room.

This can help you save money on bills, as your HVAC system’s hard work won’t be compromised. Weatherstripping can also keep mice, spiders, ants, and cockroaches out of your home. This won’t keep sound from coming through the walls, but it will help keep sound from escaping certain rooms. You can also seal door gaps by rolling up towels and putting them at the bottom of the door. This is a temporary solution, as you must roll the towels several times as they unravel. However, it can at least give you some privacy until you find a more permanent solution.

4. Use Fans

Do you struggle to concentrate or sleep when your home is mostly silent? Voices, footsteps, and other noises can make it hard to feel tranquil when your home is otherwise quiet. You can get around this problem by using some fans.

Tower fans and box fans are especially useful, as they’re affordable and portable. They are helpful if you live with roommates, as you can put a fan in your bedroom. That way, you can block the sound from outside. Oscillating fans move as they operate, which helps cover more ground. Fans are cheap enough that you can experiment with a few until your house with thin walls doesn’t make you feel so vulnerable anymore.

5. Hang Sound-Proofing Materials

Thin walls can make anyone feel uncomfortable, especially if someone else is on the other side of the wall. In that case, you need something to absorb the sound in your room and prevent sounds in other rooms from penetrating the wall. Today, that’s easier than ever, as you can find many affordable acoustic panels to put on the wall.

Music producers use acoustic panels to soundproof their studios, and they’re quite effective. You don’t necessarily need to fully soundproof your home, but even a few acoustic panels should help. Otherwise, you can hang some blankets and tapestries on the wall to get some privacy. This is especially useful if you already have them around and don’t want to spend any extra money.

6. Use Room Dividers

Room dividers are cheap, easy to find, and effective for getting privacy in a house with thin walls. However, there is a lot of variety between room dividers, especially regarding quality. For example, fabric screen room dividers don’t block much sound, and they are not durable. There’s also a chance that it can fall over when you or your pets walk around the house.

Instead, look for room dividers made of high-density felt, Mass Loaded Vinyl, or mineral wool. Each of these materials is durable, thick, and good for blocking sound. That said, you should be careful about where you place room dividers. They can sometimes make your home feel smaller than it really is. It may take some experimentation, but your thin walls don’t stand a chance against the right room dividers.

7. Improve The Insulation

If sound easily comes through your walls, it likely means that your home is poorly-insulated. That may not have always been the case, but insulation weakens over time. You can get more privacy if you re-insulate your home or improve the existing insulation.

The least-invasive way to do this is to drill holes in the wall and apply some spray foam insulation. That way, you don’t have to completely open the walls. Not only will this help block sound, but it will keep your home warm during the winter. Improving the insulation can ultimately make your home more comfortable, boost your privacy, and help you save on bills.

8. Add More Drywall

If you own your home, you can add more drywall to rooms with thin walls. Granted, it isn’t easy to do on your own, but it’s possible and cheaper than hiring someone. If you don’t have experience, you can hire someone to add a second layer of drywall in rooms with thin walls.

You can expect to spend between $600 and $1,200 per room to add more drywall to existing walls. The cost ultimately varies based on materials, labor, and room size. You can also choose special soundproofing boards, which cost up to four times the cost of normal drywall. Renters can’t add more drywall out of the blue, as that requires some heavy-duty work. However, you can tell your landlord about how thin the walls are if you’re concerned and feel uncomfortable. That said, don’t get your hopes up, as many landlords are hesitant to spend money on their tenants.

What To Do If You Can Hear Your Neighbors Through The Wall

All you can do when you hear your neighbors through the wall is be patient in the moment. You can use a fan or white noise machine to block the sound, but that won’t stop your neighbors. It’s important to be understanding if you share a duplex with thin walls, as they can likely hear you as well. However, you may want to speak to your landlord if your neighbors don’t respect duplex etiquette. Otherwise, you can talk to your neighbor directly and request that they be quiet late at night.

Summing It Up

The best way to get privacy in a house with thin walls is to cover the walls and floors with thick soundproofing materials. That includes blankets, rugs, tapestries, and acoustic panels. It also helps to seal door gaps, add a second layer of drywall, and re-insulate your home.

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