Soundproofing entry door

[wendy]

Hi there. I have a problem with the entry door to the apartment that we are currently renting. Since it's a rental unit I don't really want to spend tons of money soundproofing it. The apartment itself inside is fairly quiet the building is constructed of mostly concrete walls so that deadens the sounds from all around for the most part however since we've moved here I've discovered that if I'm in the hallway I can hear every single word being said inside my apartment as well as everyone else's. This bothers me since I feel like my privacy is being invade. Especially since I've caught the superintendant standing outside apartment doors listening to what's being said inside.

It's a hollow door that I don't really want to replace since I don't own the unit. I would like to know what's a relatively cheap way to make the door soundproof?

I've thought of taking it off it's hinges and drilling a hole in the top of the door and then inserting the nozel of a can of spray foam insulation inside there but I doubt it would go all the way to the bottom of the door. I've considered going to buy some of that foam that you can use for a mattress pad that looks like an egg carton and gluing that to the door but not sure if that will block the sound of our conversations.

I'd really appreciate any inexpensive help/suggestions that anyone can offer. I noticed there's a few students on the forum as well and I'm sure they could benefit from something like this as well.

Wendy

[johnbergstromslc]

Hey Wendy

Yeah, those hollow core doors really stink, don't they?  You probably wouldn't be able to fill the whole door with foam (hollow core doors have a grid of cardboard material to hold the plys apart) and even if you could, I think I once calculated that you'd need over 30 cans to do one door.  And at $4-5 per can, it would be cheaper to replace the door with a solid core one.  The mattress pad won't do anything to block the sound traveling through the door, but it will make your space quieter, by absorbing some of the 'echo' in your room.  One thing you could do cheaply is make sure your weatherstrip the door and put on a sweeper strip on the inside bottom.  Get the low density weatherstripping, or else the door won't close.
Maybe if you're persuasive, you could talk the landlord into letting you fasten piece of nice plywood to the inside of your door and staining/painting it to match the existing finish and doing the weatherstripping too.  That would certainly help.  Also, you might want to look into getting a replacement door locally.  There are companies that specialize in recycled building materials and you could probably get one pretty cheaply.  I saw a solid-core door sell at a local thrift shop here in Salt Lake City for $5.00!
http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/soundproofing_doors.htm