Need Advice for Soundproofing a Bedroom

[Vermithor]

I'm looking to soundproof my bedroom, I'm a university student and am dealing with a very noisy home which makes studying very difficult.

I'm looking to soundproof the window, wall, and door but am unsure how to proceed.

I believe most of the noise is coming through the door, window, and the side of the room which shares a wall with the kitchen.

So here is what I'm thinking of doing now.
1. I'd like to replace the door (which currently has an STC of 27) with an exterior metal door and add weatherstripping and a rubber door sweep to it. If it continues to let in sound I'm planning to add plywood to one or both sides with Green Glue sandwiched in between.
2. I'm going add two layers of drywall to the wall which joins the kitchen with Green Glue sandwiched in between.
3. Add a window plug for the window and some sound-blocking drapes.

The noises that are giving me trouble:
1. I'm across the hall from my mother's room, she's somewhat hard of hearing and so her television is loud when she watches it. In addition she has a nasty smoker's cough which very loud (this is probably the worst source of noise).
2. We have two small dogs, the tenants who rent out part of our house have one small dog, and there are a number of dog owners who's backyard backs on to our backyard. Obviously this results in a great deal of barking at pretty much all hours of the day. My window faces the backyard so I get the worst of this.
3. We have guests coming in often, and usually they're very loud and have conversations near my door.
4. Clinking cups and plates in the kitchen.
*Note: The floor below me has some soundproofing and doesn't seem to be an issue.

My questions:
-Will I need to soundproof all the walls, or just the one which joins the kitchen? The other ones join the walls of rooms which aren't used.
-Any suggestions that are cost-effective? Aesthetics don't matter, I don't care how it looks as long as it works.  (I don't have tons of money to spend on a college student budget).
-How much soundproofing could I expect to get from this?

Edit:
Ear plugs and sound cancelling headphones aren't an option.

Thanks a lot for any replies!
 

[Randy S]

here are the links to handle the door , and window.
http://soundproofing.org/infopages/soundproofing_doors.htm#.Uup2GD1dWSo

I would advise against using a metal door, go with the heaviest solid core wood door.

http://soundproofing.org/infopages/windowplug.htm#.Uup2RD1dWSo

for the wall i would recommend Mass loaded vinyl over green glue in this situation because you need as much mass as you can get.
http://www.supersoundproofingsales.com/Mass-Loaded-Vinyl-4W-25-Roll/productinfo/09-00005-48R/

as far as reduction is concerned it is all relative to how loud the noise source is but you should see at least a 40% reduction if not more.

soundproofing single partitions does deliver a reduction and there will be a flanking value but most of the time it is not that bad..so you can do one wall at a time and assess to see if you need to deal with adjoining walls .

[Vermithor]

I've recently acquired enough QuietRock drywall to cover the problematic wall. With QuietRock + MLV what kind of STC could I expect? In the mid 60's maybe?

Thanks!

[Randy S]

If your not doing a complex structure ie: clips and channel or double wall construction I highly doubt you reach the 60 STC mark..you might be in the 50's

[metroplexchl]

Unless you're one of the few loaded college students on the planet, you can do it on the cheap.

Doors - buy 5 or 6 moving blankets. Fold them in half, put some J-hooks that hang from the top of the door, cut holes in the top of the moving blanket and hang them up there. Stagger them so they cover the edges of the door where sound can creep in.

Walls - If you can afford to re-drywall a room, get some Roxul Safe and Sound batting and some QuietRock drywall. If you want to go big and splurge somewhere, you can float the walls from semi-cheap.

Windows - do the moving blanket thing.

I know it sounds cheap, but it works.  If you've got the cash, go big and make it sound proof. But most college kids can't afford that. No offense....just sayin. :-)

[Vermithor]

So far I've completed the soundproofing on the offending wall. I found a good deal on Green Glue and used some left over Quietrock to do it. It's now one sheet of standard dry wall and one sheet of 1/2" Quietrock dry wall with a layer of Green Glue in between. It seems to be working quite well.

Now I've set to work on the door. I've added weather stripping around the perimeter for a tight seal and an automatic door seal. They have helped, but not a great deal. I think now the issue is sound coming in through the door itself. The door has an STC of 27 so I can hear any conversations down the hall and still have problems with slamming cupboards and clinking cookware.

I'd have liked to use the MLV with closed cell foam sold here but I can't seem to have it shipped to where I live in Canada.

So right now I'm looking at three options:

1. Nail some dense rigid insulation to the door. Unfortunately it's not very massive, so I'm not sure how well it would work.

2. Drill a 1/2" sheet of MFD to the door with Green Glue in between. A good deal of mass + damping. The issue is that that the standard door jamb and two door hinges might not be able to handle it. Would adding an extra door hinge give it enough strength?

3. Same as above with plywood instead of MDF. Though I've heard that plywood is not a good sound barrier...

I'm also wondering if it might be worth it to replace the current door handle with a dummy lever (to avoid issues with the door handle as a result of making the door thicker).

Any opinions or suggestions?

[Randy S]

Well I'm glad to see you didn't go the "moving blanket" route and you actually achieved a noise reduction worthy of your efforts! Good Job!

As for the door same as the wall, reductions come from mass, decoupling and air tight seals.

Add the third hinge to support more weight and attach MDF or cement board or even drywall to the door. you want to get as close to doubling the weight as possible...
Make sure all your seals are air tight ..