10 Ways to Reduce the Most Common Noises in Your Home

Posted on February 13, 2025 by resourcefulman

All homes make noise, and this noise can be helpful in diagnosing and solving potential problems . But if your home is driving you crazy with its creaking and groaning, it’s time to think about how you can calm your home.

You could remodel the interior to make the place completely soundproof, but unless you have a spare fortune to spend on that effort, you still have plenty of relatively simple and affordable options to try, depending on what’s making those noises in the first place.

Check your decibels

First, you’ll need some data to work with—and you’ll need to determine exactly what’s causing the noise in your home. While some noise sources will be obvious, using a simple decibel meter (or an app on your phone) to check noise levels in different rooms will give you a more specific plan of action.

The average indoor noise level is considered to be between 30 and 50 decibels (dB) , and any noise above 70 dB is considered harmful, however noise sensitivity is subjective. Walk around and write down all the places where there is a spike in noise levels and look at the source of the noise.

Get your equipment in order

One of the main sources of noise in your home is appliances. Washing machines, dryers, dishwashers – everything that makes our lives easier also creates noise, sometimes very loudly. Most appliances operate at noise levels between 50 and 70 dB, so running multiple appliances at the same time can create a lot of noise pollution in a room.

You can take a few simple steps to reduce this noise:

Choose quieter equipment. Different appliances have different decibel ratings, so the next time you replace something, you may want to choose quieter appliances. Sometimes you can find this in the product specifications or look for appliances that are Quiet Mark certified .
Check your balance. Washing machines and other appliances with moving internal parts need to be balanced and level—if they are not balanced, they may shake and make more noise than they should. Take a level and check if everything is balanced. You can usually adjust the feet of the unit to level it.
Use anti-vibration pads. Available in a variety of sizes , anti-vibration pads absorb vibration from the device, reducing the noise it produces.
Install wall cladding. Hanging fabric or soundproofing materials on the walls around appliances will help absorb noise and prevent it from spreading through the walls to other parts of the house.

Check your oven

If your furnace is noisy, it may be worth calling an HVAC professional to check it out. However, there are a few simple things you can try to make it run quieter:

Adjust the fan speed. Reducing the fan speed may be all that is needed to eliminate the whistling or howling noise from your furnace.
Clean it up. Your furnace, the filters, and the vents it connects to can become clogged with dust, causing it to be noisier than usual. Thorough cleaning of the entire system can eliminate excess noise.
Inspect your air ducts. Inspect ducts where possible, especially where they connect. Any gaps or holes can cause whistling or other noise, so sealing them with foil insulation tape can significantly reduce noise levels.

Add rugs and carpeting

You might not want to carpet your entire home, but area rugs (or even carpet tiles) can offer some of the same benefits while muffling the sound of people walking through the space. To enhance the benefits, place a very thick rug underneath to absorb as much sound as possible from the flooring.

Place pads under furniture

When thinking about how much noise your floors transmit, be sure to add padding under your furniture where possible. You don’t go under a sofa or bed, but the bare floor underneath can still act as a conductor, spreading noise to other parts of the house. A rug or cushion underneath these pieces can add a little more soundproofing.

Protect your pipes

If one of the sources of noise in your home is rattling pipes, either when you turn on the hot water (called “water hammer”) or during the heat cycle, you can reduce or eliminate this noise in two ways:

Secure the pipes. Pipes that are banging and banging inside your walls may just need to be secured. This is an easy job that you can do yourself (but usually requires opening up the walls). Alternatively, you can have a plumber install a water hammer limiter , which should solve the problem.
Install pressure reducing valves (PRV). A PRV will regulate the water and air pressure in your pipes, which can reduce or eliminate shocks and impacts. It’s not exactly cheap (it could cost you over $600 if you hire a plumber to install it), but it might be worth it.

Soundproof Wall Panels

If something in your home is making noise, the house itself can act as one big sound conductor—your walls act almost like speakers, carrying noise from other rooms. This is especially true if they are not isolated. You may not want (or be able) to stuff them with insulation, but you can easily muffle some of the noise coming through these walls by adding sound-absorbing pads to outlets and light switches.

Behind these wall panels are holes in the walls through which noise can easily enter the room. By adding seals around these plates, you can reduce the noise coming through them. If you’re a little more experienced, you can also apply caulk to the electrical boxes in the room, which will also muffle any sounds before they can enter the space.

Upgrade your doors

Just like your walls, doors can act as sound conduits, bringing noise from outside the room straight to your ears. If your interior doors are hollow, the effect will be even greater, so replacing them with solid core doors can help make your home quieter. Gaps under the door can also allow sound from outside to enter, so adding a simple pad underneath to close this gap can give your door an extra level of soundproofing.

Silence creaking floors

Even if you add rugs and pads, floors that squeak and squeak when you walk on them will still increase the overall noise level in your home. The good news is that you probably won’t need professional help or even any power tools to rattle these floors. Here are a few things you can do:

Lubricate. If your hardwood floors are squeaky, you can apply a dry lubricant such as graphite powder or even talcum powder. Just use it to seal the seams between the floorboards where you hear squeaking, cover the area with a cloth and move a little further. Repeat the procedure until the squeak disappears.
Shim. If you have access to the bottom of the floor, you can look to see if there is a gap between the subfloor and the joist. If so, installing one or two spacers to eliminate movement may solve the noise problem. You can also try driving a screw in from the top or bottom to secure the floor. If you’re hammering it from the top, use a decorative screw and lower it below the surface of the floor so you can fill the hole with wood filler. If you are driving it from the bottom, make sure the screw is short enough to not pop up on the floor surface.
Break. If there is a clear gap or large movement between the joists and the subfloor, you can secure the floor by cutting a 2×4 to fit between the joists. Attach it so that it is slightly higher than the joists, compensating for the gap and eliminating movement of the subfloor.
For tile floors, you can check to see if the tiles are firmly attached to the subfloor and reinstall any loose tiles. Next, find any gaps along the edges of the floor and seal them. This will help eliminate any movement of the tiles that may be causing squeaking.

Reduce settling noise

If your home is groaning or cracking, it is usually classified as “settling,” the process of sinking a home into its foundation and the materials it is built from to accommodate movement and compression. This is completely natural and affects most homes at one point or another, although severe settlement may indicate foundation problems .

But these settling noises can also be caused by humidity and temperature, which can cause wood and other materials to expand and contract, causing cracks, pops and groans. Managing fluctuations in humidity and temperature in your home can reduce or even eliminate these noises.

Servicing your heating system

Noisy radiators

If you have steam radiators in your home, you know they can sound like a fake brass band marching through your nightmares. You can try some simple DIY solutions to calm them down:

Shim it. Radiator knocking and clanging noises can be caused by water accumulating at the bottom of the radiator. This problem can be eliminated by slightly lifting it so that it tilts towards the boiler.
Replace the air vent. A radiator that whistles and burps every time the temperature rises may just need a new air intake. It’s pretty cheap and easy to do yourself .

Loud forced air furnace

If you have a forced air that sounds like a battleship is leaving port every time it lights up, you might be able to calm it down without any major project:

Air duct inserts. Installing fiberglass duct liners can reduce noise caused by vibration and rattling, as well as reduce noise conduction.
Anti-vibration pads under the stove itself will also help reduce noise.
Replace the filter. A dirty air filter can cause your furnace to work harder, which can result in a humming or knocking noise. You can also try opening the vents in your home.

If these steps don’t help, your furnace motor could be the culprit, either due to low lubrication, a faulty belt, or some other mechanical reason. It’s best to call a specialist to take a look.

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