How to Soundproof a forced air vent in 3 steps

Sound proofing a forced air vent can be tough, especially when you don’t know what you’re doing.

 Of course, when you don’t know what you’re doing, you tend to have a difficult time trying to figure it out.

In this post, I’m going to explain step by step on how you can soundproof your forced air vents.

I understand that your heat and air vents can be loud sometimes, especially if you have vents all around your house.

Well there is a way to minimize the noise that you hear coming out of the vent.
Here is the step by step formula for soundproofing your forced air vents.

Step 1: Inspect the air vents

Before you can soundproof your air vents, it is in your best interest to inspect the air vents.

Make sure you prepare the area where the vents are, and remove any furniture, or objects that maybe covering, or surrounding the vents.

Make sure to place your furniture or objects in a different place so you can have a clean place to work.

You also need to make sure to clean the air vent thoroughly, because once you soundproof them, it can be hard to get them clean due to the material you’ll use to soundproof your air vents.

Even when you sound proof your air vent’s it is still in your best interest to clean your air vents that least once a month.

The reason I believe you should clean them once a month is because air vents collect dust, and they will blow dust out.

You should make an effort to clean your air vents whether their soundproofed or not.

Once you’ve inspected the air vents, and made sure everything looked good, you can now move onto step two.

Step 2: Figure out how you want to sound proof your vents

There are many ways to sound proof your air vents, and I’m going to list each way that you can soundproof your air vents down below.

1.    Cover it up with drywall

The first thing you can do is simply cover the air vent with dry wall. However, this is only if your air vent is on the ceiling, or the wall itself.

This method won’t work if your air vent is placed on the floor. Once your air vent is covered up with drywall, and make sure the drywall blends in with the rest of the wall. Otherwise it won’t look good. 

If you want to cover the air vent with drywall, make sure you poke holes through the drywall big enough for the air to still keep flowing.

Not having air coming out of the air vent can damage your heat system, and you don’t want to do that because it will be so expensive to replace you heat system, and you won’t have any heat until you get it replaced.

Just remember that if you decide to cover the air vent with drywall. 
You may want to think twice about putting drywall on your vent though, because it will be their permanently. 
The next way I’m going to show you might be the better option for you, but just keep drywall in mind.

2.    Stuff the vent with insulation

This is a great way to soundproof your vents if you hate the thought of putting drywall over them. 

Make sure to do this correctly, or else you may still hear the air coming out of the vent.

Make sure there is still air coming out of the air vent since it could do some damage to your heat system if there is no air flow. 

The good news with insulation is that you can take it out whenever you want. The issue with drywall is it’s permanent.

If I were you, I would personally pick the insulation only because it’s not permanent, and it looks better if it’s stuffed in the vent.

You can also put insulation on your floor vents, where putting drywall on floor vents is not possible.There are many types of insulation you can use. 

You can either buy insulation that’s already made, or you can buy the spray kind where you spray the insulation.

It’s up to you what type of insulation you want to buy, but in my opinion, the spray insulation is the best because you don’t have to carry insulation, and it’s cleaner because it won’t make you dirty.

All you have to do is spray the insulation, and it will dry and become like the insulation that you get that’s already made.

There are many benefits with buying the spray kind. Some benefits of buying the spray kind is you won’t get dirty, you won’t have to inhale he smell of insulation, and you won’t have to carry it.

Those are all the benefits of the spray type.

Now I do understand there are some benefits with the kind you don’t spray, but I personally prefer the spray kind over the kind that’s already made.

Okay, you get the point of what I’m trying to say here, so I’m not going to go on any more about insulation because we can go on for ages about it.

Because of that, were going to move onto the third thing that’s on the list.

3.    Cover the vent with soundproof curtains

This is probably the easiest way to soundproof your vents, because all you have to do is simply cover them up with curtains.

However, easy does have its catches, and the catch is there is a high chance that you will still hear the air vent a little bit, but the curtains will certainly help with the noise no doubt about it.

You can also use soundproof blankets, and there pretty much the same thing as curtains so you might as well just stick with the soundproof curtains.

I believe the sound proof curtains are a little bit cheaper than the blankets as well, so you may want to choose the curtains anyway.

These types of curtains are very heavy, which is why they call them soundproof curtains.

They’re so heavy, that the vent doesn’t have enough power to blow on it, and the curtains muffle the sound of the vent.

Anyway, you get the idea. Let’s move onto to the fourth thing on the list.

4.    Create a sound maze in the vent

If you still need to keep air flowing from the vent for any reason, a sound maze is right for you.

A sound maze is basically putting something in the vent, and having passages where the air flows in a zig zag motion.

A reason you might want to have a sound maze is because there may be a risk of the room getting too hot or too cold.

A sound maze is also good for if your room the air vents in grows mold, and you have to have air flowing from the vent to help the mold go away.

Mold is very rare, but I know in some homes mold grows in some places.

First of all, mold is very rare, but if you have it in your home, make sure to hire someone that specializes in removing mold, and take care of the situation immediately.

With that being said, a sound maze is not the best option for muffling sound from the air vent, because you still hear the air coming out, but it’s a little bit quieter when you have a sound maze in your vent.

However, I would still go with insulation, or the curtain. 

You can choose what’s best for you.

Now that’s pretty much the end of that list. Let’s move onto step three.

Step 3: Monitor the air vent

After you’ve done all the work in soundproofing the air vent, it is now time to monitor the air vent and see if you hear anything coming out of it.

You shouldn’t be able to hear much of anything after you’ve soundproofed it.
You definitely wouldn’t hear anything if you covered it with drywall.

Now there is a chance that you may hear a tiny bit of noise with the insulation, but I highly doubt you’ll hear anything if you’re not paying attention to it.

If your focusing on the air vent, and paying attention to it, there’s no question that you’ll hear something, because you will.

However, if your far away from the air vent, then it is likely that you won’t hear much, if anything at all.

If you did the soundproof curtain option, you may hear a little bit of noise, but unless you’re paying very close attention, then it is likely that you won’t hear anything at all.

Now, the soundproof maze you’ll definitely hear a little bit, but it will improve the sound of the vent a little bit, but not by much.

If I were in your shoes, I would go with the insulation, or the curtains since those aren’t permanent, and you won’t hear much if you try either one.

Conclusion

So there you have it! How to sound proof your forced air vents.

I hope you found this post helpful, and turn on notifications to get notified of my recent posts on soundproofing.

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