Silence is golden; is noise pollution stifling your business's productivity?

Entrepreneur, August, 1996 by Cynthia E. Griffin

One minute you're sitting in your home office concentrating on meeting a deadline, and the next moment the sound of your daughters discussing their homework two rooms away scatters your thoughts.

Just as you refocus your energies, the joyful squeals of children playing at the end of the block intrude to distract you once more.

What's the problem? "If you have difficulty speaking on the phone when others are talking or playing next door or above you, if footsteps from the floors above you interfere with your phone conversations, or if you can understand speech coming from adjacent rooms, you have a noise problem," says Gregory C. Tocci, president of Cavanaugh Tocci Associates Inc., an acoustical consulting company in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

If you suffer from any of these problems, Tocci says, there are several ways you can eliminate or reduce them. The best solution is to have a professional soundproof the room. Tocci estimates the cost at $10 to $20 per square foot for supplies and labor. If you don,t want to go this route, you can put additional drywall on one side and have insulation blown into the wall cavity created.

The most cost-conscious option. *is to add a layer of drywall to each side to make the wall thicker, says Tocci. This costs about $10 per square foot for supplies and labor.

To cut down on noise from above, start by carpeting the floor in the rooms above. "Also make sure that music speakers are not sitting on the floor, sending vibrations down into your office," a Tocci.

Another, more costly, solution is to suspend a new drywall from the ceiling from a metal frame.

If you don't want the mess of construction, Penny Bonda, national president of the American Society of Interior Designers, suggests considering fabric-covered acoustical panels and white noise.

"You can apply homosote panels to the drywall. These acoustical panels can be found at any good building supply store," says Bonda, who describes them as a pressed paper product sold in sheets. They do not come with fabric covering, but Bonda says covering them is very simple to do and fairly inexpensive.

For the least expensive solution, Bonda suggests white noise or sound-masking systems. "These emit sounds that are like a background noise you can ignore," she says. Portable ones are available through the Sharper Image stores and catalog, as well as through other catalogs. For the simplest form of white noise, try the soothing whir of the typical desk fan.

If the noise bothering you is coming from inside your office, Bonda offers a homespun solution. Put noisy printer and fax machine in a closet, cabinet or armoire lined with sound-absorbing quilts and comforters; then close the door.

The bottom line is to think your office as an envelope. Then find all the ways sound can get into and seal them up with the most sound-absorbing material possible.