How to place acoustic panels in your home

Acoustic panels

Do you want to improve the acoustics of a certain room? Do you want to avoid echoes and reverberations in it, in addition to the transmission of sounds to the outside? You can achieve this by installing acoustic panels made from absorbent materials. You don't know how to place acoustic panels in your home? Today we share with you all the keys.

There are different types of insulation so the first step will be to determine which type is the most appropriate to improve the acoustics of our room. What use are you going to give the room? Are you going to turn it into a movie theater? Create music on it? Use it for jobs that require a high degree of silence and concentration? The more specific you are, the better the solution.

What are acoustic panels?

Acoustic panels are panels used to absorb sound and thus acoustically condition a space. Its main function is to improve the acoustic quality in this space, reducing reverberation and echo. An especially interesting function in spaces where noise is generated.

Acoustic conditioning

Acoustic conditioning should not be confused with Acoustic whose function is to protect a room from the noise generated in another. The conditioning absorbs the noise generated in the room itself to improve its acoustics. Although it is true that if the noise level in this space decreases, less noise will also reach the other spaces attached to it.

Acoustic panels transform sound vibrations into energy. The higher the percentage of sound absorbed, the greater the effectiveness of the insulator. And it is precisely this that we must focus on. An element to measure its effectiveness is the data α (sabine) whose value varies between 0 (0% absorption) and 1 (100%).

When is acoustic conditioning necessary? It can be in spaces used for very different uses. In a room where many people gather, for example, people will talk, shout, laugh ... And if the room is not conditioned, the sounds will tend to bounce endlessly, making communication between those who are there very difficult. Also a room dedicated to the practice of an instrument benefits from acoustic conditioning, as well as one dedicated to watching movies on a large cinema screen.

Panel types

Acoustic panels can be classified both by the Absorbent material What they are made of, such as where they are placed, being possible to do it on the ceiling or wall. Focusing on the materials, these are some of the most popular:

Acoustic panels

  • Polyethylene foam. Polyethylene foam is a very light material and easy to install. It is usually used on plasterboard walls, installed between the partition and the metal structure. Low thickness, closed cell polyethylene foams have a high capacity to absorb sound.
  • Fibers polyester. They are especially indicated to improve acoustic insulation capacity at low frequencies, over 60db. It is a very porous material, which guarantees its great sound absorption capacity. They are sold in panels and are installed in internal walls on the studs of the plasterboard or in an air chamber to favor the conditioning and isolation of the room. They are also used in ceilings on plasterboard.
  • Polyurethane foams. They are indicated as wall and ceiling cladding and are very economical. They come in different shapes and densities that improve acoustic comfort and also in different colors. Some are self-adhesive, others require contact glue to be fixed to the wall.
  • Decorative acoustic panels. They are, as their name suggests, decorative panels that, in addition to a practical function, also fulfill a decorative one. They are generally made of wood chips that create a natural acoustic comfort, water and cement. Elements that naturally regulate sound absorption, as well as heat and humidity in any environment.

Place acoustic panels in your home

How to place acoustic panels? There are many types of acoustic panels that require in turn different types of installation. As for this, we are going to divide them into two groups: those that are installed on the plasterboard plates and are exposed and those that are installed between the partition and the metal structure.

How to install acoustic panels

The first, those that are placed on the wall, They present a much simpler installation. Most are self-adhesive so it will be enough to cut them to the desired size if they are presented in roll form and peel off the paper that protects the self-adhesive surface to stick them on the wall. Don't have a sticker? Then you will have to buy a suitable contact glue and place different points of this on the back of each panel so that they will be fixed to the wall.

When the panels have an insulating paper, they should be installed, normally, between metal profiles and be covered by plasterboard plates mechanically fixed to the profiles. A much bigger job that we recommend you always leave in the hands of a professional.


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