What Is An Echo?
An echo is a reflection of sound, that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. High ceilings and sound-reflecting surfaces, such as glass, stone, tile, and hardwood can often help cause the echoes in your home. The presence of the significant empty space promotes the bouncing around of sound waves that can make echoing a real problem. This is particularly troublesome when trying to hear someone speak clearly, being on the phone or playing music. It can make sounds seem louder than they are, it can cause a headache. Luckily there are some ways to fix this. You can enjoy the look and feel of the space while maintaining good sound quality by making some minor modifications.
How To Fix It?
- A Rug: Putting a rug on the floor will help absorb the sound. It is a really easy way to make a room feel much more welcoming, as well as remove a lot of the echo. Hardwood floors can be one of the biggest culprits when it comes to echoing. So, covering parts of your floors will definitely produce a noticeable difference in the room. For optimal results, you can completely cover the floors with wall-to-wall carpeting, if you wish.
- Pictures or textiles on the wall: A large canvas painting or cloth textiles will add a little sound absorption to combat echo. It’ll help disrupt the ability of sound to bounce back and forth between adjacent walls. For those lucky enough to have a games room or a home theater, consider draping the walls with thick velvet panels to help muffle the sounds from the electronics.
- Use tall bookcases and add object to the room. This will help cover up wall space and forcing sound waves to bend around, diffuse and scatter sound throughout the room. Placing books on a bookcase at different depths also enhances this diffusion effect, therefore breaking up the flutter of echoes.
- Large areas of glass, such as big windows and glazed doors, act as bouncing-off points for sound to travel in an open-plan room. Introducing curtains will help to deaden the noise. A sheer fabric works really well, as it won’t totally block the light or views.
- For maximum sound-muffling, curtains work better than blinds, simply because there’s so much more fabric involved.
- Adding plants to a room is another way to help, not only with your décor but with the echo too. Rough bark and thick, fleshy leaves are particularly effective at absorbing sound with their dynamic surface areas. The greater number of plants and the larger the size of the plant and it’s surface area will all greatly increase
it’s ability to absorb sound.
- Reducing an echo in a bathroom by adding shelves, racks or other accessories, put up a painting or hang potted plants on the walls or from the ceiling. Fold up thick, fluffy towels on your towel racks and cabinets. Hanging a door storage unit on the inside of the door helps, too.
- Make the bed with both sheets and a thick comforter. Prop plenty of pillows up against the headboards. Hanging a fabric canopy over your bed will reduce echoes while adding a romantic vibe to your boudoir. Stuffed animals are a fun and decorative way to dampen echoes in a kid’s room.
You have an echo in your house? There are solutions, so take a deep breath, we have you covered. Still unsure of how to deal with the problem, the solutions you tried aren’t working. Talk to an interior designer!
