No space is exactly the same, and the things that change how many panels you need are the dimensions of the space, the materials the walls, floor, and ceiling are made of, and if there is any other absorptive material already in the space. For your normal-sized room, use the 40% rule, which is 40% of the square footage of the space is the amount of acoustic material you need. For a more in-depth and exact measurement of the acoustic panel material needed, reach out to us and our acoustical analyst will provide you with an acoustic analysis and assessment of your space! Also, read our article on how to acoustically treat a room for more information on how to do the job right!

Your Basic Room: Follow the 40% Rule

To qualify for the easy answer, you must meet three key criteria.

1. The room must be a normal ceiling height. As you start getting taller than 8 feet, the acoustic treatment recommendations start changing. Once you're above 12 feet, you may need a more customized recommendation that the 40% Rule.
2. The room can’t be too big. If you have a standard 10' x 10', 10' x 15', or even 20' x 20' room, perfect. Go ahead and follow the rule. Once the room starts getting bigger than 400 square feet, we're back to needing a custom recommendation.
3. The room can't be weird. Weird can mean a couple things, but one common "weirdness" is to have multiple walls made of glass or metal. This changes the dynamics and means you may need a more specific recommendation from us.

Ok, so you meet the 3 criteria to follow the 40% Rule. What's the rule?!? This is where you're typical acoustical expert will equivocate with you here, but that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to give you the straight-talk.

But what if I don't have room for 40% coverage?!

That can happen in a small room with windows, bookshelves, doors, and more taking up wall space. If this describes your room, you can get by with fewer acoustic fabric panels in a small room. But you have to pick thicker panels to "cheat up" your sound absorption. Going with the 2" thick panels instead of 1" thick panels gives you a little leeway on coverage, but we wouldn't recommend going below 25% of the room's square footage even in a small room.

That bears repeating. We do not recommend going below 25% coverage of the room's square footage. We like having happy customers, and skimping on coverage is a good way to get mediocre results and angry phone calls.

We also wouldn't recommend going above 40% of square footage. At that point, diminishing returns really start kicking in and you're not getting a good bang for your buck.

After you figure out how many acoustic panels you need for your room, the next three steps are getting some tips on where to install acoustic panels. We include the Rotofast anchoring system for free with any order. We also have a full set of instructions on how to install acoustic panels and how much do acoustic panels cost.

More Complicated Rooms: Calculations Are Needed

Now let’s assume your room don’t meet those three criteria to follow the 40% Rule, because the room has very high ceilings or the floor square footage is much larger. If you are looking for the best way to fix acoustics in a gym, a house of worship, an auditorium, or an office lobby, chances are your reverberation and/or echo problem requires a more tailored solution.

Good news! We can help you there too. You’ll just need to reach out to us so we can do some calculations and tell you how many acoustic panels you'll need and where to install them. You may even need to be considering different sound acoustics materials. The fastest way will be to give us a call to discuss it (1-800-679-8511).