If you have a smaller space with few workers and machinery, you may think that sound is not as much of a problem. Although individually each of those things may not be very loud, when everything is running at once the noise quickly accumulates.

Workplace safety and osha guidelines

The OSHA limit for noise in the workplace is a time weighted average of 85 decibels over an 8-hour shift. If you have to raise your voice to speak to someone less than 3 feet away, you likely are over 85 dB. Even if you find your warehouse is not consistently this loud, shorter bursts from loud machinery can still hit well over 100 decibels. A quick way to gauge your noise levels is to use a Sound Level Meter app. There are plenty of options out there, but a good free one from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

You’re likely already taking precautions like personal hearing protection, but it may not be enough to protect you and your employees from sustained exposure to loud noise. If preventative action is not taken, not only could you be subject to code violations, workers may suffer from negative health effects such as tinnitus or hearing loss. These issues can snowball into other side effects like anxiety or high blood pressure and even longer term lead to increased risk of dementia. Not to mention the potential for injury due to the difficulty in workers being able to communicate with each other when operating or moving machinery.

Productivity

Your warehouse may have attached office spaces for administrative tasks such as vendor relations or sales. Although employees in these spaces are less likely to suffer from health issues due to noise, it can make it very difficult to focus on tasks, take calls, or have meetings. If you’ve got noise from the warehouse bleeding into other spaces, you know that the sounds of activity piercing a quiet office space hurts productivity and can frustrate some staff.

If you’re interested in soundproofing those other spaces, check out our article on office soundproofing solutions.

Being a good neighbor

Although they may not be a part of your business or workforce, your neighboring businesses also may be impacted by your high noise levels. Being kind and courteous to those around you tends to make everyone’s life easier. Most businesses also value having a positive impact in their community, and if everyone is complaining about the noise coming from your space, it’s impossible to do that. Good relationships with the businesses and residents nearby tends to pay off many fold, so take some time to see how the noise may be affecting those outside your building.

You should think about soundproofing as two parts. The first is reducing noise and echo, and the second is blocking sound from escaping a space. Although solving one of these issues can help with the other, you should think of them as distinct problems because they often require different materials and strategies. Let’s start with identifying the different sources of noise.

Identify the source of the noise

In a warehouse the source of noise is often machinery, especially when it comes to anything that cuts, crushes, or bends materials. It can get especially loud when you’re shearing or manipulating hard, heavy materials like metal. Metal on metal is always very loud. Conversely you may not have overly loud machinery, but the amount of activity within your warehouse adds up to a very noisy space.

It’s also important to consider how much you want to reasonably reduce the noise. Maybe your only goal is to satisfy OSHA requirements. That’s not a problem, and we can help you get back into compliance quickly. Or maybe you have specific goals based on the working environment you want to create for your employees – we can help there too.

Once you’ve identified the type of noise issues you’re dealing with, and the level of sound reduction you’d like to achieve, you can move on to solutions. We’ve included several examples below to give you an idea for the types of industrial sound problems we’ve helped solve. Every warehouse is unique though, so you may have other needs. Reach out to us and we’d be happy to discuss your specific situation.

examples of ways to solve warehouse noise issues

General Noise Issues

Sometimes there aren't distinct sources of noise, but rather the collective work and people moving around creates a noisy environment. This is because the hard surfaces throughout the warehouse reflect sound waves, allowing them to continue bouncing sound throughout the space. The simplest solution is adding sound absorption materials covering as much of the hard surfaces as you can to stop sound from reverberating.

A bulk of the heavy lifting is acoustically treating the ceiling with right materials to reduce echo and reverb and cover metal deck ceilings. For 100% coverage, we recommend using our EcoVerb Roll™ to reduce the overall noise in your space by 8-10 decibels! With a black lining that faces down, it easily blends in with the ceiling.

Alternatively, hanging ceiling clouds or ceiling baffles are great for reducing noise within a space. BlocknZorbe™ is great for warehouse environments because it's non-fibrous and easy to clean. Get them in cloud form or in baffle form depending on what you prefer. If you need lots of absorption on a tight budget, Ecoverb™ is the most absorptive baffle out there!

Loud Machinery

One of the most common issues we hear from our customers is how to deal with equipment or machinery that produces a lot of noise. If you’re in the planning phases of your warehouse, there’s often strategies around where you place the equipment or how to install it that can reduce the noise generated.

However, often the people we talk to are trying to soundproof an already established warehouse, and some of these solutions are no longer viable. One of the simplest things you can do is build a temporary sound barrier with soundproof industrial curtains around the machinery. Installing our soundproof blankets close to the noise source will prevent sound from traveling further throughout the warehouse.

While there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for soundproofing heavy machinery, we can work with you to determine the right solution for you. Unlike soundproofing something like an HVAC system, the equipment you have is likely not standard, and it’s important to consider things like access, size, placement, heat, and more before jumping into a soundproofing solution. You’ll need to reach out to us for a consultation.

Blocking sound from others

If you’re worried about the sound of your warehouse disrupting your office workers or neighbors, you’ll need to start with attacking the “weak” points of your space – these are the spaces where sound can most easily slip through like doors and windows. Because of how much noise a warehouse can produce, you may need to go above and beyond to add soundproofing to the walls as well. Luckily these strategies are not unique to a warehouse, check out our complete guide to soundproofing for a general overview.

Start by identifying problem areas walls where sound travels through easily. The most common ones in a warehouse office are a dropped ceiling, doors, and windows. For doors and windows, the simplest solution is to add adjustable door seal kits or window inserts to what's already there. Depending on the noise level, we have the best soundproof door money can buy and a lab tested acoustic windows. The cost to soundproof a window or door can vary depending on the required STC rating.

To help soundproof walls and ceilings, an excellent solution is sound isolation clips or hangers. We've got a clip for everything - even existing walls can be soundproofed without tearing our the existing gypsum using the RSIC-1 Retro clip. And then the ceiling needs a soundproofing treatment, which is preferably with 5/8" gypsum but often requires ceiling tile backers and MLV light covers.

In summary, the way to soundproof a warehouse from the administrative areas is to address main weak points like the windows and doors, and then add density to areas that are susceptible to sound transfer, specifically any dropped ceilings or poorly sealed walls. Reach out to one of our experts for help with your warehouse!

We’ve seen warehouses of all sizes full of everything from people to robots. Each of these spaces benefit from unique solutions and strategies to soundproofing. One other thing, if you have a metal roof and want to soundproof the metal roof to reduce rain noise or other noises coming into your space, check out our how to soundproof a metal roof article. Give us a call and we’ll discuss your space and needs and come up with a custom soundproofing solution and plan unique to your needs.