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Recently I found it essential to make my room soundproof and for this I have worked out the following way:

The walls of my room are made of cement. I want to add two glass layers (of different thickness) inside them. To make it clear, think of my room for the time being a hollow cement cube. Now I want to add one hollow glass cube inside this cement cube (whose dimensions are intentionally kept less than the cement cube) and then do the same for the second glass cube (whose dimensions are also intentionally kept less than the first glass cube). Now what I want to do is to suck out the air between two consecutive layers by a stopcock.

My questions are

  1. Will this procedure make my room soundproof?
  2. Will my room be durable?
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    $\begingroup$ A couple of thoughts: how will you support the weight of the inner glass chamber and its contents? It must make some form of contact with the outer glass chamber. How do you get into the room? How would that entryway be made soundproof? $\endgroup$
    – do-the-thing-please
    Jan 28, 2017 at 23:26
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    $\begingroup$ When you state "sound proofed" do mean so that no sound from the outside can enter your room or do want to significantly reduce the amount of outside sound entering your room? Either way, the solutions would be very broad. $\endgroup$
    – Fred
    Jan 29, 2017 at 2:47
  • $\begingroup$ @Fred: It is the former. $\endgroup$
    – user9761
    Jan 29, 2017 at 12:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Fred: Can you explain the reason(s) for which you think that "the solutions would be very broad"? More precisely, what do you mean by "solutions"? Are you referring to the answers of my questions? $\endgroup$
    – user9761
    Feb 1, 2017 at 13:57

1 Answer 1

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If I am understanding your question correctly you want to surround your room a vacuum so sound waves will not travel through your glass walls. In theory this would work very well but there are some major obstacles to overcome.

Say your room is quite small, $12$ by $12$ by $8$. From the standpoint of a vacuum, earths atmosphere is at $14.7$ psi. $12$ feet times $12$ feet equals $152$ tons of force on your ceiling and floor due to atmospheric pressure. ($12\ \text{ft}\times 12\ \text{ft} = 20726\ \text{in}^2$, $20726\ \text{"}^2 \times 14.7\ \text{lb/in}^2 = 304819\ \text{lb}$ or $152\ \text{tons}$)

Also at some point you are going to have to interface your inside box with your outside box for support and access. Any loud noises would vibrate the inside box which would vibrate your doorframe/supports, which would vibrate your outside box and the air as well. While the noise would probably be minimal it would not be 100% soundproof.

So to answer to your questions

  1. Theoretically yes but I doubt you have the time or money.
  2. No it would not be durable without very thick glass or some kind of internal and external support.

If you want to soundproof your room I would look into getting some foam padding specifically made to cancel sound waves. These will absorb sound waves and deter sound waves from traveling through your walls.

Here is a website that will help you get an idea of how to do what you want based on the reason you want to sound proof your room.

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you give me some idea of internal and external support that you are talking about? $\endgroup$
    – user9761
    Jan 29, 2017 at 13:02
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    $\begingroup$ @user170039 As a rough estimate, imagine you stacked up 4-foot-deep layer of iron bars covering the entire floor area. That is about the same as the air pressure on the floor of your box (and also the walls and ceiling, of course) if you "suck the air out" between the double walls . $\endgroup$
    – alephzero
    Jan 29, 2017 at 21:39