Server Room Soundproofing

Soundproofing Products

Server Room Sound Absorption Products

It’s normal to hear the fan in your computer running during a workday. However, people who work near computer server rooms have to listen to many devices, all running at the same time.

Without the proper soundproofing equipment, server rooms can be excessively loud — and may even damage employee hearing over the long term. To protect your employees and reduce noise pollution, it’s important to soundproof server rooms.

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Reasons to Soundproof a Server Room

While the whirring of a server room might seem like innocuous white noise, it can easily become too loud for people to safely hear for eight hours a day. Exposure to prolonged noises over 70 decibels can cause hearing loss, and the noise coming from server rooms can far exceed this range.

Here are five ways that soundproofing your server room can benefit your company:

• Hearing protection: Soundproofing will protect your employees’ hearing.
• Higher productivity: A quiet environment can boost employee productivity.
• Employee commitment: Employees will see you investing in their daily experience.
• Lower noise pollution: You will reduce the noise pollution coming from your building.
• Future opportunity: You can safely expand your existing server equipment.

By soundproofing your server room, you can protect your employees and improve their work environment. This can have a positive impact on productivity and benefit your business in many other ways.

Areas to Soundproof in a Server Room and How to Soundproof Them

There are several different ways to handle excess noise in server rooms. Here are several options:

• Supply all employees with noise-canceling headphones.
• Soundproof the server room.
• Soundproof the server racks or cabinets.

How to Soundproof Server Cabinets

Also called server racks, server cabinets organize and store servers. Server cabinets are sometimes enclosed with cabinet doors, or they may just be a series of secure shelves. The goal of a server rack is to ensure servers are safe and accessible.

Noise from server racks is caused when server vibrations carry through metal shelves and continue through the floor or wall near the rack. By insulating the rack, you can reduce the level of noise coming from a server room. Here are three ways to soundproof server racks:

• Sound-deadening pads: Putting a polymer pad underneath the racks can reduce the amount of noise traveling through the floor. Vibrations will be blocked by these products since sound waves can’t easily travel through them.
• Fire-rated acoustic foam: You can also layer fire-rated acoustic foam panels underneath each server, isolating it from the shelf it’s sitting on. This can reduce the number of vibrations that reach the cabinet to begin with.
• Fabric-wrapped foam: Consider soundproofing a server rack with panels of fabric-wrapped foam. This flame-resistant product can reduce the noise coming from the rack into the surrounding environment.

How to Soundproof a Server Room

There are two steps for soundproofing a room:

1. Seal off any cracks to stop noise from traveling through the air.
2. Install barrier materials that absorb, redirect or muffle sound vibrations.

To soundproof a server room, you will need to think about modifying the walls, ceiling, and floors. You may not need to soundproof every part of the space — it depends on how loud your servers are and what’s located nearby.

If your building already has good soundproofing, you may only need to soundproof one part of the space. However, many buildings have minimal soundproofing and can benefit from additional sound-blocking materials. Here are several products that can help soundproof a server room:

• IsoTRAX® soundproofing system: Isolating systems are game changers for insulating the walls and ceilings in noisy rooms. With these systems, you can separate the drywall from the studs in a room. This prevents vibrations from hitting drywall and carrying right through the studs into another room.
• Quiet Barrier® HD soundproofing composite: Combining insulating materials with an isolating system is one of the most effective ways to reduce noise pollution in a building. Quiet Barrier® is flexible and versatile, and it’s one of our best-selling soundproofing products.
• Acoustic panels: If you don’t want to add sound barriers behind drywall, the next best option is to put them on the exterior surface of your walls and ceiling. At Soundproof Cow, we offer fabric-wrapped acoustic panels that can help absorb sound in a space.
• Fire-rated acoustic foam: You can also cover the walls and ceiling in your server room with acoustic foam. Foam has excellent noise-reduction properties and can significantly improve the amount of noise leaving your server room when it’s covering the walls and ceiling.
• Quiet Board™ water-resistant panels: Another option is to install these panels on your walls and ceiling. Quiet Board™ is similar to Styrofoam and reduces the sound vibrations leaving a room. You can order this material in a variety of sizes and shapes.
• Floor joist isolators: Similar to the wall isolating system, you can also separate your flooring from the joists to reduce the noise moving down through the floor. These isolators muffle sound but must be installed underneath your flooring.

Soundproofing works best when you combine several different types of materials within a room. By working together, these materials can reduce the total amount of sound leaving the space. Depending on how many servers you have, you may need full coverage or a few targeted products to reduce the noise level.

Shop Soundproofing Materials From Soundproof Cow

At Soundproof Cow, we love helping our customers find personalized solutions for their soundproofing needs. When you contact us over the phone or via our website, we will answer any questions you have and help you create a plan to soundproof your space effectively.

We offer a wide variety of products, so you can find the solution that’s cost-effective and convenient for your situation. We help our customers better understand sound so they can make informed decisions and get sound reduction results for an optimal environment.

Shop soundproofing materials on our website today, or request a free acoustic analysis for your space! We can help you find the solutions you need so that your employees can work in a quiet environment and you can expand your server equipment without worrying about its impact on the surrounding spaces.

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