Home Office Insulation

If you run a home-based business, telecommute, or just take work home occasionally, you know peace and quiet is important for a productive work environment. Unwanted noise can ruin your concentration and disrupt calls and meetings — and with computers, printers and phones in use, a home office can be a source of noise throughout the house.

To keep your home office as quiet as possible, it's important to insulate both interior and exterior walls with insulation that provides good sound control and thermal control.

A Home Office Needs Quiet More Than Anything

Most home offices are converted spare rooms, basements or spaces above a garage, and the common complaint is not temperature but noise: household activity, traffic outside, or a heating system cycling. Filling the wall and ceiling cavities completely removes the air paths that sound travels through.

• Interior partitions between the office and the rest of the house
• Exterior walls facing a road or driveway
• Ceiling and floor assemblies in a basement office
• Around windows and door frames
• Any wall shared with a garage or utility room

A Stable Temperature Through the Working Day

A room that drifts several degrees between heating cycles is uncomfortable to sit still in for eight hours. Sealing the envelope keeps the temperature steady rather than swinging, which matters far more when you are stationary at a desk than when you are moving around the house.

Basement and Above-Garage Conversions

These two locations make the best home offices because they are away from household traffic, and both need the full treatment: walls, rim joist and the floor or ceiling assembly separating them from unconditioned space.