Moving Blankets for Soundproofing: 3 Best Ways

Are you considering using moving blankets for soundproofing? Are you wondering whether soundproof blankets can block sound and help reduce the noise in the room?

If so, you’ll love this article. Below, you’ll find the ultimate answer to whether moving blankets are good for soundproofing.

So, let’s take it from the top, then.

What exactly are moving blankets?

Moving blankets (also called furniture or moving pads) are a special blanket wrapped around fragile items and provide an extra layer of support as you move them from one place to another. 

Their sole purpose is to protect whatever item you wrap with them and ensure that it arrives at its new destination in one piece without any scratches or other damages. 

That’s why moving blankets are so thick and heavy. They need to be to protect what you’ve put inside them.

That’s also why, unlike traditional blankets, moving blankets are not made just with cotton. They either use polyester fibre or a combination of polyester and cotton (or other non-synthetic fabrics.)

(This is your first hint about whether moving blankets are good for soundproofing, by the way. )

Polyester fibre has a strong, high tensile strength. That’s good because it makes it an excellent sound-absorbing material.

Unfortunately, there is also a “but…”

I’ll explain while answering the main question.

So…

Could you use moving blankets for soundproofing?

The short answer is yes, technically, you could. 

That said, the results would, most likely, not be what you’d expect. 

Let me explain. 

Soundproof blankets (or moving blankets) have certain sound-absorbing qualities. They can dampen sound, deaden it, or even absorb some of it and reduce its volume or energy. 

However, that’s mainly true when improving the room’s acoustics. 

(That’s the “but…” we’ve discussed earlier.)

And so, if your goal is to cancel noise in a room, then no, moving blankets wouldn’t provide sufficient noise cancelling.

To soundproof, these blankets would have to either absorb sound waves as they try to pass them or block their travel completely. 

Unfortunately, moving blankets do not have such qualities. 

Moving blankets help reduce noise reflection, reverberations, and echo through sound absorption. 

In short, they work like acoustic blankets or foam panels and help improve a room’s acoustics. 

Because of that, they are a perfect solution if you want to deaden or dampen the sound in a room, a home recording studio, a podcast room, etc. Or if you want to reduce the reverb and echo in your music listening room and finally hear the sound clearly but have no budget for professional soundproofing panels. 

In those cases, you could hang your moving blankets on the walls, soundproofing the room.

(Later in this guide, I’ll show you other ways to improve a room’s acoustics with moving blankets.)

Why does everyone say you could soundproof a room with moving blankets?

The reason is that those blankets look like they have soundproofing qualities. 

For one, moving blankets are thick and heavy. That’s why we use them to protect furniture and other items when moving them from one place to another. 

However, their weight and thickness also make moving blankets feel as if they were able to block sound. 

Granted, moving blankets can absorb some sound waves. Because of that, they can reduce the amount of noise in a room. As you’ll shortly see, you can use them to prevent some noise from coming in. 

But they aren’t able to block the sound completely. 

When should we use moving blankets for soundproofing?

Despite all that we’ve discussed above, there are several situations where moving blankets could help or assist your soundproofing efforts.

#1. Block outside noise coming through the window

Unfortunately, windows are often the weakest point when it comes to soundproofing. They provide a thin barrier between your room and the outside world, yet they often take up a large portion of the wall, which means plenty of space for outside noise to get in. 

One of the simplest ways to soundproof a window is to hang a sound-absorbing material in front of it. The material deflects any outside noise that might try to disturb your peace. 

Typically, we use acoustic or soundproofing curtains for that. However, if you’re on a budget, you can also use moving blankets to soundproof the window this way. 

(Moving blankets can help deflect the sounds coming through the window from the outside.)

#2. Soundproof doors

Doors offer weak resistance to sound. After all, most doors in the house are either hollow inside or have large gaps between them and the door frame, which allows noise to either come in or leave the room. 

So, you could also use moving blankets for soundproofing by covering the door when needed. 

This, naturally, wouldn’t be an ideal permanent solution. 

But when you’re studying or need some quiet time to temporarily block the noise from entering your room, hanging moving blankets on the doors might just provide that. 

(Moving blankets can increase the soundproofing of your doors and reduce the noise disturbing you.)

#3. Spread them on noisy wooden floors to minimize sound transmission

Then, there’s the issue of noisy floors upstairs. Particularly if you’re living in a house and sometimes want to sit quietly downstairs while others rumble about in the room upstairs. 

You can hear their footsteps. You can hear kids playing with their toys on the floor, etc. 

Of course, laying out a solid, thick carpet would solve the problem. But a.) you may not want carpets upstairs, or b.) you can’t afford them right now. 

This is another situation where covering a noisy area with a moving blanket would provide a solution. 

Remember, moving blankets are thick and heavy. They will absorb much of the impact noise, helping to soundproof the floor. 

What about using moving blankets to soundproof a ceiling, then?

This is another thing you may have heard about moving blankets – That hanging them on the ceiling will help soundproof it. 

Although I have never tried this method, I don’t think using moving blankets on the ceiling would make any difference. 

First, you know that moving blankets do not offer much resistance to sound coming in through the wall. The same would be true for ceilings. 

From the room acoustics point of view, if you’ve already covered the walls with moving blankets or acoustic panels, there is no need to treat the ceiling similarly. Your wall treatment will reduce much of the sound reverberations anyway. 

What should you look for when selecting a moving blanket for soundproofing?

You already know that moving blankets wouldn’t be able to block much sound from coming in through a wall. But you also know that you could use them to

• reduce the amount of outside noise coming in through windows or doors, 
• Deaden the noisy floor upstairs, and 
• Reduce sound reverberations and improve the room’s acoustics. 

So, to close this guide, let me share with you a list of qualities you should consider when selecting a moving blanket for these objectives above.

Density and thickness

From the soundproofing point of view, the thicker and denser the moving blanket is, the greater its sound-absorbing capacity. Also, if you can find moving blankets made with polyester fibre and fibre wool, mineral wool, or Rock wool, these materials would only add to the blanket’s soundproofing capacity.

Texture

Similarly, the best-moving blankets for soundproofing have a very fibre-y texture on the side that will be facing the source of the sound.

Size

Naturally, the bigger the blanket, the greater the area of the wall it will cover. Ideally, it should be bigger than the space you’re covering so there is no space around it for the sound to come through. 

To wrap it up…

(No pun intended, by the way)

• Moving blankets are thick and heavy polyester or polyester/cotton-based blankets used to protect items and furniture as you move them from one place to another. 
• Although moving blankets look and feel like solid soundproofing materials, their ability to block sound from coming in is limited. In most cases, they wouldn’t prevent you from hearing neighbours through the wall, for example. 
• However, these blankets offer great sound-absorbing qualities and help improve the acoustics in a room. 
• Similarly, because they can absorb sound, you can use them to soundproof windows and doors and reduce the impact noise from the floor upstairs. 

And that’s is…

Now you know whether you can use moving blankets for soundproofing, when, and how. 

Good luck with your soundproofing projects!

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