How many acoustic panels do I need?

Most rooms need acoustic panels covering 15 to 45 percent of their total surface area (four walls plus the ceiling). Where you land inside that range depends on what happens in the room. General echo control in a living room, restaurant or gym sits at the low end. Speech clarity in an office, classroom or podcast room sits in the middle. Recording, mixing and critical listening sit at the top.

Once you know your coverage target in square feet, divide it by the size of the panel you choose. A standard 24 inch by 48 inch panel covers 8 square feet, so a room that needs 200 square feet of coverage takes 25 panels.

As a fast reference point, a 12 ft by 12 ft room with a 9 ft ceiling needs roughly 12 to 14 standard panels for speech clarity, and a 20 ft by 15 ft home studio needs roughly 50.

How much wall coverage do I need for my room type?

These are the coverage targets the calculator above applies by default. They are the same targets used to build customer plans.

The three coverage tiers

• Comfort, 15 to 20 percent. Knocks down general echo in living spaces, restaurants, fitness rooms and lobbies. The room still feels alive.
• Reference, 20 to 30 percent. Targets speech intelligibility for offices, conference rooms, classrooms and podcast rooms. ANSI S12.60 asks for reverberation time under 0.6 seconds in classrooms, and reference coverage gets you there.
• Studio, 35 to 45 percent. Reference grade rooms for recording, mixing, mastering and critical listening. Walls and ceiling, plus corner bass traps and a rear wall diffuser.

How do you calculate acoustic panel coverage?

Five steps. This is the exact math the calculator on this page runs.

1. Wall area = 2 x (length x height) + 2 x (width x height)
2. Ceiling area = length x width
3. Total treatment area = wall area + ceiling area (include the ceiling for reference and studio tiers)
4. Coverage target in square feet = total treatment area x coverage percentage, rounded up
5. Panel count = coverage target divided by the square footage of one panel, rounded up

Square footage per panel

Worked example: a 20 ft x 15 ft home studio

Room is 20 ft long, 15 ft wide, 10 ft ceiling. Studio tier at 40 percent coverage, using standard 24 in x 48 in panels at 8 sq ft each.

Wall area = 2 x (20 x 10) + 2 x (15 x 10) = 400 + 300 = 700 sq ft

Ceiling area = 20 x 15 = 300 sq ft

Total treatment area = 700 + 300 = 1,000 sq ft

Coverage target = 1,000 x 0.40 = 400 sq ft

Panel count = 400 / 8 = 50 panels

Result: 50 standard panels, plus 4 corner bass traps and 1 rear wall diffuser. The bass traps handle low frequency buildup in the corners, which is the most common acoustic problem in a studio. The diffuser keeps the rear wall lively without smearing detail.

Worked example: a 30 ft x 24 ft restaurant dining room

Room is 30 ft long, 24 ft wide, 12 ft ceiling. Comfort tier at 20 percent coverage, walls only, so diners can still hold a conversation without the room going dead.

Wall area = 2 x (30 x 12) + 2 x (24 x 12) = 720 + 576 = 1,296 sq ft

Coverage target = 1,296 x 0.20 = 259.2, rounded up to 260 sq ft

With 24 in x 48 in panels: 260 / 8 = 33 panels

With 48 in x 96 in panels: 260 / 32 = 9 panels

Result: 33 standard panels or 9 large format panels. The floor area here is 720 sq ft, well past the 300 sq ft mark, so large format is the better call. Nine pieces instead of thirty three means far less hanging labor.

Worked example: a 15 ft x 12 ft office

Room is 15 ft long, 12 ft wide, 9 ft ceiling. Reference tier at 25 percent coverage, walls and ceiling, using 24 in x 48 in panels.

Wall area = 2 x (15 x 9) + 2 x (12 x 9) = 270 + 216 = 486 sq ft

Ceiling area = 15 x 12 = 180 sq ft

Total treatment area = 486 + 180 = 666 sq ft

Coverage target = 666 x 0.25 = 166.5, rounded up to 167 sq ft

Panel count = 167 / 8 = 20.875, rounded up to 21 panels

Result: 21 standard panels. No bass traps needed. Conference rooms and open offices are a speech problem, not a low frequency problem.

Which panel thickness do I need?

Thickness decides which frequencies the panel absorbs. NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) runs from 0 to 1, where 1.0 means the surface absorbs essentially all the sound energy that reaches it.

Rule of thumb: pick 2 inch unless you have a specific reason not to. Choose 1 inch when the room is a voice booth or dialog space where you want high and mid frequency control without deadening the low end. Choose 4 inch for bass control.

When do I need bass traps?

Add corner bass traps when the room is used for music: recording, mixing, mastering or a home theater with a subwoofer. Low frequency energy builds up where two or three surfaces meet, so the corners are where it collects and where it needs to be absorbed.

Standard placement is 4 traps, one in each vertical corner. Offices, classrooms, restaurants and gyms generally do not need them, because those rooms have a speech clarity problem rather than a low frequency problem.

Custom built corner bass traps

When should I use 48 in x 96 in large format panels?

Once the room floor area passes roughly 300 sq ft, large format panels are usually the better buy. A 48 in x 96 in panel covers 32 sq ft, four times a standard panel, so you hit the same coverage target with a quarter of the pieces and a quarter of the mounting work.

Large format panels are sold in a freight combine pool with a 5 piece minimum.

Large format acoustic panels

Will acoustic panels stop noise coming from another room?

No. Soundproofing (blocking sound from leaving a room or passing through walls) and acoustic treatment (reducing echo and reverb inside a room) are two completely different problems. These panels solve the second one.

If the goal is to keep a drum kit from bothering a neighbor, or to stop traffic noise from entering, that is a construction problem: mass, decoupling and sealing the airgaps. Panels on the wall will not do it. If the goal is to stop a room from sounding harsh, echoey or unintelligible, that is exactly what these panels do.

One exception in the catalog: Homasote Sound Barrier DesignWall 440 is the one product rated for sound transmission rather than absorption.

What are the panels made of?

• Core: American made rigid fiberglass, formaldehyde free.
• Frame: internal wood frame around the perimeter, which is what the mounting hardware screws into.
• Face: Burch Fabrics Prime Time, the Made in the USA equivalent of Guilford of Maine (a Canadian company) Anchorage and FR701. Acoustically transparent, over 60 stocked colors.
• Fire rating: Class A per ASTM E-84.
• Mounting: Z-clips included. A standard 24 in x 48 in x 2 in panel weighs about 8 lbs.

How do I confirm the fabric color before ordering?

Order refundable swatch samples. The sample cost is credited back on your order, so you can match the fabric to the room before committing to a full set.

Order refundable swatch samples

Where do the panels go on the wall?

Start with the first reflection points, which are the spots where sound bounces off a surface on its way from the source to the listener. In a studio or theater that means the side walls and ceiling between the speakers and the listening position. In a conference room it means the walls closest to where people sit and talk.

Spread the remaining panels across the largest untreated surfaces rather than clustering them. Two facing hard parallel walls cause flutter echo, so treating at least one of the pair matters more than covering a single wall completely.