home office

If you run a day care center, doggie day camp, or a laundromat, it’s okay to let people hear the sounds of screaming kids, barking dogs, and spinning washing machines when you’re on the phone.

            If your business is not one of these, you want your home office to be a quiet place. Not only do you want your customers, potential clients, investors, lenders, and others to take you seriously, but you also don’t want noises to distract you from your work. According to an American Society of Interior Designers/Yankelovich study published in 2005 in the Journal of Ergonomics, 57 percent of workers said background noise caused major deterioration in their ability to concentrate. They also reported that they did not get used to the noise over time. The longer they stayed in the office, the more disruption from noise they reported.

Sounding professional means more than answering the phone with your work voice rather than your home voice. It also means blocking some sounds, adding other sounds, and getting other people to cooperate so you can talk on the phone.

Location

First, choose the appropriate location for your home office. Although you’ve probably read stories about entrepreneurs starting companies at their kitchen tables, that might be the most traffic-filled and least quiet area in the home. The basement is more isolated, and might have enough room for your files and equipment, but might be impractical if the washing machine is also there or if the furnace is loud. Don’t use the spare bedroom if it’s adjacent to the kids’ playroom. If the quietest space turns out to be the smallest, store your files in another area.

Your own office equipment might be noisy. Put your fax machine in the hall or another room. Stop your printer or sewing machine when the office phone rings.

Blocking Sounds

If you can spend money on construction, there are ways you can make a room not quite soundproof, but still quiet. Two different concepts can make a room quieter. Sound blocking, or noise reduction, means preventing sound from other rooms from entering your room. Sound absorbing means doing things to the inside of your office to manage the noise you make, so it doesn’t reverberate.

Start with the walls. If you are still building your house or the home office, there are several sound proofing products that the builder can install before putting up drywall. (Some people call drywall Sheetrock, which is a brand of drywall). The products include sheets of foam or other materials that can be installed between layers of drywall. These rolls of blocking material are heavy, and the heavier materials are often more effective. There is also soundproof drywall, which is used for home theaters. You can even install a second layer of drywall, but make sure the windows and door frames still fit with the new thickness of the walls. Or the builder can cut holes in the drywall and blow in foam or paper insulation.

When shopping for soundproofing materials, look for ratings like STC, or Sound Transmission Class. The higher the number, the better: an Excellent rating is 60 to 69, while Poor is in the 20s or 30s. A regular wood stud wall might have an STC in the 30s, but might be in the 50s if the builder nailed a sheet of blocking material onto the studs, then installed the drywall.

Chat with someone at your building materials retailer about the various choices. Also talk to your friends who have home theatres or even recording studios. The products generally cost a few dollars per square foot, so covering a wall or ceiling will cost a few hundred dollars for the materials.

There are also custom fabric panels, similar to the cubicle walls you might find in an office environment. If your office is in the basement, put in acoustic ceiling tiles to keep upstairs noises out. You can also attach these panels to the walls. Also try nailing carpet to the wall for more sound muffling.

            Cover your floor and the floor upstairs with a thick pad and carpet. Replace a hollow door with a solid one. Double-paned and insulated windows are not only energy efficient but can help muffle outdoor sounds. Also hang some sound deadening drapes, the heavy window coverings that hotels use. If there’s room, add more furniture to your office to decrease the echo.

Phone Equipment                                                                                                             

Instead of using your speaker phone, shop for a hands-free headset that has a noise canceling microphone to help filter out noises from your side of the conversation, so the person on the other end can hear you.

To help you better hear phone conversations, buy headphones that use passive or active noise reduction. Passive means the headphones physically don’t let in sound, either by completely covering your ears or by fitting deep into your ears like earplugs. Active, or noise canceling, means the headphones detect noise and then send a signal into your ears to cancel the sound. These headphones are better for covering constant sounds such as traffic or machinery than sudden noises like a car horn. The noise cancellation is powered by small batteries.

There is also software that plays white noise to help cover other sounds. You can order a CD or download the file online. The CDs cost anywhere from about $20 to $35. You can choose the sound of ocean waves, rain, or other sounds.

For a low tech approach, buy a white noise machine, which some people use when traveling (to help them sleep). These sound conditioners cost about $49 to $125. A tabletop fountain can also make soothing sounds in your office.

            If you want your office to sound busy, you can buy a CD or MP3 file of office sounds, featuring phones ringing and people chatting quietly.

Behavioral Changes

            There’s only so much you can do with soundproofing and other equipment—you also need the other people in your home to cooperate. Let your family or roommates know that when you are in your office, you are working. Close the door and put up a Do Not Disturb sign. Set aside a lunch or a break time, tell them you’re keeping the door closed while you’re working, and then enforce your rules. Do not set a precedent of letting people interrupt “just this once” for non emergencies.           

Of course you can’t leave small children unattended, so consider enrolling them in daycare while you are working. It might be worth the cost if it means winning some new clients because you were able to focus on your work. If daycare is cost prohibitive, you might have to do some creative scheduling, which means just making phone calls when someone else can watch the kids. Try trading babysitting duties with other home business owners. Make your phone calls during the kids’ naptime, or take your cell phone to another part of the house if the kids are noisy. Make sure you have a time when you can work without interruption.

As for barking dogs, see if your veterinarian’s office, local animal shelter, or others offer low cost behavior classes. There are some simple and humane techniques for distracting dogs from barking at postal carriers and package delivery drivers. The process involves distracting the dogs with another noise, such as shaking a can of pennies, then rewarding them with treats when they’re quiet. (Training your dog takes time, but it pays off with a quiet office and with other bonding-with-your-pet benefits.)

If your dog barks out of boredom, take the pup out for a vigorous walk before and after work. Make sure she has enough toys to stay occupied. Treat her to a full day of doggie day care once or twice a week, to keep your home quiet and also to get the dog socialized and to burn energy. (A tired dog is a good dog.)

Sounding professional also means never letting your child answer your business phone and never talking to your kids or pets while you are on a business call. It’s just another part of keeping your business and home life separate. HBM

Nora Caley is a freelance writer based in Denver. She specializes in business articles.