Filling hollow core interior door with sand?

J

John Sheehan

New member
Was window shopping for doors (lol) earlier today to try and get some prices down for my project's estimate, and saw some pretty nice hollow interior doors for >20$. Not knowing much about the contruction of doors can I just fill on of these doors with sand? My project needs to reduce some of the sound going out of my room and sand seems like it would give me more mass than a solid wood cored door.

And sand is free.
Has anyone else done this?
 
Hey John- that probably won't be as easy as it sounds. The very few hollow core doors I've had a look inside had kind of a honeycomb cardboard inside for reinforcing. I doubt you'll be able to get sand in there. I'd say replacement with a solid core wood door would be best. Is this for new construction? if so, I'd do a few doors in series, so create a vestibule basically.
 
Besides the honeycomb bit it would probably rip the hinges right out of the cheap shit they're fastened to. Sand is heavy.


lou
 
The honeycombing is what I imagined but I was not to sure.


"Is this for new construction?"
No but the wall is going to be refaced so I can insert insulation and add sheetrock. I may be doing a staggered wall reframing on the wall the door resides in I my budget allows so I may have the wall width to be able to have 2 doors in reverse to each other but that means buying 2 solid core doors.

" it would probably rip the hinges right out of the cheap shit they're fastened to."
The doorways framing is double 2x4 studs on the side I was planning to hinge it too. If I were to find heavy duty hinges I think it would hold

A little more info on my situation,
Currently the the door is one of the old style hanging sliding track doors that slides into the wall :mad:.. So I am going to have to frame studs on the side it recesses into to begin with.

Perhaps I can make a 2x4 stud frame the dimensions of the door. Fasten and seal one side. Then fill with sand and then then bead seal and fasten the other side of it. All would still be cheaper than the cheapest solid wood core door I saw today.
 
As for the hinges, I was gonna mention that ( I swear, I was). Hollow core doors come standard typically with 2 hinges. A solid core wood residential door will have 3 (again, typically). A commercial door will have 3 ball bearing heavy duty hinges.
Two opposing doors in the same opening would probably be ok, although a bit weird, especially if you ever wanted to sell the place. My first thought would be to go solid core, single door and do good quality neoprene seals and a good quality automatic door bottom. As opposed to your typical cheap home depot door sweep, the automatic bottom drops down when in the closed position, then lifts up so it doesn't drag when the door opens. Even if you do a double door, you'll probably want the seals.

NGP
NGP
 
"I meant where the hinges attach to the hollow core door itself. Not much meat there."
Ah I didn't even think of that lou very good point.

I think I'm just going to go for the single solid core and possition it in the jam (more toward the inside of the wall rather than centered) so if I need a second door it will also fit. I suppose both doors could be hinged on the same side if I got doors with different knob hieghts. I will be going with seals all around but i planned on those crappy sweeps from home depot I wasnt aware of the other options I will be going for that automatic as I will have thick carpet in the room. Also thank you for that link
 
I bought a solid pine 6 panel door for my studio. I put a layer of Homasote board on the inside and cut out the hole for the doorknob. Then I bought woodgrain vinyl flooring and covered the homasote board. I put a rubber door sweep on both sides (inside and out on the bottoms. Then, I put foam weatherstripping to seal the door. The more airtight, the more soundproof. $25.00 for the 4x8 sheet of homasote board. $42.00 for a box of wood simulated vinyl flooring (cherrywood). The doorknob's screws will reach so don't worry. Extremely cheap and quiet way to do it.
 
That sounds like an excellent approach. Did you put any stuffing between the door (in the panel area) and the homasote?


lou
 
Not so much the door but the seal around the door is a great place to put some thought into as far as sound insulation goes.
 
stevieb said:
Steel commercial doors often have a concrete core. Primarly for security, but it would work for sound control.
Click to expand...

Cite??? I've been in commercial/industrial construction for over 30 years and have never seen that type of door used in any circumstance other than high-end defense test facilities. And those doors were custom made and not an off-the-shelf item.
 
Not this again!:D Hey, I've seen them, in my days as a facility maintenance director. Never bought any. And that's all I'm gonna say on the subject.:)
 
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Papanya420 said:
I bought a solid pine 6 panel door for my studio. I put a layer of Homasote board on the inside and cut out the hole for the doorknob. Then I bought woodgrain vinyl flooring and covered the homasote board. I put a rubber door sweep on both sides (inside and out on the bottoms. Then, I put foam weatherstripping to seal the door. The more airtight, the more soundproof. $25.00 for the 4x8 sheet of homasote board. $42.00 for a box of wood simulated vinyl flooring (cherrywood). The doorknob's screws will reach so don't worry. Extremely cheap and quiet way to do it.
Click to expand...


I like this setup. I see your from deer park where did you purchase the Homasote panels from?
 
I used to be the resident handyman at the rehearsal studio one of my former bands used in return for free rent. The local fire dept required us to use fire rated doors. Once I replaced the older ones there was a noticeable decrease in external noise/leakage. These doors are solid, heavy and not too expensive (approx $90 Canadian).
 
stevieb said:
Not this again!:D Hey, I've seen them, in my days as a facility maintenance director. Never bought any. And that's all I'm gonna say on the subject.:)
Click to expand...

Yeah...... the ONE time I ever saw anything like that was at the Boeing Space wind tunnel test facility in Kent WA. The building had 12-inch thick walls on three sides and a blowout wall on the fourth.

Ever heard of a chicken gun??? I disassembled one at the old Boeing site north of Tulalip Reservation about 15 years ago.

They used a huge compressor to launch whole chickens at Gawd-knows-what-velocity at their jet windshields for testing purposes.

The tech there said they loaned it out once to the RAF and they destroyed every single windshield they put in front of it.

Turned out they were using frozen chickens.

:D
 
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