Our dining room is tiled in some kind of ceramic tile, there's a stone fireplace, and the dining room chairs have nothing on the bottom of the legs so whenever they get moved there's that horrible scraping noise. What can I do to absorb some of the NOISE from 4 kids? What has worked for you? What do people put on the bottom of their chair legs? I have no clue where to start!!

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), March 13, 2002

Answers

Cork, fabric, any soft material on the walls helps absorb sound.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), March 14, 2002.

Chair legs - Measure the size of the bottom of the chair legs (should be 3/4", 1" or thereabouts). Go to Home Depot or similar type store and check out the furniture castors. These are small discs or caps which fit on the bottom of your chair or table legs. You can probably find castors at many hardware stores, or even places like K-Mart, Wal-Mart, etc. but stores like Home Depot will have the biggest selection. You should be able to find casters in hard or soft plastic, rubber, etc. They make a big difference in quieting the noise, as well as saving you from scratches on your floor.

Mitch is right about the rest of the room, use heavier drapes on the windows, cover a wall or walls with cork or something else to absorb noise, consider a large throw rug for the floor. The more material you have in the room the quieter it will be. We had our living room recarpeted last summer - during the time when the old carpet was removed and the new carpet laid, we couldn't believe how noisy the old hardwood floor was!

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), March 14, 2002.

Install acoustic ceiling tiles. Works great. Deadens the sound of a room down quite a bit.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), March 14, 2002.

Display quilts on the walls or quilted tapestries to deaden the noise some and give a homey touch to the room.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.