Echoey rooms (sound absorption)

Echoey room — how to fix it

5 min read · Written by our team · Updated 26 Sept 2026

In short

A room echoes because sound bounces between hard, flat surfaces such as plaster, glass and tiled floors. The fix is sound absorption on the walls or ceiling to reduce the reflections inside the room. It makes speech clearer, but it does not stop sound travelling to other rooms.

Does this match your problem?

Speech lingers and is hard to follow; people raise their voices
Meeting rooms or video calls sound echoey
A restaurant gets louder the busier it is
An empty room with hard walls and floors and little furniture

Why does the room echo?

Hard surfaces send almost all of the sound back into the room, so it bounces many times before it dies away. Words overlap and become hard to understand. The bigger and harder the room, the longer it rings.

Which fix: absorption

This is reflection inside the room, so the answer is sound absorption. If your problem is noise from the next room, see Noise from next door.

Sound coming in from outside, or going out of your room You need sound insulation Fix sound through walls Echo, reflections, speech hard to understand You need sound absorption Fix an echoey room

Absorption panels make a room less echoey, but they do not stop sound passing through a wall

How to choose absorption

Check NRC — higher means more absorption in the speech range. See What is NRC?
Thickness and the gap behind — help with low frequencies
Placement — the ceiling is a large, easy area; walls reduce reflections between parallel walls
Quantity — you need enough material relative to the room size

Products used for this problem

SCG Cylence Zoftone absorption panel

Sound absorption

Why it fits: Prefabricated absorption panel for walls

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SCG Cylence Zandera decorative absorption panel

Sound absorption

Why it fits: Fabric-faced absorption panel for interior walls

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Good to know

Absorption panels do not stop noise from the next room
How many panels and where they go matters a lot; every room is different
Rooms that need precise results, such as recording rooms, should be acoustically designed

Frequently asked questions

How many panels do I need?

It depends on the room size, the existing surfaces and how the room is used. Send us the dimensions and photos on LINE and we'll help estimate.

Ceiling or walls?

Both help. Ceilings usually offer a large area; walls reduce reflections between parallel walls.

Common problems

Walls Ceilings

Understand this better

Sound and acousticsReverberation and reverberation time (RT)RT is the time for sound to drop 60 dB after the source stops; it depends on room volume and absorption.Sound and acousticsHow to choose sound-absorbing materialCheck NRC and band values, thickness and air gap, area and placement, facing — and fire data in the datasheet.Sound and acousticsDo absorption panels stop noise leaving a room?Absorption panels cut echo inside a room but block little sound; blocking needs the whole wall system and sealed leaks.Terms and valuesWhat is NRC?What the number tells you — and what it does not

Want us to look at your case?

Send photos, the area size and a description — we'll suggest the approach and materials

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