In the age of open floor plans and chiming cell phones silence is golden That may explain the growing demand for sound resistant doors With this increase there have been two issues that are coming up more often Beware of more is better The higher the sound resistance the more expensive the door An STC rating in the 40s is adequate for most situations because loud speech is barely audible For more demanding music-related or military applications we suggest working with an acoustic consultant It takes more than a door The walls and ceiling should have noise-resistant properties too There was an instance where an STC door was installed into an existing opening and the occupants complained that it didnt help at all After asking a few questions we learned that the room had a drop ceiling and drywall walls that sound could easily pass through Of course the doors didnt solve the problem DOOR SELECTOR TOOL Now its easier than ever to determine the appropriate door for an opening Just answer a few basic questions about the opening in our free Door Selector to see the most commonly specified designs Our hope is that this tool will save you time Rather than having to research the common door constructions for each opening in a building just bookmark this tool and reference it when you want to confirm whats commonly specified THE RISKS OF GROUTING FRAMES When should frames be grouted Ask three people and youll probably get three different answers In fact the most common word entered in the search bar on the Steel Door Institute website is grout Its understandable There are a lot of conflicting opinions on the topic We would like to take this opportunity to share with you our stance on when it is and isnt okay to grout frames