Tips on noise-isolating your treadmill desk

If you work around other people they probably won’t notice your treadmill is even on. A typical, well-lubricated treadmill will only register around 50 decibels or less, about the same noise level as someone whispering. What they will notice through the walls is your foot fall. Some treadmills also enunciate all sorts of beeps and snorts when their buttons are pushed, which can be annoying to other inhabitants around your space.

One easy solution is to buy a few acoustic foam panels and place them down by the treadmill base to absorb the sounds of your foot fall, belt friction and motor noise. That won’t muffle an obnoxiously loud buzzer so if the beeps are bound to irritate your co-workers find the buzzer and tape some gauze over it to dampen the sound. Some treadmills have an “Engineering Mode” you can find out about in the operating manual that will allow you to disable the beeper.