subject: Sick Of Hearing Your Neighbors Or Traffic? How To Soundproof Your Home: Six Essential Noise Reducing [print this page] Your neighbors complain when you listen to movies and music. And youre not even blasting the stereo system. You can hear street noise outside, and the late-night weekend party-goers on their way home. You basically only want to hear the noise you choose to hear. And you dont want to have to apologize to your neighbors anymore for being too loud when youre just enjoying your audio system - in your own home!
Unwanted noise is annoying and frustrating. Noise leaks through your walls, ceilings, floors, windows, and doors. There are ways to stop the noise once and for all. But you have to want it and do it right, or youll be frustrated with the results and only more irritated by the wasted time you spent trying to solve the problem.
Also keep in mind, while the word soundproofing is often used to describe products or assemblies designed for reducing noise, NOTHING is 100% soundproof! The building practice of reducing noise is also referred to as sound damping, noise damping, or acoustic design and performance.
There is a standard measurement and rating system, called the Sound Transmission Class (STC), that gives you an idea of how good your wall assembly is at reducing the unwanted noise. The higher the STC, the less noise you, and your neighbors, will hear through your walls, ceilings, windows, or doors. To give you an idea, the STC rating required for multi-family buildings and condos, according to building code, is STC 50. Now, thats not meant to guarantee that you wont hear your neighbor singing in the shower. It is just a baseline. The bare minimum.
If you dont want to hear a car screaming around a curve in the middle of the night, you better design or retrofit a room to test to STC 60. Want to keep the sound in your home theater room, where it belongs, then you need at least an STC 60. Some really serious folks, like those of Universal Studios, require ratings as high as STC 70 or more for their studios.
Here are some soundproofing and noise reducing tips and tricks, so you only hear the noise you want to:
1)Use sound damping drywall products that are specifically made for reliable, high STC, soundproofing results, like QuietRock. Its easier to install correctly than any other solutionall you have to do is screw it onto the wall frame or onto the existing walland it can cut 50% or more of your neighbors noise. It can also prevent your noise from leaking through. In most situations, its the fastest, cleanest, most reliable way to make your home quieter and more comfortable.
2)There are some messier options, like using acoustic glue. If you have the time and patience, and youre ok with potentially messing it up, and getting sticky, go for it. Youd still need to buy regular drywall, and use a lot of glue. DO NOT use the glue if youre doing more than a couple rooms its just too much work, hassle, and mess. Installers dont like it for those very reasons. So theyll be charging you for their extra time and hassle, and probably ask why didnt just get sound damping drywall instead (that they could hang up within minutes). But again, if youre soundproofing one room, and youre doing it yourself, it may the right solution to use noise damping glue.
3)Treating your walls for noise will help block some of that annoying outside noise, and that alone would be fine in a house with no windows. But who wants to live in a cave? Although windows are wonderful for giving us a view of the outside world, typical windows arent great for keeping the traffic and city noise where it belongs - outside. Standard single and dual pane windows arent going to keep you from hearing that annoying train whistle every time it passes by, not matter how well-treated your wall is. Along with a well-built, soundproofing wall, acoustically-rated windows can reduce that annoying traffic down to a small hum.
4)Make your wall or ceiling as airtight as possible by applying acoustic sealant around the perimeter. Dont just assume that the base board or the paint is going to keep the noise from leaking through the seams, because they WONT. Also, use acoustic putty around all the outlet boxes just like the acoustic sealant, every gap and leak makes a big difference. You need to pay attention to the details.
5)Check your doors. Yup, there are special soundproofing doors out there just typical-looking doors, but built so that you wont hear the details of the conversation in the apartment building hallways. Make sure if you get one of these doors, and even on your existing doors, you use proper seals around the perimeter. One way of checking for air leaks is to turn the lights off on one side of the door and have someone on the other side shine a flashlight around the edge. If light can get through, so can sound.
6)Get some advice from an expert in acoustics. Acoustical consultants are always willing to work with you so that you get the best results for your specific noise damping needs. If youre going to talk to a builder or installer, remember to talk in STC. They understand that language. Request high STC solutions. And if they say ok, thats STC 50 were shooting for, then demand more. When was the last time you were in a relatively new hotel or apartment building, built within the last few years, and you could hear the people on the other side of the walls or on floor above and below? Yeah, well, thats baseline building code STC 50 for you. Ask for STC 60 and make sure that they have the right documentation to prove that they can get you there. Code is changing for the quieter. Trust me. Youll hear about that soon if you keep following topics in noise control building practices. Too many building owners have been sued thanks to noise control problems. This is partially due to the reliance on outdated and false information about sound damping best practices, and sloppy building practices that simply ignore the value of Quiet.
