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Ask Slashdot: Cost Effective Way To Soundproof My Home?
An anonymous reader writes: As more and more people live closer together in tightly packed subdivisions, the mental stress of noise becomes a serious issue. Noise nuisance complaints are on the rise, litigation increasing. We try to tune it out, yet the stress it causes is still present, and there's seemingly no way around it." Six months ago a new neighbor moved in next door who has two dogs, one of which barks incessantly with a high pitched yip that is driving my wife crazy and making it difficult for me to read or work on the computer. I've already talked to my neighbor and he will bring the dog inside but three days later it starts again. What is a cost effective technical solution to knock 10 or 20 dB off the exterior noise? soundproof windows, an interior acoustic blanket,a sound blocking fence, a sound absorbing fence, planting foliage or noise cancelling headphones, or something else. I'm sure I'm not the first slashdotter to have this problem. What has worked for you?
If it is for an annoying dog, just get one of the anti bark devices that look like a bird house first. There are several with good reviews on Amazon. They don't work on all dogs, but there often is success with them. It is worth a shot since they are only like 50 bucks, and soundproofing your home is going to cost a lot more.
Otherwise what I have found the most effective is outside vegetation around your property border. Gives you privacy from both sight and sound. Also pretty....
Document the noise and contact your local bylaw officers. Present them with a clear explanation of what's happening. Video will help. In most jurisdictions, there are restrictions on outside noise that lasts longer than a certain duration and that occurs after a certain cutoff time at night.
This is not a problem you should attempt to resolve by wrapping your house in 3 feet of bubble wrap and duct tape.
We created a few "quite spaces" in our loud office with Acoustic Soundproofing panels. You cover the doors, walls, and ceiling, and nothing gets in or out. They worked wonders.
www.amazon.com/Mybecca-12-Pack-Acoustic-Soundproofing/dp/B00TP7C9YY/
The Bose QC25 are the best ones available right now.
New doors, windows, and most importantly improve the insulation in your walls and attic, - also air seal. Insulation can be "dense packed" into walls without opening them up.
Not only does it make your home quieter, it makes it more energy efficient. It may not eliminate all outside noise, but at least bring it down to a less distracting level.
See http://www.maxxon.com/ I have used their Acoustimat product in the past to make my bedroom substantially quieter, and it worked fantastically. It's, unfortunately, somewhat expensive, but it is at least effective.
It's all about physical isolation, and mass.
1. Stagger your studs on shared walls. This will mean that the sound hitting his wall and your wall won't pass through the shared studs.
2. Sound isolating drywall. It's not that much more expensive than regular drywall. Its heavier and has a membrane sandwiched in between: http://www.quietrock.com/
3. Hat Channels and clips. The clips get screwed to the studs and the hat channel sits on the clips. The channel sits on the clips, and the drywall is screwed to the channel. This means sounds hitting the wall will not transfer to the studs (and vice versa)
http://www.soundproofingcompan...
4. Wrap your electrical boxes for outlets and switches with quiet putty, seal up and joits where air can move with acoustic sealant. Anyplace air can move, sound will leak through.
http://www.soundproofingcompan...
5. Fill the walls with insulation. The more mass you can cram in there, and the more airflow you can stop the better.. regular R-21 will work.
6. Double up your flooring. Put acoustic sealant between the layers. Get a mass loaded under rug foam pad.
http://www.soundproofingcompan...
I did this all to my TV room, cost about $600. I can crank it up in there, and it can't be heard in the rest of the house.. Its on the second floor above the kids room
There is a device that detects barking of dogs and sends a high pitched sound beam only dogs can hear towards them. The dogs hear a screeching sound. They very quickly learn not to bark.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
That kinda happened to us. Another typical story about the stupid neighbor with incessantly-barking dog; we called the police over and over (after trying to deal with them personally), a cop came out one day, found the dog barking, waited around 10 minutes, dog was still barking, so he issued a criminal citation. The key here is that dog-barking was a crime in the city I lived in, according to local statute. So he had to go to court and tried to defend himself; he even brought in his next-door neighbors to support him. He drew up a diagram showing how all our neighbors have dogs and we're the weirdos, but of course the prosecuting attorney simple stated the law, showed he was in violation, and he was found guilty.
"We all don't like you" doesn't mean squat when you're in violation of the law and the police are willing to testify against you and the city is willing to prosecute you. He ended up getting slapped with a fine and having to use a bark collar. The fine was a few hundred dollars I think, not huge, but if he got caught again leaving his dog outside for hours on end barking its head off, the penalty of course would have been much worse. This really shut up the neighbors for a while (both him, and his next-door buddy who also had a noisy dog).
We eventually did move out, but for other reasons. My advice here: before you buy a house, check out the neighborhood thoroughly and make sure there's no noise issues like that around. Also check out the local ordinances to see what legal power you have in case it becomes a problem. Personally, I've gotten to the point where I think it's pointless to buy a house at all unless you're ready to retire and/or are going to have a lot of land around you. Renting is better: you can move out pretty quickly, and given the way the job market is for engineering, I end up moving every couple of years anyway.