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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?
what worked for me was getting rid of THAT neighbor.
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....
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As you get closer to your ears, the sound reduction becomes less selective and you wind up reducing the level of sounds that you want to hear..
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.
My house has 2x6 exterior walls, with insulation in them. My interior walls are 2x4, but are also insulated. Outside noise is so reduced, when there is an accident on the super sharp corner we live on, we don't hear it - hte neighbors 100 yards further away do and they are the ones that call the cops/ambulance. We notice when we see the flashing lights outside...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
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.
Aside from the real estate market still being quite soft around the country, moving every time there's too much noise just isn't practical. It's expensive to move even with just getting help paid by pizza and beer.
And the thing is, no matter where you are, you have to deal with leaf blowers and other lawn equipment, motorcycles, people who insist on having car stereos that can be heard a mile away, people who have those loud pickup trucks and of course the dogs that were mentioned.
We live in a narcissistic obnoxious society that has no consideration for others.
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
To an actually nice neighborhood where the setbacks and minimum building lots are sufficient.
Anti Barking electronics work.
From the sounds of your area do you have a HOA to abuse and thus abuse him, those fun things like 3 people show up to elections so get 2 neighbors and vote yourself in.
Check the laws abuse him with those, if you can't abuse him while staying within the laws. I suggest ICP blasting as max legal decibels as early/late as possible. Put a sign on speakers that it's dog barking abatement. Another good one is enough security lights to make sure it's daylight coming through his windows sporadically 24/7 you obviously live far to close to your neighbors thus making thus effective.
Fake it get a lawyer to threaten to sue for the lose of use/value of your home, the cost of soundproofing etc etc. I am not saying it will stick just that many view the threat very seriously.
Do not use a gun were a nation of insane anti gun laws, often crossbows and other non firearms are just as effective and remember in many places an animal in your yard is fair game to kill check with a lawyer first obviously.
If you can get away with it kidnap the dog bring it to a distant no kill shelter after checking and removing any microchips. Probably a better life that living with these tools.
Realize that in everything but moving your going to have to deal with a pissed of neighbor for at least awhile. Suggest a good full coverage CCTV spread to capture any repercussions. I do firmly suggest moving to someplace that has reasonable zoning not these built on top of each other to make the developer happy places.
No sir I dont like it.
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
Reducing the sound transmission is good, of course, but usually difficult and expensive. Adding more absorption inside the space is always good, will gain you a few more dB, and improve the environment for listening.
But the best and cheapest method is to add noise.
How can adding noise improve the situation? There's already too much noise! This has to do with the nature of hearing and attention - the so-called invisibility of the familiar. Ever notice that when the AC or a fan turns off you suddenly notice it, while you didn't notice the sound before? That's because the mind will tune out and ignore meaningless background.
If you can add enough white/pink noise to mask the offending noise then your attention will not be distracted by it, and eventually all of the sound will fall beneath your attention. This is the usual treatment for tinnitus, ringing in the ears, and many sufferers can gain substantial relief by it.
A quick way to try it out is with your home stereo. On FM mode, tune between stations (and turn off muting). This will provide very nice white noise with adjustable volume. Give it a couple of hours at least. There are inexpensive white noise generators available.
A little classier is falling water, such as an inside fountain. This is more towards lower frequencies (pink noise), but the particular random nature of the sound is very calming for most people.
But what if you work nights and have to sleep during the day?
That's been my situation for many years. If sleeping is the problem, it's easily solved with earplugs. The OP is plagued during the day. He could use earplugs, but I suspect that's not what he wants. Ten to twenty decibels is a lot of sound-proofing, and that would cost some real money, (and you may never achieve that level of sound reduction).
OP:
You could go with heavy curtains on the side of the house where the noise originates. You'd be amazed how much sound the right curtains will absorb. Blackout curtains are a double set of curtains - attractive ones in the front, and opaque ones behind. You might look for something similar, as the double layer seems pretty effective at absorbing sound as well as light. Windows seem to act as passive radiators, so that would be a place to start.
If you want to deaden a room, you can try placing sound traps, (egg-crate foam, etc.), on various points of the wall, much as you would for recording, or for setting up a listening room. You can find sound analyzing software that'll work on a laptop, to try to figure out problem frequencies, (although it sounds like it's all high mids), and where the reflections are coming from. That'll help you set your traps. You can buy nice-looking traps from hifi dealers, but they add a couple zeros to the price of anything related to hifi. Better to make them, or have them made, if aesthetics are a consideration, (you did say you had a wife?).
Ultimately, you're going to have to learn to tune it out to some degree. You'll never be able to silence the outside world without tearing out your walls and bricking up the windows. People can get used to all sorts of distractions, so it's partially a psychological problem. Instead of tensing up when the dog starts yapping, learn to relax and, eventually, ignore it. That's the most cost-effective solution.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
do not even bother with wall soundproofing until you replace all your windows with triple pane and seal up every single air leak. adding a storm window to the outside of the triple pane will also help as each air gap will significantly reduce the sound levels transmitted into the home. after you do all that, THEN have the wall insulation replaced or actually added. Most homes in america have little to no wall insulation as most homes are older than 1950 when heating costs were cheaper than insulating.
now fix all your doors, bet you that every single one of them has crap seals that all need replacing. Door seals need to be replaced every 4-5 years, 99% of all homeowners do not do this. if your doors are really old wood panels replace the whole door and door jam with a modern steel/fiberglass wood core door with at least a double pane window in it.
A typical home, expect to spend about $10,000 to bring the windows and doors up to at least current and dramatically reduce the noise incursion.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
You guys are so funny with your various poisons, sound proofing techniques, intimidation and legal maneuvering. All you need is peanut butter. I guarantee that dog will be gumming a golf-ball sized ball of peanut butter for at least 15 minutes straight, and once it's done getting all the peanut butter out of its mouth, it will be too tired to bark. Works every time.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
A .22LR will do the trick, or if it's a particularly large dog a .38.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Obligatory xkcds.