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?

Comments

neighbor

[greenfruitsalad]

what worked for me was getting rid of THAT neighbor.

Re:neighbor

[Aighearach]

If the police were showing up and putting heat on the other guy, it sounds like he had his paperwork in order and understood the process.

In my State if a dog barks for over 15 minutes, that is disturbing the peace and you don't have to wait for them to get annoyed with the complaints, you can escalate them and ultimately have the dog removed. The only thing the authorities can do other than help you with the process is to pretend they're too busy, but that doesn't work every time; and if they do that you just go to Court and end up with an Order, and now if they violate it they have to move or get rid of the dog.

And if it is a rental and the dog is repeatedly violating the noise laws, sometimes you can force the property owner to give them a short term eviction notice to avoid shared responsibility for the ongoing legal violations.

It all depends on local law. Without that information, you're just making a false accusation. You can do that here with no penalty, but if you're playing the game he is of calling the cops over little shit and you tell a cop about a false accusation, that becomes a crime. We can assume that isn't the case, because of whose door the cops kept coming to.

Re:neighbor

[Grishnakh]

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.

Re:neighbor

[Grishnakh]

If the next person has a bigger dog and the city laws prohibit barking dogs, then you call the police and let the city deal with it again.

How would you "land in trouble" for using the legal system the way it's meant to be?

Moving into a house doesn't work: all my dog-barking experiences have been in houses, not apartments. Why should I move out of the city? In my experience, people in the country are even worse. You'd have to move somewhere where you can afford tens of acres around you, which is unrealistic. Why shouldn't I expect people to obey the laws of the city they're in? Why do you dumbass dog owners all think that laws shouldn't apply to you?

Re:neighbor

[BronsCon]

Dogs bark when something is wrong, or when they perceive that something is wrong. Letting your dog keep barking for any length of time (I think 10 minutes is too long in this case) is animal abuse. Either the dog needs something, is afraid of something, or is trying to warn you of something; ignoring it and letting it keep barking is not the answer. So yes, calling the cops over ANIMAL ABUSE is perfectly reasonable and only a narcissistic asshole dog owner would argue otherwise.

Re:neighbor

[BronsCon]

Ignoring the needs of your pet is abuse. If your pet needs space to run and execrise so they don't spend all night loudly complaining thet they aren't getting that, then you need to give them that. Not doing so is abuse.

Get an anti bark device

[clifwlkr]

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....

Re: Get an anti bark device

[Billly Gates]

Better yet if your neighbor is an asshole who is abusing his dog by not feeding him and keeping him outside then call police and society for the prevention of cruelty to animals

Re: Get an anti bark device

[BarbaraHudson]

Simpler solution - offer to,take the dog for a walk. It's bored and lonely, it's going to bark. You may even get to like the little yipper once he stops.

Contact bylaw enforcement.

[Dzimas]

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.

These worked for my noisy office.

[slacka]

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/

What they do for airport noise...

[unimacs]

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.

Good luck with that.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Did it to my house.

[headhot]

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

Get a dog silencer

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

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.

Re:Overall sound-reducing strategy...

[dgatwood]

In other words, build a soundproof box around the dog.

Step 1 fix your holes.

[Lumpy]

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.

 

Easiest way

[tgrigsby]

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.

.22LR

[Macdude]

A .22LR will do the trick, or if it's a particularly large dog a .38.