Tag Archives: Tips

Soundproofing your home from the outside!

Soundproofing, Tips,

Soundproofing a house can be an overwhelming task especially in area with lots of noise from traffic, parks, or the local college party town on Friday night. You’ve perhaps put up soundproof curtains and made sure the house is blocking the noise from the outside but it just isn’t enough. If you live in an apartment there really isn’t much you can do outside to help. However if you live in your own house you may have a few more options available to you. Take a moment today and review the information below on some ideas to help soundproof your home even more!

 

Nature

Trees
The first option that’s often over looked is Trees and Bushes! Trees not only provide shade on a summer’s day but also can also help reduce that noise by quite a bit. Other quick benefits include more privacy and beautifies your yard. While pine trees or massive oak trees will do the best it may not be the best available because they block the view of the front yard and street. They may also take over your yard in time! Pine trees can get quite massive in 5-10 years that it may even surprise you. If you don’t wish to do upkeep on these you may want to look at other options. However the upkeep may not be too much if you have only a few trees. At the same time bushes may not do as much since they are lower to the ground but they do still help absorb and stop some of the noise coming in. Remember that the more you have in the way between you and where the sound is coming from the less you’ll hear!

Don’t forget you need to follow rules on where you can and can’t plant trees and always call your local electric company before you dig! You don’t want a small project become a road hazard or cause yourself some injuries.

 

Fences

FenceAnother option you have is a fence and this can help out quite a bit if its built quite high. With a solid wooden fence between your house and the road you’re almost in a sense putting up another wall in your house between you and the noise. These can make such a considerable noise difference from all things around you from cars to noisy neighbors. There is of course a downfall to putting up a fence and that is cost. Depending on the size of your yard a fence can easily reach several thousand especially if you’re looking to build one that will last a really long time and looks beautiful. Never want to go cheap on a fence materials and installing it as you can regret it a year later when Winter has taken a hold of it. The other benefits though include more privacy and safety for the family. This with a combination of trees can really drown out the noise coming into the household and something everyone should look at. Just make sure its reasonable for you and call before you dig!

 

These are just two options to help further soundproof your house to keep the sound out and make it a more enjoyable place to live. Don’t forget to plan ahead and get multiple quotes on putting up a fence if you do decide to invest into one.

Soundproofing Quick Tip #3 – Furniture and Art!

Tips,

Soundproofing Quick Tip #3

Here’s another quick tip to help soundproof your room or rooms to make it just a tab bit quieter.

When soundproofing windows and curtains you may not be able to do everything you want to help keep your living space as peaceful as possible. Perhaps you rent so you can’t change the windows to soundproof ones and maybe your roommate doesn’t want heavy curtains but silk ones instead. What ever the various reasoning maybe there are still a few options available to you so don’t give up hope just yet!

Furniture and art! You obviously don’t wish to block any windows or exits trying to keep out the sound but various furniture and art will help you out as any sound will get absorbed just at least a little bit in most circumstances when coming into the room.

furnished roomLets look at art! While paintings may not seem like they would help due to being so small/flat, sound loves to bounce off very large flat surfaces like a bare wall. A wooden frame around the painting not only helps reflect sound coming from the side but the entire painting creates a small space between itself and the wall which can also help reduce sound. Another popular option is a tall bookshelf as a full bookshelf creates a very solid “wall” that will likely be at least a half a foot thick and will stop sound in its tracks. As like the painting it helps reflect sound coming from the side (in a much bigger way obviously) and is a solid barrier against any sound coming from directly behind it. Just make sure the bookshelf is filled with thick and heavy books or it may not be as helpful as you would hope. The other types of furniture can be anything like a couch or seat will help but usually due to the lower height they won’t help as much as like a bookshelf could.

What about Placement!? Placement location of the furniture is also important because if there is a noisy wall behind you due to neighbors, you should look at what you can place between them and where you’ll be in the room. Placing a few bookshelves behind you with your couch in the middle facing your entertainment center should greatly help keep the neighbor’s party noise out of your room while you’re trying to pay attention to a movie. When filling up the room with furniture and various art you will not only reduce the options for noise to easily bounce off of but will also help absorb it before it gets to your ears. A side benefit to all of this is it also helps prevent sound you’re making from leaving the room and creating a noisy situation for others.

Good luck on decorating your rooms and reducing the noise!

Keep cool during the summer months with curtains!

Tips, , ,

Summer heat: The good and the bad.

sun beamsAfter spending a wonderful day outside in the summer sun you’ll want to come home to a nice cool home to rest and relax the night away. Perhaps you just need to take a break for a few minutes to get something to drink. In either case when you get inside you’ll want your home to be perfect and relaxing when you arrive.

The unfortunate thing is though, that the summer heat while nice outside is terrible inside and it’ll find its way in if you don’t have good curtains. A room with no curtains and wide windows can heat up a room to well over 100+ degrees without much effort during the summer time on those cloudless days. Even if you crank on the air conditioning this may not be of much help and you’ll be wasting money trying to keep a room cool that you aren’t currently in. Your own sauna in the house that you don’t wish to be there when you arrive home.

Insulated curtains to the rescue!

What kind of curtains will help you in the summer greatly? Insulated curtains as they are specially made to keep out the summer sun and allow you to keep a room much cooler. This can save you a few dollars a month or even more depending on how much direct sunlight the room gets. This cost will be easily recuperated by the savings on lower cooling costs and will be well worth it before the summer even ends. A great deal of curtains sold on any website will be insulated to help keep that room at the perfect temperature you want!

But sometimes curtains won’t specifically state insulated when you see that perfect curtain you wish to buy but there are ways to tell if they will help at least a little bit. The first way is check to see if the side that faces the window is padded with a white “foam” or layer to help reflect light. The next method is check to see if the curtains are blackout as this will stop any sun from getting in especially if they are 99% blackout. No sunlight will always immediately mean less heat and this is exactly what you’re looking for! Another term to of course look out for is thermal though it’s usually paired with blackout or insulated. Not all sites will list the words together but usually if thermal it’s made to help out during the really warm and really cold seasons. Lastly check to see if a heavy fabric is used as even though they may not be stated for blackout or insulated, a nice heavy fabric curtain can still help keep out hot air coming into the house from a window that doesn’t tightly close.

But what about my awesome silk curtains!

While silk curtains have a nice lovely designs and flow freely in the wind they may not help so much in terms of keeping the room nice especially during the summer. However a insulated blackout curtain with a very heavy fabric in the end is best for your room if you wish to keep it cool during the summer and warm during the winter. It maybe a bit costly up front but the savings made overall will be more than worth it! You can always bring out the silk curtains during the spring and fall seasons when insulated curtains don’t have as much use. 🙂

Drywall and keeping out the noise!

Tips, , ,

Lets talk about the basics of drywall in your house.

Drywall is your first line of defense in keeping unwanted noise from coming inside. Due to the fact that it’s a solid panel of plaster it gives great reduction to noise and a benefit towards thermal resistance. In most cases drywall between one house from the next will be fairly standard with the chance of thicker drywall being used in which case helps reduce noise even more. Usually however thicker drywall is put up in areas where more privacy is wanted like in an office area or between bathrooms.

The great part of drywall is the noise reduction.

DrywallAs pointed out in an older post your standard drywall usually has a rating of around 30 STC which is good for stopping noise but could be a lot better. Typically if more noise reduction is wanted the standard drywall which is 1/2″ thick is replaced by a 5/8″ thick drywall. In a few cases this thick drywall can be doubled up but then you have the problem of shrinking your rooms in order to accomplish this, especially if you’re upgrading an existing home. However a lot of people do not know of the possibility of upgrading your house’s drywall to special soundproofing drywall. These types of drywall normally will stay at the 5/8″ thickness but provide significant noise reduction.

The STC rating can almost double which in return in some cases is just like putting up two more layers of noise reduction from just one wall(if not more!). The best of the best which can be up to an STC rating of 80 would make it pretty much impossible for you to hear outside noise through the walls. You could probably be able to put a running lawn mower next to the wall and not hear anything. Perhaps you would hear a very very quiet hum in the background if you listened closely. Imagine never hearing a car on the road while next to a busy intersection or people talking near your house. However these really high end STC rated types of drywall are typically for commercial uses like in hospitals and areas where there is a lot of noise from machinery. Though don’t rule out the lower end version as they can make a world of difference and still be quite affordable.

Costs between different drywall types.

Unfortunately there is no real standard pricing in terms of drywall but the general guideline is something like around $8-10 dollars for a panel. Soundproofing drywall will typically be between 3-4 times that a panel so it is quite the difference in price. But if you want to stop outside noise for good or at least in part of your house that extra expensive will be quite worth it. Always shop around though and get estimates as there’s a good chance you can get a discount between various companies. If you’re a do-it yourselfer, you have even a better chance of saving additional money but it will of course take some time to be properly installed. Installing drywall is something that can’t be rushed as every crack and hole just means less sound reduction and higher heating/cooling costs. Which brings us to the last point that while the costs maybe higher you will save money on heating/cooling costs due to the thickness and special materials used.

Is it worth it for me?

It really depends on how bad of a sound issue you are having. If it’s just a little bit a noise then drywall is probably not the best path to take. Not to mention that if it isn’t a lot a noise your main issue may just be your windows in which case that will probably be typically cheaper to replace/upgrade than an entire room’s drywall. Or just some thick curtains will help resolve the noise. If you’re really unsure though ask around for free estimates and for builders to come out and give you their professional opinions. (Always get a second and third opinion too of course!) Also ask if you could get in contact with any past customers of theirs who had special drywall installed to see their thoughts on if they think it was worth the change.

Do blackout curtains help with soundproofing?

Tips, ,

Blackout curtains and soundproofing

A common question asked is if blackout curtains help with soundproofing at all.

In a sense yes all blackout curtains will Red Curtain Fabricreduce sound in a way but it will vary greatly between the types of curtains and how they were made. A curtain panel being blackout most of the time means that no or less than 1% of sunlight can come through the curtains. This nicely also means that there is far less room for sound to go through the curtains with no resistance. However if the curtains are quite thin it doesn’t matter if they are soundproof or not as the curtain in general can’t stop any sound. There has to be some sort of layer of fabric to stop the sound. If a curtain lists specifics like foam backing and/or several layers of coating then it will provide at least some soundproofing.