Your First Aid To Reduce Sudden Noise From Next Door
You have been living quietly and in peace for all of your life but suddenly there’s a new neighbour who had just moved in last week. They are nice but the noise they make can be helped since they have little kids running around their house and a newborn baby. Sure the children’s screaming and baby’s crying are disturbing sometimes but you can’t just tell them off.
The thing you can do to keep your peaceful life is to do something to your room. But renovating your house is not in the options. Here are things you can do yourself for a quick fix.
1. Move furniture against noisy walls
Furniture adds density, which can help block sound. Heavy objects resist vibration, making it much harder for sound to be transmitted. Bookcases and shelves are ideal for this purpose. By arranging the furniture in your room carefully, you can effectively reduce noise disturbance from adjoining spaces without spending a fortune.
You can place large items of furniture against the walls through which the most noise is heard. The larger the area the item covers, the more noticeable the effect will be. Heavier items of furniture are also more effective due to their density.
A normal conversation rests at about 60dB—such as the one you might overhear from your noisy neighbours next door. You can expect to reduce this by an audible amount through the use of furniture.
2. Replace hard furnishings with soft furnishings
Sound is transmitted through vibrations; the greater number of vibrations, the louder the sound. Hard objects vibrate harder, creating a louder reverberation of sound. You can reduce this reverberation by replacing hard surfaces with soft ones, thereby making your home quieter, simply by modifying the décor.
You can adapt hard surfaces within your home. For example, hard seats may be covered with cushions, benches may be upholstered, and tables might be covered with table cloths. A soft space is a quiet space.
This is a small change for a small payoff. You might expect to reduce noises within your home by around 5dB. Imagine, for example, the difference in noise between placing a knife down on a wood surface to placing one down on a cloth. When soft furnishings are placed throughout your home, these small differences add up to calmer general background noise.
3. Hang door curtains
Curtains absorb sounds before they can hit a hard surface. As we know, hard surfaces create a high reverb and a louder noise. Door curtains deaden echo, reducing the volume of sounds in the room. Proper acoustic door curtains are especially thick and dense for this purpose.
To hang a door curtain, you’ll need to measure the space above your door frame and install a suitable curtain rod or use mounting brackets from which you’ll hang your curtain. The curtain should completely cover the door frame with some overlap in order to block the greatest amount of noise.
You can expect a noise reduction from incoming sounds of around 7dB, although the reduction for outgoing sounds will be slightly higher.
4. Close gaps under doors
There are several options for closing gaps under doors such as door sweeps, automatic door bottoms or draught excluders. The gap between the bottom of the door and the floor is usually the largest gap around the door through which noise can enter and be emitted.
A door sweep works by closing the gap between the bottom of the door and floor; this adds mass which reduces sound transmission. For a door sweep to work effectively, it should be installed so the bristles will brush against the floor when the door is opened and rest against the floor when the door is closed.
An automatic door bottom takes things a bit further by concealing a soundproof seal within a metal or plastic housing which is attached to the bottom of the door. This seal is released via a plunging mechanism when the door is pushed closed. This is a denser product with a tighter seal, which makes it more effective than a door sweep alone. We recommend this option for those who rely on good acoustics.
A decent automatic door bottom can improve volume control by 10dB. A door sweep would be slightly less effective, offering a noise reduction of around 7dB.
5. Call a noise control specialist right away!
To completely reduce the noise, nothing beats the professional. Acoustica Projects will help you to block all unwanted noise and bring back your peaceful life.
Feel free to contact Acoustica Projects for more information on the products and consultation!