Street noise insulation

[stockrex]

yeah it will be hard to get into the driveway blocked by evrgreens.
by sealing I meant:
1. make sure ur windows close allthe shut, what are these, casement? doublehung?
2. look closely arounf the wndw trim, feel any air penetration seal these gaps. uu sould take the trim off and check and between the window and framing.
3 u have real brick? or the faux half inch thick brick? I have a brick ranch from te 50s.
4 I agree with the poster with the extra layer of drywll sugg, but that is extreme

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: XS650
And this.
http://www.filmtools.com/msesoblwigr4.html

Instead of their high priced pads, these are well made and should also work.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93156


Are you suggesting I cover up the windows with these? My better half would have a heart attack if she saw that.

I suspect you would be the one with the urgent medical problems

1. It's a cheap way to find out if sound insulation drapes are worthwhile.

2. After you tack those up (if you survive that) anything you put up will look good by comparison.

3. They are great for padding a concrete floor after she makes you take them down. I would rather use one than a creeper....Obviously not good for real messy work although they are machine washable.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Makes sense. Sometimes I do crawl under the cars, so I can certainly give this pad a second lease on life.

 

[saaber1]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
lol, insulation in the walls are supposed to reduce the sound transmission.


It does, I have done it. You can run insulation around the studs instead of between them. Also you can have two footers and stagger each stud so that it is like two independent walls next to each other. That prevents the studs and footers from transmitting noise. Also the sound board and silicon makes a huge difference. Many commercial office buildings are built this way for example and that is why you can't hear anything at all from outside. They can be right next to the freeway and you hear nothing.

 

[stockrex]

I totally agre, this the right solution or way to build av roomsetc. the idea is sound is vibration and u break the path and it s quiet
but doing all this might be extrem for the op.

op: pls post a pic of the side facing the st.
could sound be coimg thrugh the garage? how is ur garage dr? walls in garage insulated?

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Makes sense. Sometimes I do crawl under the cars, so I can certainly give this pad a second lease on life.


And it will make a comfortable place to hide until she calms down

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
yeah it will be hard to get into the driveway blocked by evrgreens.
by sealing I meant:
1. make sure ur windows close allthe shut, what are these, casement? doublehung?

Not sure the proper nomenclature. Basically, the bottom half of the window slides up to open, and the top half of the window slides down to open. There are two locking levers where the two window halves meet.

Quote:

2. look closely arounf the wndw trim, feel any air penetration seal these gaps. uu sould take the trim off and check and between the window and framing.

When it was colder out, I did feel a slight cold air breeze coming from the windows... however it was between the top and the bottom half - not something I could possibly seal. There is no visible gap anyway.

Quote:

3 u have real brick? or the faux half inch thick brick?

Not quite sure. It's possibly the faux kind.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
op: pls post a pic of the side facing the st.
could sound be coimg thrugh the garage? how is ur garage dr? walls in garage insulated?


Here is the pic.

It's the window directly above garage. Good point about sound coming through the garage. I guess it's possible. The garage door is pretty thin vinyl I guess. Not sure about the wall insulation in there.

 

[greenaccord02]

I had the same problem - what worked for me was caulking around the windows, installing wooden blinds and putting up some curtains. The problem appeared after the POs overgrown shrubs had been cut down. Those three steps were easy and relatively inexpensive.
I had two identical offices that I did this with. After hurricane Ike, one of then two offices had to have the walls taken out and redone. After installing thicker batting in the ceiling and outer wall there was a noticeable difference, but you don't want to pay for that.
Honestly, after doing the first three steps, I'd just buy a fan for the room to provide white noise and make sure to give my guests a stout nightcap before bed.

 

[stockrex]

for blinds, may i suggest double bubble or just bubble shades, you can get em at menards, lowes or if you have surplus cash, hunter doug,
make sure you measure and cut them to fit exactly in the window.

you have double hung windows, make sure your top pane is all the way up and bottom all the way down before you latch it.

nice house!
open the window and take the screen out and stick ur head out and inspect the edges of the outside of the window
no offense but you have a lot of areas of possible of air/sound intrusion.

the building envelope is independent of the brick veneer, there is a gap between the brick and the plywood/osb building envelope.

off topic:
I had a similar house in KC, MO with cement hardboard siding, I found a 6 inch wide and 9 inch long gap in the envelope at one end of the house and numerous other at every corner of the house and anywhere you have a roof line meet a wall, let's not go there. hence I like ranch with no valleys and lotsa overhang. not the prettiest thing to look at but less headache.

sit in your garage with the door closed and check how much noise you can hear, sealing the garage door with gaskets (i use pipe insulation foam) and/or replacing it.
adding insulation to the garage walls and adding drywall over them.

ear plugs might be cheaper

 

[PandaBear]

When I used to live under the flight path of an airport in Hong Kong. We can hear the shock wave of 747 all day long, regardless of what you do. One thing that does help is the double pane windows designed for noise (I think they are vacuum inside), not use if they are the same as the double pane windows for heat.

 

[oilyriser]

Windows on brick facing should be really good for reflecting noise, unless they're not supported properly and sealed well. Garage ceiling could get another layer of drywall, but transmission is usually low frequencies (like a drum). Air leaks let in high frequency sound. Road noise would be both high and low.

 

[Audi Junkie]

No Pete, I mean a small buzzy fan by the window to make white noise.

 

[tonycarguy]

If it's a new house then it's already well insulated and tight. There's nothing you can "easily" do to reduce the noise. The only thing that will work is install acoustic paneling in the ceilings and walls.

 

[wander2039]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
No Pete, I mean a small buzzy fan by the window to make white noise.


That's what I use since I'm a light sleeper. Unfortunately I'm so used I have to take with me everywhere. The boy is a light sleeper also and we have a waterfall noise maker that seems to work just as good.

 

[AcuraTech]

Time to start stapling old egg cartons to the wall.

I would say heavy curtains and a room fan for white noise. Trying to re-engineer a house for added soundproofing can get tricky and expensive rather fast. Sure, double drywall and double or triple pane windows may do the trick, but at what cost? Maybe do some research into what types of things airports pay to do to peoples houses when they add new flight paths. If you can drown out a plane, tire and exhaust noise are gravy.

I despise new construction houses, the walls are built about as thick as a Japanese paper house. My personal preference is brick houses with lots of insulation, thick drywall, and thick windows. Also make sure to have lots of deadening materials in the bedroom, such as carpet, keep the closet doors open (clothes will absorb noise), etc. Or maybe look into, what the [censored] was that stuff called, we had it in our 50's Cape Cod style house, like stucco but for the inside walls. Too hard to stick a thumbtack into, when you tried to hammer a nail it would usually just chip. That stuff was like armor against noise.

Or else look for a new house on a quiet street.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: AcuraTech
If you can drown out a plane, tire and exhaust noise are gravy.

We're actually not far away from an airport, lots of planes on their landing approach... it's quite audible inside the house as well.

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I despise new construction houses, the walls are built about as thick as a Japanese paper house.

Tell me about it. I have a wireless router in the basement. And when I'm with a laptop in the other corner of the house on the second floor, this signal strength is still good (4 out of 5). If this were in my parents' old house, signal strength would have been close to 0.

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Or else look for a new house on a quiet street.

Yeah, we just bought this house, and it took us a really long time to find it, too. I guess there is no perfect house (unless you have millions to spend)... we had to make some compromises here and there.

Anyway, thanks for the advice everyone.