Whether you’re wondering how to reduce sound in your home to prevent noise from coming in and disturbing you, or you want to reduce the number of noise complaints from your neighbours, this article has the solutions for you. As double glazing specialists, we reveal our top tips for reducing sound in a property—from fixing wall cracks and reorganising your furniture to double glazing for noise reduction—so you can make changes to increase your home comfort and quality of life.
Why does sound travel through walls and floors so easily? To answer this, let’s first establish what sound is and how it operates. Simply put, sound is created when something vibrates and sends out waves of energy (vibrations). The energy waves cause the air and any objects it touches to vibrate, too.
Sound waves can travel through most objects, which is why we can still hear the traffic from outside even when we’ve closed the windows and doors. When we reduce sound in our homes, we are essentially adding extra layers of obstacles to the space that the vibrations must travel through. With every object the waves pass through, the energy is reduced, until the sound is no longer audible.
Coming reasons why people decide to reduce sound in their home include preventing noise disturbance from outside, preventing noise from escaping, and increasing home value.
If you live in a home where the noise of outside foot traffic, horns, tyres, voices, and music constantly filters through, it can be hard to relax. One of the most common reasons people want to reduce sound is to improve their quality of life by reducing outside sound from entering their home. Sound reduction can help provide a calm atmosphere, reduce distractions, and boost concentration during the day. At night, it can make you sleep better and feel more ready to take on the day ahead.
There are multiple reasons why you may need to reduce sound in your home to stop noise escaping. For example, if you’re a musician who needs to practice or you have a profession that requires a space to record, sound reduction can help reduce noise levels from disturbing the neighbours. Other reasons could simply be to reduce the volume of shuffling feet, voices, music, videogames, and movies from filtering throw walls or down through the ceiling from the upper levels.
Sound reduction can also be a great addition to include in a home renovation to increase the value of your property. Not only will you get to benefit from the peace and serenity gained from the sound insulation, but if you are looking to sell eventually, it will increase the overall appeal of the property for potential buyers, especially if your home is next to a busy street or in a bustling neighbourhood.
Whether you’re planning to overhaul your entire home or just looking for some small projects to work on, renovation is the perfect time to think of ways to reduce sound in your home.
1. Sealing your doorframes with weathering strips can help to reduce heat loss, drafts, and prevent noise from filtering in through the cracks.
2. Fix any holes or cracks in walls and around the window frames, electrical sockets, and ventilation grates.
3. Replacing single-pane glass with double-glazed units in timber frames will dramatically reduce noise pollution. Pro tip! If you are working within a restricted budget, you can focus on replacing only the glass in windows and doors that are facing traffic or other noisy areas.
4. Fix squeaky floorboards. Squeaky floorboards are a nightmare for everyone in the house. Fixing these means you can get rid of that floor map—the one with all the safe-to-walk-on spots marked out!
5. Insulate walls and ceiling. Insulation products such as mass-loaded-vinyl, neoprene rubber, ceiling panels, viscoelastic foam, and fibreglass behind ceiling panels and walls will significantly reduce the amount of noise that filters in or out of your home.
6. Plant hedges or trees in your garden. Trees and plants can reduce noise pollution by absorbing, deflecting, or refracting sound waves. If your property allows for it, creating a garden space that includes foliage between your house and the road or a neighbour’s house will work both as a noise barrier and a privacy screen.
If home renovating isn’t within your budget right now or if you are renting a property, there are still many things you can do to organise your home to increase noise absorption.
7. Include some large thick rugs in your interior design. This will act as a sound barrier and muffle footsteps and noise between floors.
8. Building and filling up a large bookcase is a great way to muffle sound between rooms and organise your literature.
9. Replace thin curtains with thick heavy curtains. Thick curtains are better at absorbing sound.
10. Rearrange your furniture. Like with your bookshelf, if you place your larger pieces of furniture or cabinetry against the walls between your house and the neighbours, they can act as a buffer.
Comfort and quality of life is an important thing to consider for every property. If you’re looking for ways to increase the comfort of your home, we encourage you to consider the advantages of double glazing for your windows! Double glazing is excellent not only for its ability to regulate temperatures and reduce the intensity of cold or stiflingly hot weather, but it will also dampen and significantly reduce the amount of noise coming into rooms from outside.
If you’re looking for high-quality and affordably priced double glazed windows in Auckland, get in touch with our team today to discuss the benefits of Atlas Glass window solutions for your home.
An aspect of window design that is commonly overlooked by homeowners is the degree to which your windows insulate you from external noise pollution. Sound insulation keeps outside noise out to create a peacefully quiet home. But why is that so important, and how do your windows play into it? In this blog post, we’ll look into how acoustic glass plays a role in the comfort of your home, and how important noise insulation really is.
First, it is important to understand how sound travels. Sound travels as a wave through the air and by vibrating through objects. The more material the soundwave has to travel through, the smaller it gets so less noise gets through. Usually, your windows would be a key point of weakness in your home that sounds easily travels through, as most traditional windows are only made of a single layer of glass.
Acoustic glass, on the other hand, is specially designed to combat this problem!
Acoustic glass is a special form of laminated glass designed to reduce the amount of noise that can travel through it. It’s bonded together using a special resin, giving two panes of glass the appearance of one single pane. This way of assembling glass reduces the amount of noise that can vibrate through it,
because the thicker the glass is, the more material sound has to vibrate through in order to reach the interior of the home. The noise-proofing qualities of the glass are increased by the bonding layer, which also absorbs the sound energy.
Glaziers use acoustic glass as a supplementary method for noise-proofing homes, as the insulation found in the walls and ceiling are sometimes not up to the job – especially if people live in particularly noisy spots such as commercial business districts or near public transport.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in New Zealand states that noise insulation “plays a key role in maintaining people’s wellbeing”. This is because consistent noise even at a low level can boost stress levels to the point where we experience hypertension. Our minds need to relax, but if we’re constantly processing sensory input then there’s no opportunity for them to do so.
Therefore, we need to insulate the places we spend the most time in – such as our homes – against the constant assault of external noise. If you live near a motorway or construction site this is especially important, as the sound of driving cars or moving machinery is exponentially more bothersome than the everyday noises of a suburban community.
Talk to your local glazier about installing acoustic glass windows at your home in order to improve sound insulation. Remember that this is not the only way to insulate your home against noise, and that you should also make sure that the insulation in your walls, ceiling, and floor are up to code.
You may also consider double glazing your windows, which is when you install two panes of glass in the same frame with a layer of argon in between. Argon works to disrupt the frequency of the travelling sound so that it only makes its way into the house at a far-reduced decibel level (i.e. sound intensity). Double glazing alone has been used for years as the solution to sound pollution, but now that it can be compounded with acoustic glass, and homes are quieter and more peaceful than ever.
We believe that everyone deserves to feel like their home is a sanctuary. When you get in touch with us, we will be with you every step of the way to create your perfect, quiet home. Contact Atlas Glass today to get a free quote on your acoustic glass windows installation!
Sometimes, it feels like no matter where you are – the place is noisy. There’s traffic or people or barking animals, and you feel like you can’t get any peace. If this feels even slightly familiar, then acoustic glass may be the perfect option for you.
Acoustic glass consists of two or more sheets of glass, bonded together with one or more acoustic interlayers. The interlayers act as a noise dampening core, weakening the sound as it travels through the glass. When it is faced with sound, it works as a reflective agent: reflecting the majority of the sound waves, and absorbing those that it does not reflect.
By providing different layers of insulation, noise from the outside world is strongly reduced, which can have a myriad of benefits.”
Noise pollution is a real and unpleasant part of everyday life. If not efficiently dealt with, it can lead to serious issues – this is where acoustic glass comes in. By effectively lowering noise pollution, you can get back to living your best life.
A good night’s sleep is vital for optimal functioning and health. When our outside environments are noisy, we may feel like we do not get the rest that we need. This leaks into other areas of our life: our relationships, our work, even the way we feel about ourselves. Studies show that a lack of good sleep can lead to heightened irritation and an inability to think clearly.
Single pane windows are not an effective barrier against the night-time noises that may keep us awake. This is because the sound is able to pass straight through. With double glazed windows, the sound has to pass through several layers, greatly diminishing it and giving you the opportunity to finally get to sleep.
It’s difficult to focus when you can hear your neighbour’s dog barking and their children fighting all day. How can someone focus on their activities, whether they are work or leisure, when background noise is taking up the foreground?
For many people, distractions lead to heightened levels of stress. Too much stress can cause many different health problems, from ulcers to heart palpations.
Acoustic glass has been shown to significantly decrease the noise of the outside world. Although you may still hear your neighbour’s voice, it will be more of a whisper than an angry shout. Take a moment to imagine how pleasant it will feel to read your book without hearing loud traffic outside your window.
Acoustic glass was developed with all of these issues in mind. It is often used in places where noisy environments can be overwhelming, such as airports, houses on main roads and office buildings. In environments such as these, acoustic glass can reduce noise levels by up to 50%.
Say yes to your health and choose acoustic glass for your windows. Here at Atlas Glass, we offer a variety of options, including acoustic glass. If you have any questions about our services, or if you would be interested in receiving a free quote, please contact us.
