How to make your room dead quiet

[m741]

In the same vein as this question about darkening a room, I'm curious if people have experience soundproofing a room.

The problem is that our house (a rental) is next to a neighbor's house, with a distance of about 4-5 feet between the houses. Our bedroom window opens pretty close to the neighbor's window, a room where they socialize and play bad electronica/dubstep. Our window has pretty good glass, but it's not as quiet as I'd like and the windows are wide, maybe 5 feet across two panes. I'm not concerned if this room doesn't get much daylight. Right now I believe most of the noise is coming through the window rather than our house's walls.

I put up blackout curtains over the window (before there as a noise problem), and play some white noise from my phone. I just ordered some soundproofing+blackout curtains that I may try to double up with the extant curtains, as well as a dedicated white noise machine. I'm considering saving cardboard from packages and cardboarding at least half the window, though I doubt that would make much of a difference. And I'm considering putting some kind of baffle outside, but I don't think there's really much property (ie, room to place such a thing).

Any other ideas? I looked at maybe getting some composite board and mounting foam acoustic panels (~$1 sq/ft), then fitting this over the window, but I'm skeptical that this will actually block noise.

[vexed87]

Had you considered it might be easier to:

1. Move home?
2. Learn to live with it?
3. Ask the neighbour to be reasonable and keep the music down between certain hours?

Just google/youtube studio sound proofing for ideas. It should be easy enough to achieve. Triple glazed windows are about as good as it gets with the window situation if you want to retain daylight, I used to live on a busy road, and they helped a tonne, but they are not miracle workers. Sound proofing is null and void when the window is opened in the summer.

Failing that, simply engage in audio warfare and play your own preference in music back, even louder.
Keep us posted too!

[chenda]

A friend of mine used sound proof foam panels on the party wall with the attached neighbour, who had children screaming at all hours. It didn't completely cut the noise but it noticeably deadened it, and were quite easy to install apparently. That might help combined with sealing the window.

[Riggerjack]

Killing sound is killing vibration. At the industrial level, this can include:

Lead sheeting, lead is soft and heavy, so it takes a lot of energy to move it, and it's fairly flexible, so it doesn't transmit the vibration well. This is the same principal used in sound deadening mats used in high end car stereo installation.

Air gapped barriers. This would be my first choice. Barrier 1 passes vibrations, attenuated. But since it isn't touching the next barrier, the air absorbs some of the energy, then the next barrier. This is why triple panes are quieter than double. You can buy window inserts online that are glass cut to fit, with a gasket around the outside. They fit on the inside of the window framing with a friction fit. Bonus, since windows are always among the biggest energy holes in your house, (the very best residential windows are only R4-R5) this helps with that. You may be able to get 2 inserts to fit.

Soft barriers. Old theaters had curtains and tapestries covering walls to kill echos. It is not a great attenuator, but it helps.

Mass. Move any furniture to that wall, and air gap it. Every bit of attenuation helps.

Let us know what you use, and how it worked out.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Can you define bad electronica? Could you get funky with this? Because if not, I cannot get funky with you.

[Scott 2]

The thread title implies silence is an option. It's not. When ambient sounds get low enough, your body becomes the source of noise. You'll hear your heart beat, breath move in and out, joints move, etc. Or maybe your ears ringing, if you have damage.

Blocking noise is really hard. I've found comfort in knowing all I can really do is change the background sounds. I'll throw some ear plugs in when things are loud and let it go.

[7Wannabe5]

You could try my BF's method for dealing with neighbor who booms bass which involved directing 4 speakers attached to an old car system towards adjoining wall, and then setting them near maximum volume only partially white-noise-hum tuned in to AM news radio station, and then attaching them to a timer to play when he was not home. #whyshemovedout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipm3-NK-quk @3:30:55

[Campitor]

Dubstep/electronica has a pretty deep bass drop (see SNL skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCawU6BE8P8).

There is no way to attenuate a ton of bass blasting out from your neighbor without a significant outlay of sound deadening construction or an expensive sound deadening headset. The other thing you could do - if it's possible -is to erect a solid wood fence between your homes which will reflect a major part of the sound back at the originator. But you can't avoid that much bass - it's not possible. Low frequency sound isn't deflected as easily as high frequency sound. See https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Engineeri ... ropagation - Attenuation by atmospheric absorption.

Is there a decibel limit where you live? Some towns enact limits on decibel levels that a person can emit in a residential area.

[jennypenny]

They make sound proofing drapes and lining for drapes. They look like the insulated kind you can get at Ikea and hook onto the back of regular drapes. It's been years since we bought ours, but IIRC they said a wool lining on the drapes would also work. Try tacking a wool blanket to the back of the curtains. If that works, buy wool liners.

[m741]

Thanks everyone!

We'll see how this continues - the noise is irregular, maybe 2 or 3 nights a week and only recently got bad. A few supplies are arriving tomorrow (a white noise machine and drapes basically like what jennypenny mentioned). To be honest the music is not super loud, I doubt it violates noise regulations - I'm just pretty sensitive. If it's annoying I sleep with headphones + white noise, but it's not very comfortable.

The stuff arriving tomorrow is step one. Step two would be putting a layer of cardboard with a small airgap from the glass (reusing old boxes), and setting up a primitive fence. Step three would be mounting quilts to the walls (I inherited a number of decorative quilts that sit unused in my basement) and maybe rearranging a bookcase against the wall. Step four would be talking to the neighbors. I don't want to nag and of course some people take things the wrong way and decide to be assholes on purpose. Hopefully step one will be enough .

@vexed87 - I have played some Zeppelin last night at a medium level... but it's so passive-aggressive.
@Campitor - Yeah, the bass is what really cuts through the windows right now. I'm glad to hear that fencing can help - I may stand a plywood sheet upright between the two houses and see if that helps.
@Mister Imperceptible - That's pretty good stuff. What they're listening to sounds like laid-back Skrillex. It doesn't help that almost all music sounds shitty through walls & windows.

[jennypenny]

I remembered this morning that they also make special storm windows that are specifically soundproof windows. We needed too many so didn't buy them, but it's another option to look into if the other stuff doesn't work.

[Gilberto de Piento]

@vexed87 - I have played some Zeppelin last night at a medium level... but it's so passive-aggressive.

Don't retaliate or when you finally ask them to turn it down they are going to say "but you play loud music too!"

[Clarice]

I know for a fact that a theater curtain blocks noise REALLY well. You just stood in the middle of a gaggle of screaming girls and barking teachers, you stepped on the other side of this curtain and you hear NOTHING. It is amazing.

[Campitor]

I know for a fact that a theater curtain blocks noise REALLY well. You just stood in the middle of a gaggle of screaming girls and barking teachers, you stepped on the other side of this curtain and you hear NOTHING. It is amazing.

High frequency noises, like girls screaming unless they are baritones, deflect easier. The bass in dubstep/electronica is on a whole other level. Your house essentially becomes a giant acoustical resonator. And if the guy has a massive subwoofer it can literally make hair dance: https://youtu.be/zIRPDU9ZUXA?t=48. There's no way to stop that much bass coming at you from next door.