Keeping It Quiet, Tips for Buying Your Next Home

You are in the market to buy a new home. There is so much to consider, price, location, size and even the details such as carpeting, wood flooring, the number of bathrooms. One thing buyers often forget to consider when searching out their dream home is to make sure that humble abode is quiet and peaceful.

Determining whether a neighborhood or home is going to be quiet at night or even weekends can be difficult at first. Ways to help you determine the noise level is to be sure and drive around the area you like with the windows down.

If you run across railroad tracks, you better figure out how close they are to your prospective home. Make sure you are near the house when a train goes by, so you can get the full effect. While trains and plains are obvious sources of noise, you also need to consider more subtle situations.

Many homebuyers look at houses early on Saturday and Sundays. This makes sense since you have to work for a living, but it can result in some nasty surprises. The characteristics of a neighborhood on weekends are entirely different than during week days. Make absolutely sure you check out the property during both time periods. To guard against “partying” neighbors, make sure you check the area during evenings as well.

Examine your home’s proximity to a freeway or industrial center. If you are somebody with non-standard work hours, just simply looking at a home with the bedroom in the correct placement is important.

Spend some time inside of the home with the doors and windows shut to see how much sound is coming in. Some homes have better insulation than others. Dual-pane windows also help cut out some of the outside noise.

There are remedies that can be made to your home if you already purchased it and have discovered it is noisy. By consulting a professional rather than trying to do-it-yourself to no avail, you will find yourself with a quieter home and a better night’s sleep.

Mark Rustad is President of NetWell Noise Control, based in Minneapolis, MN. Founded in 1991, NetWell is a leading supplier of ceiling tiles, acoustic products, sound proofing treatments, and online acoustical consulting services. NetWell’s sound management skills are packaged into the industry’s premier website. For more information, please visit eSoundproof.com. Discover first hand why so much of NetWell’s business stems from the referrals and repeat orders they receive from satisfied clients around the world.

Soundproofing Your Strip Mall Space

You just opened your new business, or maybe it is an existing business and somebody has moved into the commercial space next to you – the only problem, they like to play loud music or are loud and the sound invades your space. If you have this experience, you know how frustrating such a situation can be. But don’t despair, there are soundproofing techniques available that can be done in a tasteful and yet effective way.

Isolating one room's noise from the next is accomplished by a combination of disconnection plus density which will help collapse the transmission of sound through these common surfaces. Sound proofing products, including sound barrier, sound panels and ceiling tile options, are all useful products. Such treatments will typically result in a 10-12 dB drop in transmission of sound straight through your common walls or ceiling, this could represent a 90% drop in noise bleeding through. Results for soundproofing a strip mall will vary depending on leakage and the quality of the installation method employed.

For noise bleeding through a direct common wall within a strip mall, dB-Bloc works in that it is a thin mass loaded vinyl sound barrier material designed to layer behind drywall and other finished wall or ceiling surfaces to help combat against the bleed of noise transmitting through a common surface. This sound deadening material was designed specifically block noise transmitting through common walls.

dB-Bloc measures just 1/8" thick, but weighs more than 1 pound per square foot to produce the density required for a soundproof wall. dB-Bloc will impair a wall's ability to vibrate to reduce sound transmission. An ideal treatment for combating sound bleed in thin walls between loud neighbors or room isolation in any residential or commercial setting. This mass loaded vinyl is shipped in 30' rolls measuring 54" in width. Each roll will cover 135 square feet and weigh nearly 150 pounds.

For noise bleeding out through an existing drop-grid ceiling tile system, simply rest these caps atop your existing tiles to create an acoustic "lid" over the room and hold the noise inside. Ceiling Caps are acoustic ceiling lids that rest atop existing ceiling tiles for sound deadening a drop grid ceiling tile system. These sound barrier tiles combat sound transmission through a ceiling as a weighted ceiling tile. Cut as 2'x2' or 2'x4' acoustical ceiling tiles, the Ceiling Caps will help deaden sound bleed and combat foot noise for a soundproof ceiling treatment. These acoustical barrier tiles will require doubling the hangers used to support the ceiling tile grid system. They weigh one pound per square foot.

For a new grid system, or to replace your existing ceiling tiles, lay these weighted barrier ceiling tiles in place to both absorb energy within the room and block the bleed of noise out of the room.

Granite Tiles are sound barrier ceiling tiles designed to rest in an existing ceiling tile grid system and combat the bleed of noise through the ceiling. These weighted ceiling tiles are finished with a smooth white nubby facing, and lined with a layer of mass loaded vinyl geared to block the transmission of noise bleeding from either direction through the ceiling. These sound barrier tiles will protect against the transmission of unwanted noise from transmitting in or out of your room.

For existing walls where the framing treatments is not practical, consider lining the surface of your wall with full coverage using this combination panel. These panels block noise bleeding back and forth through the wall while controlling reverberations within your room. Be sure to cover 100% of your common surface. FabricBloc Panels are sound barrier panels made from two 1" thick compressed fiberglass acoustic barrier tiles laminated together with a thin layer of mass loaded vinyl sandwiched in between. This composite sound barrier tile product is then wrapped in 48 colors of Guilford cloth to produce this sound isolation panel for a common wall treatment.

These acoustic barrier tiles combine to both absorb unwanted sound reflections within your room, and help block noise from bleeding through the common wall surface that the sound protection panels are attached to. This combination of sound absorption and sound blocking make the FabricBloc Panels a popular choice for soundproofing a common wall.

These blankets are ideal for lining against a common wall in the back room of a retail location, or a mechanical room. They are fire rated, portable, and work great to deaden the transmission of sound through your wall. Custom cut to the cavity size of your wall, they will typically cut your noise bleed by 10-15 dB. QBS sound control blankets are custom cut fiberglass acoustical curtains designed to suspend as an acoustical enclosure around loud sound sources. These fire rated noise control blankets hang vertically from a floor mounted frame, fence or ceiling of a room to isolate noise and serve as a sound barrier wall

With a few specialized fixes designed by a professional, you can get your strip mall space virtually noise-free.

Mark Rustad is President of NetWell Noise Control, based in Minneapolis, MN. Founded in 1991, NetWell is a leading supplier of ceiling tiles, acoustic products, soundproofing treatments, and online acoustical consulting services. NetWell’s sound management skills are packaged into the industry’s premier website. For more information, please visit www.eSoundproof.com. Discover first hand why so much of NetWell’s business stems from the referrals and repeat orders they receive from satisfied clients around the world.