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Quiet Down the Noisy House

Walking through the hallway, can your spouse hear you in the kitchen below? Are you often sitting in the living room and you can hear the children giggling away in the playroom? If you are finding that your home is getting noisier and noisier by the day you can do something about it, you can make your home a little quieter for easier living if you just put your mind to it. 

Where else are you going to find this soundproofing of your home comes in handy? If you live in an apartment or in a condominium, or if your parents are also living with you, you might find that soundproofing portions of your home, or your entire home is well worth the investment. Well, let’s get started and review some of the ideas that you can put to use in your home!

One of the first things that you have to do is address the problem. Tell the kids that they are always being too loud. Have them learn about inside and outside voices. There should be no screaming or jumping in the house. This is a good start to cutting down on the noise that happens in the house. If you work from home, you should create times when the children are only aloud to be inside, in your office, and in your space, other times they should be in the playroom, out on the swing set or watching a movie. 

Another thing that you might have to think about is the bedroom situations. If the beds are above living areas, make sure they don’t bang the walls every time some one moves or lays down. Try to avoid using mattresses or boxsprings that are squeaky so when you or the children roll in bed, the people who are downstairs can hear it moving around. 

Hallways in the upstairs or in the downstairs that have wood floors should have some type of runner on them to keep the sound down when walking. The same goes for the stairs. If you love your wood stairs, try putting just a tip of a rug or a specialty fitting on just the step portion where you walk so the noise is kept to a minimum. 

All the doors in your home have hinges. Oil the hinges so that no doors squeak. In the middle or the night or in the middle of the day, squeaky noises add to the clamor in a home. 

Now onto the construction side of things that you can do to sound proof your home……

One way to soundproof a room, is to use block sound transmission barriers. You can create such a barrier by using something called a mass loaded vinyl barrier. What this really is vinyl barrier that is weighted to put a stop to sound waves. You can buy several types of thickness of this material, up to two pounds per square foot. So depending on how much noise you want to block out, you can purchase different types. 

While you might find mass loaded vinyl barriers a little expensive they certainly are going to help stop the noise that is floating through the house. 

Another less expensive method of stopping sounds that are intruding in spaces where you don’t want them to be is to use furring strips in the walls. What you are going to do is start with a stud wall, put a few furring strips up, cover the furring strips with vapor barrier and then cover with drywall, paneling or whatever. 

(Don’t forget your insulation goes in-between the stud walls, is covered by the furring strips and then the plastic, and then the wall covering) 

This may not stop all sounds from the screaming children or the running through the house, but it sure is going to put a stop to hearing the television or the radio from the next room when you are trying to sleep or work. 

Among other things, you can also use foam insulation and fill in cracks or areas of the windows and walls where sound is entering where you do not want it to be. Foam insulation is available by the can and is very inexpensive, but in some cases, it could take a lot of foam insulation to stop a lot of noise. 

Insulating the ceilings in your home is going to put a muffle over most noises in the house. You can use fiberglass, blown or rigid board insulation. This is going to help keep your home warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and it is going to help put a stop too much of the noises in the house. Even insulation in the ceilings in the first floor leading to the second floor is going to put a stop to more noise than you could have imagined!

Taking a little time, and a little money, you can make a noisy home one that is comfortable even when there are seven people living in the house!

Visitors comments

Quiet Down The Noisy House Comments By: Phil on 2004-08-20 My house quietened down when the kids went to college!! :) Â