The work day is finally over! However, it may happen that just when one is about to relax on the sofa, some noises disturb. Sometimes they come from the street, others, music resounds from a neighboring apartment, the heels of the woman upstairs click or a washing machine won’t stop spinning.
The first step is detect where the annoying noises are coming from. Are they from our apartment, a neighbor, or down the block? Is it perhaps due to some structural problem in the construction or the lack of insulating elements?
Echo in wide environments
When we have a very spacious atmosphere and the decoration is rather minimalist, everything resonates, unfailingly. maybe even youA conversation in a rather moderate tone disturbs.
Place curtains, rugs, cushions, or upholstered furniture will muffle the sound. “The Echo occurs when voices or other sounds bounce off smooth surfaces from the walls or the floor”, says Martin Auerbach, who is part of the management of heimtex, the association for the home textile industry in Germany. “Some floor covering textiles have built-in acoustic insulation that muffles that echo. In case of being an environment with large surfaces of windows there are also acoustic curtains that notably reduce the resonance interval”, he points out.
Pictures instead of rugs
Another problem can lie in the noise generated by the footsteps, either inside the apartment or on other floors of the building. Carpets are a great help to counteract those noises. However, if one prefers a sober decoration, without heavy curtains or soft carpets, you can opt for other “acoustic” elements to reduce resonance.
There are for example “acoustic pictures” for all types of environments. Is about objects with open-pore surfaces. “If the sound hits there, the whole picture begins to vibrate very subtly, the sound wanders from one side of the object to the other, it loses energy and at some point it disappears”, explains specialist Cristiano Lopes.
When the cause is under construction
If the noise comes from the apartment next door, the problem is much more complex. That the neighbors torment each other with their conversations is usually linked to problems in the construction of the building, not to lifestyles.
“If the cause (of the problem) is not detected, the neighbor will not be able to avoid being heard even if he makes great effortsLopes says. A simple example: if the sockets are placed at the same height on one side of the wall as on the other, it is not very surprising that the neighbor’s noises reach our ears. Sound seeps through even the smallest holes. “In that case, the only way to avoid it is to cover the hole and place the plugs in another sector of the wall”.
Move furniture around
The basic principle says that mass absorbs sound. That is why Lopes recommends use the heaviest pieces in the construction of the dividing walls and ceilings. A good material would be the concrete, although it is not a solution that can be adopted by the inhabitants of a building that is already built. In any case, the principle also works in thin-walled houses and apartments.
One way to put it into practice to posterior is by placing, for example, a large closet or bookcase against the adjoining wall, as heavy furniture also absorbs sound. Other good advice refers to where to put the stereo, TV or speakerssince they should not be supported on the wall or directly on the floor.
The sound spreads through these contact surfaces, and the basses or the washing machine spinning will be heard very well in the neighbor’s house. It is worth noting that the devices are not attached to any direct surface in the apartment.
ceiling tile
When the disturbing noise is from the floor above, the solution may lie in placing a ceiling below the ceiling of the affected rooms. The sound will hit those pieces, will make them vibrate and the energy will be lost until it goes out.
Is about simple solutions that can be directly applied by the tenantalthough it is recommended resort to prior advice to avoid mistakes. The procedure is simple, but “it can go very wrong,” warns Lopes.
For example, if one takes a fixed suspension instead of an elastic one, “the ceiling will not fulfill its purpose”. Only flexible installation decouples the ceiling from sound.
The windows, a weak point
If the sound comes from the street, the big difference will be in the quality of the window. Insulated windows become an almost essential asset if the house is located on high-traffic avenuesin the near an airport or close to the tracks of a train.
“In practice, windows are often a weak point,” says Lopes. Exterior openings can muffle more or less sound depending on construction.
“What is decisive is not the material of the frame, but the type of manufacture of the window itself”. The bottom line is the quantity and method of installation of the insulating layers and the glass, in addition to the type of glass itself. The amount and thickness of the glass layers and the air chamber between the glasses will make the difference. There are seven noise levels. The first level reaches 55 decibels and it can refer, for example, to the sound that comes from the street. The seventh level is given when exceeding the 80 decibels and corresponds to an extreme sound exposure. Well-insulated windows usually have a soundproofing of between 40 and 45 decibels. The greater the acoustic insulation that you want to achieve, the greater the demands to achieve a good installation.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
