Reducing Road Noise in Home 1

[Maui]

I've got a project to reduce the interior noise level in a residential home in upstate New York that sits roughly 100 feet off of a relatively busy state road. While cars and trucks both produce noise, the most annoying part of the intrusion is in the form of low frequency vibrations from passing trucks. The home is insulated with fiberglass, and there is a two car attached garage with an uninsulated garage door. There is a fair amount of noise penetration through this folding garage door. There is plenty of room in the front yard for planting trees, and this is certainly one consideration. Does anybody have any practical suggestions about how to reduce the noise level inside the home? One thought that I had was to plant Douglas Fir trees, or maybe blue spruce trees in front of the home close to the road to try and disperse or block some of the noise close to the point of origin. Your thoughts?

 

[hacksaw]

there are federal standards governing the noise treatment that has proven success

 

[diamondjim]

Do you have any idea of how much noise
is being amplified thru the bed rock.
Isn't this true of that area? I assume
this is a basement home.

 

[okdb]

Hi,

We've been involved in hundreds of houses and got what we could call a good experience in that field.

First, forget trees, ABSOLUTELY no use. O,00000 dB attenuation.

Second, if the house is standing a 100 feet form the road, there's little chance that there's a vibration problem. Worst case, some "impact vibrations" form trucks "jumping" because og the irregularities of the road could happen, but this would'nt generate noise, just "shaking" for a second or 2.

Third, if it's low frequencies that dominate, look first at the windows since it's the weakest point. Standard isolated (sometimes called "thermos&quot glass is 4mm glass-12mm air/gas-4mm glass. You need to skift the windows with ticker glass. let's say 8 glass-12air-6 glass. That would increase the sound insultation for the WINDOWS for about 28 dB to about 35 dB. The walls too could be a problem. Might be necessary to remove the exterior finish and skrew a gipsum board. At least that.

Anyway, like you see, that will cost many $$$. Talk to an expert, a real acoustician. DO NOT listen to entrepreneurs og windows sellers with supper dupper products.

hope that will help,
OkdB

 

[diamondjim]

I have noticed that the trailer parks
in this area use a raised bank or mound
near the property line. I assume this
is what it is for other than cosmetic
or privacy reasons.

 

[okdb]

You're right Diamondjim, it's possible to install a screen. A "hill" can do the job. To be effective the top of the screen has to be somewhere about 2m higher than the sound source. For trucks with exhaust on topp as in America, that means that the sound source is about 3m above ground. In Europe, the exhaust is under the truck. Easier to cope with.

okdB

 

[plasgears]

There is joist isolator made from sheet metal that worked for me in an industrial setting. I sound proofed a plant office with these isolators, and the sound level inside really took a nose dive. It means building another wall inside existing walls and installing isolator material above cielings. Windows are thick double pane. Don't overlook the effect of door seals all around.

The low freqs are hard to control. It takes major effort on several fronts to get improvement in perceived sound.

 

[okdb]

If you're going to build a wall inside, that doesn't matter wether you use wood or steel joist fi the joists er totally separated form the existing wall. But, back to origine of the problem, check with the authorities for noise regulation. You're certainly not the only one that problem.

OkdB