Soundproofing

[Marthe48]

If you soundproof a room, can you just soundproof an outer wall, or should you plan to do the whole room? There is too much street noise and while I'd like to move, not many prospects in my area right now.

Thanks for any advice.

[marble falls]

1. One word ...

Tapestry.

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Actually, just sealing a window and putting a storm window on the inside will seriously cut out door noise.

[Marthe48]

4. Thank you

We put new double pane windows in a few years ago. I don't think they help.

I wouldn't mind tapestry. I'll probably end up wearing earplugs.

Thank you for the advice

[ZZenith]

2. You'll need to define "soundproof."

An actual soundproof room involves building a building within a building, with none of the inside walls touching the outside walls.

You can float your drywall on metal channels that somewhat detach the drywall from the framing but it will still allow a lot of outside sound in. Also, all windows will need to be doubled with the interior ones angled at least 5 degrees from the outside.

Soundproof is EXPENSIVE! You can add layers of drywall directly on top of what’s already there, which will help because mass defeats acoustic waves but the framing of the walls will still transmit energy to the inside.

Hope that helps - happy to explain anything that didn’t make sense.

[Marthe48]

3. I saw soundproofing material

online when I looked the other day. I wondered if I could just line the wall facing the street.

We put new end boards on the house and new windows, double pane. The windows were supposed to help.

Thank you for the information.

[ZZenith]

6. I won't say it won't help but the results are almost sure to disappoint.

The term “soundproofing” gets thrown around a lot but traffic noise will carry a lot of energy and find its way in, short of some serious remodeling. Putting an extra pane of glass on the inside of the windows at an angle will help, as will adding more layers of drywall or lining the entire wall with cork board.

It cost me $40,000 to make my recording room soundproof but I can still feel and hear the trucks and buses through the ground.

[sorcrow]

5. Insulation....

We had our house insulated using blown-in cellulose and one of the pleasantly unexpected side effects was a huge reduction in road noise. Actual results will depend on a lot of factors.

Regards,
Sorghum Crow