Soundproofing?

[Twofingertyper]

Hi all,

I recently moved house into a semi from a terrace and was looking forward to relative peace in comparison to living in-between two large families. Sadly, the walls in my new house seem to be paper thin - I can hear next door talking fairly often, and obviously when their dog barks it's all too clear - this would not be so much of a problem if I was not currently working from home, so perhaps more sensitive to noise than I would normally be if I was at home after work!

Are there any decent systems than can reduce noise by a good amount? The house used to have multiple chimneys, so I'd need something that could go around those whilst hopefully not taking up too much space.

I would speak with my neighbours, but it seems unreasonable to tell them to stop having conversations in the comfort of their own home (although oddly I never hear their TV/Radio)

Cheers,
TFT

 

[JohnD]

are there back-to-back fireplaces? Does the noise come through there?

 

[Twofingertyper]

The Fireplaces will be back-to-back because of the way the house is built; I did think it could have been part of the problem - but as the walls seem paper thin throughout the house (even in rooms where the fireplaces are covered) I thought it could be something else.

Another issue could be that the people who owned the house previously left a lot of half finished DIY projects of poor quality around, so much so that we had to have the electrics redone shortly after moving in - so I wonder if they made some alterations that were perhaps not well thought out.

Is there a way that I can check? The neighbours in the house opposite say they barely have any problems with noise, whilst I can hear when mine vacumn!

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

move to quieter house and save money and sanity sound transmition is really hard to stop anything solid transmits sound recently a client insisted on 300mm of rock wool in a suspended ceiling it made hardly any difference at all thats what your up against you cant cheat physics with wishfull thinking and DIYvoo doo

 

[Twofingertyper]

Moving house is not very cheap or easy! I've only been here 6 months as it is...

I do appreciate that it's hard to stop sound, but surely there are some methods that can be used to at least reduce the noise? I do think it's perhaps more of a job for professionals than me, but wondered if such things existed (Google suggests yes, but I would like personal recommendations too - Google suggests a lot of things are possible...)

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

Yes they do,Iv'e built sound studios designed by acustic engineers who never guarantee the outcome ,to stop sound you have to build a building within a building using density and or sound insulation ,isolating of the inner structure from the outer to stop sound transmisson as much as possible, windows, doors and air supply have their own problems .beware of people selling snake oil, there will be lots of them

 

[Twofingertyper]

Thanks - I thought that would be the case, had hoped that there would have been recent fancy acoustic developments that would allow clear identification of where sound comes from (mainly) and the best ways to fix it - but clearly far too optimistic!

The house was originally built in the 1930s; I had thought that the walls would have been slightly thicker (and typically there was no noise when we heard it...) it just seems odd that we never hear their TV, etc - but some conversations are almost as if they were in the next room, as opposed to on the other side of a dividing wall!

I'll research further, but by the sounds of things I'll have to be willing to lose room space for even a partial fix.

 

[foxhole]

With a terrace property simply opening a window will allow sound transmission with no way of prevention as the neighbours windows can be a few inches away and any rear extentions also help to bounce back the sound.

 

[Twofingertyper]

I accept that windows would present a different issue, but if I could find a solution that reduced sound transmission when everything is closed that would be a start!

Incidentally, I had less noise in the terrace (when indoors) than I do here!