Too much noise from wall mounted tv

[angusgray]

Hi, my neighbors have a tv mounted on out adjoining wall and the noise leakage is unbearable, both in the front room and our bedroom above.
We need to speak to them but is there some way of mounting a tv that limits the amount of noise coming through. I envisage some kind of rubber grommit or such like.
There is a large range of frequencies coming through, mostly bass but a lot of mid too (we can often understand what is going on)

Anyother advice/suggestions are welcome.

 

[DutchQuarterOwen]

Hi Angus

I don't think there is much you could do to reduce the noise levels.

You could suggest a rubber "gasket" or sheet mounted behind the actual wall plate, but I don't really think it would make much difference. At a guess most of the transferred sound is going to be coming directly through the fixings into the brick/block. Another thing to maybe try is rubber washers between the main wall fixings and the bracket. Might be worth a go? Have never had to do it so couldn't say for definate, just a suggestion!

Another option is to have a chat with your neighbour and politely ask them to adjust the bass/treble settings and turn it down at night!!!

 

[ChrisFrost]

Sound travels by air and by vibration. Dealing with vibration means decoupling the noise source from the wall. The most cost-effective way is rubber mountings as DutchQuarterOwen suggests. These would be fixed between the bracket and the TV, and also between the bracket and the wall.

Dealing with airborne sound pollution usually involves adding a damping mass to the walls and ceiling. The most accessible product for that purpose is Dynamat. It's used by the car hifi boys to kill sound leakage from big car stereo rigs. Halfords sell it. Trouble is it's hellishly expensive LINK £14.90 gets you about 2 sq ft and not easy to disguise. The regular soundproofing materials I use for studios and home cinemas costs a lot less but is designed for installation before the wall is plaster boarded. Fitting it means ripping open the walls.

What you need is a retro-fittable product that can be applied to the surface of the walls or ceiling and then decorated over. Such a product does exist and it's something I use regularly where sound breakthrough is a problem with existing rooms. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention names, but it costs about a fiver a square foot and comes in 8ftx4ft sheets.

Try the rubber washers first. If it doesn't reduce the problem significantly then drop me a line and I'll give you more info.

regards

Chris

 

[FourFootMedia]

Get your neighbours to move their TV to another wall.

 

[Gees]

Or buy them a hearing aid

Noise can be a serios problem. Have a quiet ( sic ) word before calling your local council.

 

[GRC]

If the TV is wall-mounted on the party wall, and it has built-in speakers, those speakers may well be on the back of the TV, and pointing toward the wall. If this is the case, no amount of fiddling with their tone controls will help, and unless they turn it WAY down, you'll still be bothered by it.

Rubber grommets will have NO effect if this is the case, as what you're hearing isn't caused by vibration through the mounting, it's caused by the speakers moving the air in their room, which in turn moves the party wall, transmitting the movement to the air in your rooms.

The only way to cut down what reaches you in this case is to cut down the volume in their room, or increase the mass of the party wall so that it doesn't move so much when excited by the air movement in their room.

Get them to connect their TV to an outboard HiFi, and have them turn down the TV itself. If the separate speakers are floor mounted and point away from the party wall, toward the viewers next door, that might help.

Or, as prev poster said, get them to move the TV off the wall. Invite them to turn it up, then invite them into your home to sample what it sounds like. They may see sense when they realise what you're hearing.

 

[oilman]

Time to resurrect this topic. Many more TVs must be on walls since 2009, and I wonder how many problems they are causing, and if there is a simple solution yet.

I have new neighbours, and up went a TV on the party wall. I wonder if there should be a party wall agreement for mounting TVs on the party wall, because I would object. The noise coming through the wall into both of our ground floor rooms, and when I've been to listen, into the first floor bedroom, is really irritating. It is only the low frequencies coming though, but it really disturbs the what used to be peace and quiet.

Has anyone had the problem and solved it easily? I have spoken to them and I have kept records for the past few weeks, but nothing has improved except when they are out of the house. My next step is to contact the council, as I suspect they are probably used to this problem nowadays.

 

[Sam Gangee]

As Chris stated, there are engineering solutions but they aren't cheap and they aren't 100% guaranteed. Best engineering solution is to get the TV removed from the wall.

Councils have a duty to stop noise when it's obtrusive. Generally they use measurement but they also do a subjective listening test if the measurement is inconclusive. The neighbours would be subject to a noise curfew (typically 11pm till 8am) which, if ignored, would lead to prosecution.

Many years ago I had a similar problem. We sold our house and moved to a detached house. Later we discovered that the girl who bought it was a lively character who had parties nearly every night till 3am. Poetic justice!

 

[oldcardriver]

You could use lead sheet, maybe lead flashing that they put on roofs will do, I Googled "lead sheet" and found this:-

http://www.midlandlead.co.uk/products/soundproofing.html

Perhaps have a word with them and your neighbour, buy some lead and make a gasket out of it so that your neighbour can put it between the TV brackets and the wall.

Strange, I just answered another post with a similar answer.

 

[SFPerson]

My neighbors are also friends, but asking them to take down their wall mounted TV and re-instal it with some of the suggested tools mentioned in this message board would be awkward especially if it didnt help with the sound.

My neighbors are below us, we share that same family room wall. The bass from their TV seems to come right up the wall and into our family room.

If they were to purchase a sound bar or something that would push the sound out through the front of the TV and not back toward the wall. Would this help alleviate the noise we hear?

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Yenob]

The TV is connected to the TV mount with metal screws. The mount is attached to the wall with metal bolts or screws. The sound is using these connections to transfer the noise into the wood or masonry structure. The solution is to stop or dampen this transfer. There are many types of dampening fasteners. I have used many of these to attach garage door lifting equipment and they have proved very effective in reducing the vibrations. There are even very large gel or fluid filled types which we use under roof top mounted HVAC units. I am in the process of determining which dampeners to use in a vertical application.

 

[bernardgreen]

The TV is connected to the TV mount with metal screws.

The TV WAS ( in 2013 ) connected to the TV mount with metal screws. In the past 4 years the problem may have been resolved.

 

[Lucid]

I suspect the neighbours were found mysteriously impaled on a sound bar and bludgeoned with a TV