Reduce Noise in a Room or an Entire House – The Complete Guide

Tips on keeping unwanted noise out of your house

Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary: a haven of quiet and comfort where you can unwind, relax, and go to sleep soundly no matter what your neighbors are up to. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

If you live next to a busy street or freeway, for instance, ambient sounds from traffic can sneak into your house all day long. Maybe your new neighbors are just a bit too loud for comfort, and they’re somehow oblivious to your polite requests to keep it down on Saturday morning. Alternatively, you might live near a business center, construction site, or other noise sources. All that unwanted noise can make it tough to enjoy your time at home, let alone get good sleep!

No matter the specifics, you can save your ears (and your sanity) with the right tricks and home renovations. Read on to learn how to reduce noise through walls, windows, and more.

Exterior noise reduction – fences and trees

Depending on where you live, your home might be subject to “exterior noise intrusion.” Technically, this is a form of pollution. It directly affects the indoor environmental quality, or IEQ, since it can impact the health and well-being of home occupants.

Despite Athens maintaining ordinances to minimize audible noises near homes, ambient sounds from cars, kids, and construction work feels omnipresent for many homeowners. You can take matters into your own hands with exterior noise reduction renovations.

Set up a fence around your property

The right fence can not only boost curb appeal and serve as a safety measure when letting the dog outside. It can also stop soundwaves from the street or surrounding properties from getting indoors. You might be surprised at how effective a fence can be at protecting your yard and home from excess noise. But be sure to make it tall enough!

Plant some trees or shrubs

Just like houses on isolated prairies have trees to shield them from the wind, you can set up plants around your home to shield your property from unwanted soundwaves. Plus, you’ll improve your house’s curb appeal and make your yard look even better.

Keeping it quiet indoors

Some homeowners might not be able to build fences or plant trees if they don’t have the space or time. If that’s the case for you, good news. There are plenty of ways you can reduce the amount of noise indoors. To do that, you’ll target two of the most common areas for sound to leak in from outside: doors and windows.

Swap to a soundproof door

The type of doors you have massively affects how much noise gets into your home, especially when it comes to your entry door.

Most doors have hollow cores made from honeycombed cardboard placed inside softwood frames, leaving empty air space for sound to travel through. Since there’s not a lot of material to block sound movement in these doors, they can ironically amplify some soundwaves by acting like drums.

In contrast, solid core doors are denser, so they absorb sound more effectively. To double down on noise reduction throughout the home, you should install one or more soundproof doors. Soundproof doors are solid, or mostly solid, and can feature soundproofing rubber or door gaskets. These additions fill in the empty spaces between doors and door frames to shut sound out for good.

Alternatively, consider storm entry doors to shield your home against noise and the heavy winds and rainfall Athens skies can throw at you from time to time.

Upgrade to soundproof windows

Windows are even more responsible than doors for letting tons of unwanted noise into the home, particularly if they are single-pane windows. Fortunately, no matter the style or type of windows you prefer, you can replace your current ones with soundproof alternatives.

Soundproof windows block extra noise by:

• Using thicker glass materials, such as laminated glass. As a bonus, thicker glass windows are often more energy efficient since they keep cool or warm air inside the home, reducing the burden on your AC or heater.
• Using insulation materials, such as gasses, between individual windowpanes. This is seen with double windows.

Tired of hearing traffic outside? Or want to make Athens’ storm season between March and June a little more bearable? Simply installing a few double-pane windows is oftentimes enough to make a huge difference in reducing noise from an outside window.

The proof lies in window STC ratings. STC, or sound transmission class ratings, run from 18 to 38, with higher ratings representing better sound reduction qualities. Single-pane windows typically have STC ratings of between 26 and 28.

In contrast, double-pane windows have STC ratings of 30+! While two points may not seem like a big deal, higher STC ratings significantly improve how quiet your home feels regardless of what goes on outdoors.

Insulate the garage

If you really want to fortify your home against intrusive sound, there’s one more trick you can try: garage door insulation. When you step into your garage, you probably notice just how much sound echoes in that space. It’s easy for sound to sneak into the garage, then slip through the door connecting the garage to your home.

You can fix that with the right replacement garage door. For example, the Amarr series of garage doors are available in single, double, or triple layer insulated steel variants. Those layers of insulation are effective not only at keeping sound outside where it belongs. They’re also good for:

• Protecting your garage against major storms.
• Keeping noise in the garage from getting outside. Invite the band over for practice, work on your motorcycle, or enjoy any other loud hobby in your garage guilt-free once you install a thicker garage door!

How to soundproof a full room

No matter how noisy it gets outside, there are ways to keep things quiet and cozy indoors. But what if you don't need to keep sound outside and instead need to keep it contained in a single room?

There are lots of reasons why you might need to soundproof a room, including:

• You want to set up a podcast or recording studio for your side gig or second career
• You want to enjoy movies or video games with the volume turned all the way up!
• You need a quiet space for your home office without the noise from family life intruding

No matter your goals, you can soundproof an entire room by:

• Replacing any windows in that room with soundproof alternatives as described above
• Replacing the door to that room with a solid core variant
• Installing some door gaskets or soundproofing rubber in between the door itself and the door frame

If you're trying to set up a recording studio, don’t stop there. The next big step to reducing noise through walls is to line the walls with noise-canceling curtains or acoustic-grade drapes. These are made of thick fabric, which can stop noise in either direction. Alternatively, stick some acoustic foam pads on the walls to prevent noise from coming in or getting out.

Find noise reducing windows and more

With the right replacement doors and windows, you can keep out the chaotic noise of the road or your neighbors and enjoy peace and quiet when you come home. You don’t have to pick them out – or install them! – alone.

Window World of Athens can help you find the right replacement windows, garage doors, and more in no time. Plus, we can provide expert advice to ensure you get the ideal renovations for your home’s style and curb appeal. Contact us today for a free quote!