About Sound Proofing

Soundproofing a room is generally concerned with the stoppage of vibrations from exiting outside the walls as well as limiting the influence of external sounds attempting to penetrate into the room. The process of soundproofing a room is relatively easy. What is not so simple is soundproofing the room to the exact degree you might want.

Benefits

There are many reasons to soundproof all or part of your home. The most obvious is if you or a child is a musician and wants to rehearse without complaints from other family members. Another benefit to soundproofing comes if you are a light sleeper who is constantly awakened by sounds during the night. Or perhaps you have an elderly or infirm relative staying with you now who needs the kind of peace and quiet that standard construction simply cannot bring.

Misconceptions

The biggest misconception about soundproofing is related to the absorption of sound. Placing items such as mattresses or carpeting on the walls in order to absorb sound and keep it from escaping sounds perfectly valid in theory and it does have some value if you are merely attempting to keep sound from escaping outward because it acts to reduce the echoing effect. On the other hand, absorption will have little to no effect on keeping sound from the outside coming seeping into a room.

Identification

Soundproofing at its basic level is akin to insulation of sound. Sound travels in waves and these waves go out in all directions from the source until they collide with some kind of resistance. This resistance can be a wall or a person or the ceiling or floor. The effect of hitting these items of resistance can be an echo, reverberation or distortion. The job of soundproofing is essentially to prevent these effects or at least reduce the intensity.

Walls

The cheapest and easiest way for a homeowner to soundproof the walls inside the house is simply to add more drywall. This is not the kind of solution that someone looking to create an ideal soundproof a recording studio, but for the average homeowner a thicker layer of drywall and the addition of fiberglass insulation inside the wall cavity can do wonders to sound from coming in or going out.

Windows

The biggest headache for most homeowners when it comes to sound problems getting in from the outside is windows. Fortunately, solving this problem is also pretty easy. Begin by investing in double-paned windows and then make sure that the window frame seals completely when closed. Sliding glass doors are often a source for sound pollution inside the house and the best way to deal with this problem, though perhaps not the most inexpensive, is to invest in high quality soundproof sliding glass doors.

Traffic Noise

The rise of the interstate highway system combined with urban sprawl has created millions of houses that must deal with the annoyance of traffic noises. Many houses are able to benefit from soundproofing walls built by the state, but there are many households that do not. The best way to soundproof against this kind of noise is to begin with a tall wooden fence. The fence should then be supplemented with trees, preferably some kind of evergreen or conifer: something with thick, heavily forested limbs. The strategy here is to place as much resistance as possible between the home and the source of the noise.

Potential

The future of soundproofing may be arriving by way of Spain and taking the form of crystals. Spanish scientists have been conducting research into using particles they term sonic crystals that allegedly are capable of actually guiding sound waves around them. This has the effect of preventing the reflection or even the transmission of sound waves. In its purest sense, these sonic crystals may one day have the effect of making objects in a room invisible to the waves of sound.