Noise Insulation

Hello All,

I don't know if any knows about or has had any experience with insulating rooms against noise to protect very noise sensitive ME sufferers?

My daughter, Hannah, has deteriorated since first being diagnosed so that she is very sensitive to noise and light much of the time, sometimes acutely so. We are facing an existential crisis in that my neighbours, whose semi adjoins ours, are going to undertake a major extension to their house commencing in July. This could be utterly catastrophic for Hannah.

Our plan at the moment is to adapt the garage for her and we have been in touch with a firm which specialises in building noise proof pods in houses, primarily as music practice rooms. We have been talking with the very helpful owner of the company who has visited us and given advice. He has responded to our questions about adaptations for making the pod a bedroom for an ME sufferer rather than a protection for the outside world against a teenager with a drum set (EG things like installing air conditioning, heating). We are still checking out what level of noise might seep in from outside the pod and one or two other issues, but our contact is being very helpful and constructive and we are thinking of going ahead with his proposal.

I just wondered if anyone else has done this sort of thing and has any advice about things to avoid, things to go for etc? Is a pod the best route or is it better to modify the existing structure?

Any thoughts and comments gratefully received.

Kind regards,

Jonathan

 

I’ve recently put soundproofing up on the party wall of our house. Main issue being neighbours have put every single noisemaker on their side as humanly possible (piano, kitchen cupboards, one of those rustic barn door things that rumbles and vibrates as you pull it back and forth). I put the insulation don the main room that we live in since it was becoming a real nuisance, but mainly because we were having a lot of other work doing In that room. This involved creating a stud wall with acoustic insulation and acoustic plasterboard. It takes up about 50-80mm of your room away per wall.

It cost around £1500 inc vat. For a small area...but I would imagine you can get it cheaper. Most of the cost was the stud wall...the acoustic plasterboard is only a fraction of the cost more than normal, so I would always put this in if you are having work done.

Result...the tinkly piano (that really grates) is completely deadened and is noticeably reduced when you walk from a room that isn’t sound proofed to the one that is. The lower register sounds (banging of cupboards etc) is muffled but not completely eradicated unfortunately. This is probably partly due to leakage through other parts of the wall that I couldn’t insulate.

I’m having a large garage/outbuilding renovated as a ‘just-in-case I get worse ground floor room with bathroom’. My plan is to soundproof this also so I’m looking at other options to get an even better result. I will post here if I find out anything more.

 

I don’t have any experience with sound proofing but I do know someone who has a general builder promise to sound proof an extension for an ME sufferer. He failed to make much of a difference unfortunately so id recommend getting quotes from a few specialist companies rather than just general contractors.

I take it you’ve tried a decent set of noise cancelling headphones? I’m not sure if the pressure of them over her ears would be too uncomfortable though.

 

Found this which uses rubber with acoustic plasterboard ...and no stud wall

https://www.soundstop.co.uk/soundproofing/soundproofing-walls/Sm20-wall-solution4.php

 

Sound insulation performance is dependent on the frequency of the offending noise and the amount of " dissipation" that can be incorporated. Isolating the direct path ( via channels and fixings) helps significantly
some useful info is found on british gypsum site - link below.
https://www.british-gypsum.com/literature/white-book/sound-absorbing-solutions/gyplyner-universal
https://www.british-gypsum.com/white-book-system-selector/linings

 

@Grigor

 

Link to useful document explaining the various problems and solutions:

http://www.bre.co.uk/PDF/SOUNDINS_HOMES.PDF

 

We live in a semi and our neighbours are currently in the process of a loft conversion (in progress on and off since mid January and no end in sight). We bought these ear defenders for ourselves and for our adult son, who is the ME sufferer:

2M0008 3M Peltor X5A EU Ear Defenders Headband SNR37

https://www.arco.co.uk/products/2M0008

They don't cut out all the noise but have made the worst of the noise more tolerable. They are comfortable to wear and my son is able to lie down in them when resting during working hours.

You have my sympathy.

 

Hi Jonathan,

So sorry to hear that your daughter’s health has deteriorated and that you’re facing into a rough summer (and beyond). It’s great that you have advance notice that this is happening and that you’re mindful of how badly this will affect Hannah.

I have severe ME and noise sensitivity is one of my top symptoms. Last year, our terraced next-door-neighbour did an extension. We got no notice. When the noise started, I had both earplugs in (32 dB) and noise-cancelling headphones on, and the noise was so horrific that it’s hard to describe. Within a few minutes I was hysterically crying, cowering in a corner, begging the air for it to stop. I have never done any of those three things before. For instance, once workmen had to jackhammer right outside our front door and I was fine.

The entire house was shaking and I was being shaken with it. It was bone-rattling.

We had to stop the builder working. My husband spoke with the builder, who explained that the noise was going to get worse. We had no option but to move that evening to a relative’s house for the duration of the extension. I am completely housebound so this was a massive undertaking, and very stressful.

The neighbours one and two houses down the terrace described the noise over the ensuing weeks as unbearable, and stayed out of their houses as much as possible.

This all had a very bad effect on my ME. The first few months were so hard, with all symptoms flaring horribly. This was in a quiet house, i.e. this was the aftermath of being exposed to the noise for a couple of hours, and of the move. And a year on, back in our own house for ages, I’m at a lower level than I was pre-extension.

I think it could be a good idea to think about whether there might be other options for Hannah, either as well as or instead of the pod. I would be concerned that you could spend a lot of money on a pod and it may not be enough for her at all, at least in the early stages of the extension. It might be more like the equivalent of what I was wearing at the time, which was both foam earplugs (32dB) plus noise cancelling headphones which supposedly reduce by 45 dB at low frequencies and 20 dB at high frequencies. Or perhaps you’re looking at something far higher tech?

How about asking to visit one of these pods? Bring power tools/pots and pans. Have a friend create an unholy racket at the door and see what you can hear inside, knowing that the building noise will be much louder.

I have been in a soundproof booth before, long before I was sick. It cost hundreds of thousands. I don’t know whether it could have withstood the noise I was exposed to. Maybe?

You might be able to talk to your neighbour’s builder, explain the situation, and learn a bit about when the noisiest parts will be. Given that it’s happening in July, is there any possibility of relocating to someone else’s house even for a month to get Hannah through the worst of it? Maybe a friend who’s going on holidays? I know this would be very bad for her too, as it was for me, but it may still be preferable.

What’s good is that you still have plenty of time to explore options and put things in place for Hannah.

Wishing you and Hannah the very best of luck.

 

Mine too, not that that's much use A couple of years ago, when my caree had slipped into a horrible hyperanxious state in addition to the ME, we were unfortunate enough to have 4 loads of major building work going on, overlapping if not necessarily simultaneously, all within about 6 houses of us, to the right and left. It could be pretty horrendous at times, particularly when people were sanding (or polishing the cement floor - aagh!). Ear defenders made it more bearable, but certainly didn't block everything out, and the pair we had couldn't comfortably be worn lying down.

I'm sorry, this isn't actually much help with your query, is it?

 

Might be of interest: https://www.s4me.info/threads/noise-reduction-acoustic-vents.37011/

 

you sound like wonderful supporters for her. I went through years of daily extreme building work from all angles (projects rear and front) but it wasn’t party wall nextdoor stuff just 6projects surrounding me with other homes about 10-20m from me

one thing to be wary of with garage is vibration through concrete floor as the pneumatic drills, cement trucks and throwing of bricks into skips on concrete created bangs vibration-wise by travelling through the concrete road then I assume structure of home. I think different houses are different with this and my set up was unfortunate.

I remember reading some noise thing from a council (maybe Gloucestershire or somewhere) warning about how even if drummers played in eg a garage fir them to be aware the impact vibrations travel that way to surrounding homes. So useful you have the type of sound expert you have

I’d be conscious of where concrete trucks/pumpers or mixers and skips might get put vs the location you are choosing however. Those types of items I had to move to the farthest part of my home snd it was still vibrating

I don’t know where (ie party wall) or the type of renovation but know with many other things like drills when opposite if windows and doors would have been closed (instead after the first one opposite me every development opened all their front doors as the opposite side of the road asked for the back to be closed pushing the noise to me) it would have cut a lot of the sound. That annoyed me as I’d put up with the unavoidable parts where they were working on the front then got lumbered with noise when doing the back too. And length of time matters too if you finally get a rest at some point.

but it sounds sensible you are thinking of a plan that doesn’t rely on others goodwill.

 

Hi Jonathan, not seen you around here for a while, i hope Hannah is as well as she can be. I'm just wondering what you decided to do & if it worked well?