You’ve just brought your first home, and you love it. You have big plans for what you’re going to do, how you’re going to repaint the bathroom, change the landscaping to build a little herb garden.
Maybe you’re a little worried you might need to replace a potentially leaking gutter.
Then, just as you’re going to sleep for an early start on Saturday morning, your home echo’s with explosions, bangs, swearing, and some strange noise that makes your ribcage vibrate.
It is in this moment that you discover your next-door neighbors have teenage children, and these children are the regular hosts of LAN parties – including full noise subwoofers connected to their gaming machines.
It’s All About The Bass
A neighbor pumping out bass sound is not the best way to discover that your house does not have adequate soundproofing to filter it out.
Unfortunately, it is one of the hardest noises to eliminate.
As any DJ will tell you, that bass sound is what really gets the party going, it vibrates through everything.
Unfortunately for you, as the neighbor, it is going to vibrate right through your house too.
If it is just a one-off thing you might be able to grin and bear it, no one wants to start a war with the neighbors.
At least, not when you’d have to actually sell your house and find someone else to live if you lost the war.
While it is actually very rare to have a neighbor who will make noise every single night, having someone who’s lifestyle impinges on yours even just one Friday every month can get grating very quickly.
While you may be able to build a relationship with that particular neighbor and reach a happy compromise, if you own your house, a longer-term solution will be to start investigating your options regarding soundproofing so that you can live in blissful ignorance to the sounds around you.
You can also check this page to know about the importance of a noise-free environment for work and your health: https://zapier.com/blog/silence-health-productivity/
Start Sound Proofing
Thankfully you own the house, so your options are dramatically increased.
While there is no way to 100% remove noise in a standard living environment, you can certainly add products that will decrease it to a tolerable level.
Yes, there are lots of mats, drapes, tiles or noise emitters that can be used, but you really need a permanent long-term solution that will improve the quality of your life.
Most of the ‘easy to install’ options are designed for renters or people who otherwise can’t make modifications to their living environment.
These can all be an excellent way to increase your soundproofing efforts, but your first step is going to have to be to deal with the walls.
Sound Proofing Your Walls
First, let’s clear up one thing: without a building that has been designed by an acoustic architect (see here) to minimize noise and built using noise-cancelling materials, there is no aftermarket way to 100% soundproof your home.
However, we can reduce the noise and minimize the bass frequency that gets to you.
Unfortunately, you are going to reline at least one wall, and possibly the entire side of your house.
Ripping off the gibrock, installing noise reduction insulation batts, putting up soundproofing gibrock sheets, and sealing with sound glue may seem like a lot of work – and it is a bit, however, the long-term advantages that this work does will be immense.
Not only will having a really well build wall reduce the sounds that come into your home, but will actually make your house more energy-efficient as well – bonus!
Things That Vibrate
It is often something that people forget, but hanging certain objects on your wall increase the noise levels.
Metal plates can amplify sound, and decorative glass or china wall hanging can cause vibrations that will only start when they pick up the bass noise from your neighbors.
Even if you can’t really hear (or feel) the bass, you may find that you still can detect an annoying noise, so before you scream at your neighbors in frustration, just have a quick check to see what you have hanging on your walls.
Very lightly touching each object should be enough to sense if they are vibrating.