road noise / wall insulation

williams55

Hoping ye people can help . Ive recently moved home and im finding the road noise to be somewhat of a pain . Im keen to reduce it down and was wondering has anyone ever tackled this . my first thought is get the cavity wall insulation as i know its not done . Secondly ive got double glazing hardwood frames but the glazing is misting hence its the seals must be breaking down . Im thinking of replacing the glass only as the frames are are good . Theres also a air vent every 2 foot around the eves of the attic , im thinking this is overkill and maybe i could cover half of them up . Bearing in mind we are talking considerable costs , it will take time before before i can do all of this . I paid for the big house survey and the surveror failed to pick up on the glazing , even though i complained they say that is was raining at the time and therefore any remedial works will be at my expense . Whats the best way to get rid of the road noise ( me thinking i may have bought a white elephant ) . Whos the best in Northern Ireland for the cavity wall and also the glazing
Help .....

Volcano

Triple glazing would be the best for reducing noise though it won't be cheap. An internal stud wall with insulation behind it would help for the wall/s facing traffic.

coolagarry

I agree entirely with your conclusions williams. I found that by installing double glazing and cavity wall insulation it had a major effect on outside noise.
I dont know about the attic problem - I would be a bit careful about messing with air circulation as you could end up with damp, but I would have thought that the attic was the farthest point in the house away from the noise so just keep the doors closed.
As far as best prices are concerned I'm afraid I dont have any local knowledge about your area so cannot assist

ginger_nuts

I was in Jurys hotel in Dublin recently and they had installed TWO double glazing units on each window .The second was a recent installation and was about 8cm from the origional window .It made a big difference to the noise level .

Feej_2

As gingernuts says, secondary double glazing is good for sound insulation. I used to live in a house near a new road scheme and the council had had to put extra glazing into all property within a certain distance as part of the planning requirement. They used a 10cm/4in optimum distance between panes for soundproofing which was very effective.

It can be a bit unsightly but is much more effective than just the gap of a few mm you usually get.

Eaves ventilation is important in preventing rot to your roof timbers, so be careful about reducing it in any way - doesn't seem much point. Just make sure there's plenty of loft insulation up there.

Good luck,
Feej

Emma79

On a similar subject.... does anyone know if cavity wall can be used inbetween houses? My neighbours are very loud (tv, screaming kids etc), and we've been wanting to have cavity wall insulation to keep the heat in, but didn't know if it could be used to keep the noise out?
For info, our house is a 1949 brick built semi.

economiser

The first thing is to make sure their are no air gaps. Noise will come through the smallest of gaps. Trickle vents and air bricks can be a problem. Acoustic double glazing should be wide spaced for best effect. Something like 100mm (4in) to 150mm (6in). Secondary glazing might be the answer. That explains the arrangement in the Jury hotel in Dublin as in earlier post.

I wouldn't have thought cavity insulation would help much unless it if blocking air gaps.

ormus

secondary glazing with a big gap will be a great help.
stud walls with extra insulation will be the next thing to do. there is special sound proofing insulation available too.
i seem to remember that there is a panel product available that is already assembled and comes in 8x4 sheets. (about 2 ins thick).

Avoriaz

Emma79 wrote: »

... does anyone know if cavity wall can be used in between houses? .

Unfortunately it is unlikely that there is a cavity between you and next door. The primary purpose of a cavity wall is to prevent damp penetration, which is not a consideration for party walls.

Your only likely option is to install surface mounted sound insulation to your walls.

Avoriaz

If you do get new double glazed units, enquire about having different thickness of glass for the inner and outer panes as this helps reduce sound penetration.

When the panes are the same thickness, they have similar sound resonance properties. Traffic noise and other outside sounds make the outer pane resonate and this is transmitted to the inner pane which vibrates in sympathy and transmits the sound into the room.

Different thicknesses of glass significantly reduce this.

sarahlouise210

We live on a busy main road - white elephant yes..but looks like we are stuck here ...so..we applied to have cavity wall insulation as a starter under the warm front grant. They turned up - said that they could not park their van on the road outside and that is the last we have herad from them !! I contacted them to see of any companies will stop outside out house on a main road but have had no reply. Everyone in this street has had to move in..surely the van cant be bigger than that ?????