New double glazing, road noise has increased

Davesnave

You sound like my mother in law, who closes the window before mentioning the woman across the road.

I am in awe of this woman, who can, apparently, hear normal conversations inside buildings from a distance of well over 10 metres.

Truly amazing!

Hasbeen

Are you positive that there are not some kind of vent at the tops of windows? I was under the impression that dg companies fit these as a matter of course especially if there are any gas appliances in property.

Davesnave

Hasbeen wrote: »

Are you positive that there are not some kind of vent at the tops of windows? I was under the impression that dg companies fit these as a matter of course especially if there are any gas appliances in property.

New windows in new-built rooms must have trickle vents for building regs, but they are optional in replacement windows, though your DG company may well tell you otherwise.

Mine tried to.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

You sound like my mother in law, who closes the window before mentioning the woman across the road.

I am in awe of this woman, who can, apparently, hear normal conversations inside buildings from a distance of well over 10 metres.

Truly amazing!

I've seen one of the (worse than) nosy neighbours obviously reacting to a sound that happened in one of the rooms in my house when they were in the nearby road and, in reverse, heard them talking in the nearby road from inside that room - so...yep...that means I've got super-bad doubleglazing on the noise transmission front obviously.:(. Probably the only reason I wasn't able to make out the words they were saying is they talk to each other in a different language...

stator

If you really want to deal with the noise issue, then secondary glazing is much more effective. Unfortunately it's quite ugly and gets in the way a bit, but it really does work.

moneyistooshorttomention

Some rough ballpark figures for secondary glazing might be good to have:)

The only secondary glazing I can picture is of the old-fashioned metal sort. Do they make any that is more attractive and/or more contemporary?

Furts

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I shall watch this thread with interest - as I had doubleglazed windows in my last house and they made quite a difference to noise level. But - the ones that were here on this house have surprised me with the fact they don't feel like they are keeping any noise out at all (just as well its a pretty quiet location then:cool:). So - I do know from personal experience that different qualities of window make a difference.

I shouldn't be able to tell when conversations are happening nearby outside - but I can and I can stand outside my windows and hear my tv inside the room.

Am watching this for pointers as to what to look for come the time - as I've already decided these windows will be swopped for more "normal standard" ones whenever I eventually have the money to do so.

Accepted wisdom was the sealed units required two different glass thickness, and this was achieved by 6.4mm laminated and 4mm. It was said that two identical panes of 6.4mm would create a resonance, or amplification, along the lines of a drum.

However I am a little sceptical of this. In order to reduce sound the laws of physics are used in building. Mass has to be introduced, as in denser blocks, denser plasterboard, rubber mat layers on floors etc. Hence the logical move with windows is to have two heavy panes. I wonder if this is not done because standard windows cannot accept this and achieve the necessary U Value. A standard 4-20-4 becomes 6.4-15.2-6.4 which is reducing the gap by 25%.

A logical solution would be to investigate triple glazing - this would have more mass. But this could bring new problems.

stator

Furts wrote: »

Accepted wisdom was the sealed units required two different glass thickness, and this was achieved by 6.4mm laminated and 4mm. It was said that two identical panes of 6.4mm would create a resonance, or amplification, along the lines of a drum.

However I am a little sceptical of this. In order to reduce sound the laws of physics are used in building. Mass has to be introduced, as in denser blocks, denser plasterboard, rubber mat layers on floors etc. Hence the logical move with windows is to have two heavy panes. I wonder if this is not done because standard windows cannot accept this and achieve the necessary U Value. A standard 4-20-4 becomes 6.4-15.2-6.4 which is reducing the gap by 25%.

A logical solution would be to investigate triple glazing - this would have more mass. But this could bring new problems.

The resonance thing is true. You can try it for yourself. Every pane of glass has a resonance frequency. By using two panes of the same thickness the same frequency will pass through both panes, so when hit with a range of fequencies from a road you can be sure that one part of the noise will get through both panes. If they are different thicknesses then the resonance from one pane will be filtered out by the other and visa-versa.

Most secondary glazing I've seen is plastic, UPVC type stuff but I'm sure you can get wood frame too.

Ben84

It's possible your windows are behaving differently to the old ones. Differing thickness glass panes do absorb and allow through different sound frequencies. Perhaps your old windows (by design, or chance) had a thickness that was better at blocking the noises you're noticing.

chickenpie81

Hi all,

Have called Anglian to complain and they are going to send an engineer out to assess the windows.

Thanks for all your advice!