Soundproofing neighbours.

jamie_128

We have only recently moved and i dont know if the lockdown is making it worse but we bought a detatched as we hate noise from the neighbours.

But everyday the kids are screaming and being loud in the garden next door, they arent doing anything wrong and the neighbours are lovely, but its really starting to grate as we cant really relax, the bit where we sit and is private is very close to the fence which seperates us and their patio area.

The current fence is a typical wooden posts, rails and fence boards with a small gap in between each one. 
Will anything help to reduce the noise? i was thinking of fitting rails on our side (posts are in our garden) and fixing boards on our side to double board it per say, will this help with the noise or is it a waste of money? 

mwarby

I think you are potentially going to waste a lot of money and not achieve much.

Sound is a pressure wave. a fence which blocks that pressure wave would have to be quite substantial (or the wind will have it over, if the wind passes through it so will sound). You’ll also have the issue of flanking, ie the sound will go round the side or over the top.

The thing about music/human voice or shouting is that our brain is very good at picking the sounds out, even at quite low levels.

You could try a dense fairly tall hedge(but this would also block light, and take time). You might also want to consider a water feature or similar which may produce enough noise to mask what comes through the hedge.

Also perhaps considering the age of the kids, ie are they likely to grow out of it soon and move to loud music in the house

TELLIT01

Nothing you can do will stop the noise from neighbours when you are outside.  I have some sympathy, as we had a family in a house behind us who have thankfully now moved.  One of their kids had a really high pitched scream when they were playing and that really grated on our nerves too.

jamie_128

I thought as much , oh well guess ill have to try and ignore it as much as possible. 

Rodders53

https://www.screwfix.com/c/safety-workwear/ear-defenders/cat850380  These will help reduce the sound - but they are designed to allow human voices through a bit (so you can hear a safety warning yell on site).

Or listen to music/white noise/ etc.,. via earphones?

wilfred30

I'm not being flippant but can you not sit somewhere else in your garden further away from the noise?

Ganga

Hopefully the children will be back at school after lockdown restrictions are lifted.

TELLIT01

wilfred30 said:

I'm not being flippant but can you not sit somewhere else in your garden further away from the noise?

Unless it's a huge garden it's almost impossible to get away from kids at full volume.  The one I referred to in my earlier post was nearly 200 feet away, but it was still like nails being dragged down a blackboard every time he/she screamed because is was so high pitched.

GDB2222

You can’t soundproof the garden. You can wear ear defenders, for a similar effect. However, by far the best way to deal with this is to condition yourself not to care. Just repeat a mantra to yourself a dozen times each morning. Something like “I like the sound of children playing, and I look forward to hearing them enjoying themselves.” Astonishingly, it works.

jamie_128

wilfred30 said:

I'm not being flippant but can you not sit somewhere else in your garden further away from the noise?

My gardens a good size but its just a normal garden not a field so the furthest point away i can sit is 10 metres and its just as loud and i have less privacy in that spot so no. 

WeAreGhosts

We have a noisy little neighbour too - I don't mind kids playing, but this one just runs around screaming and screaming - we installed a small water feature on our patio and when it's switched on my ears tend to block out other noise and the water noise is quite soothing. It takes your attention from the surrounding noise.