Soundproof a room

Explorer87

So I’ve moved into a rental place and my room is right at the front on a main road. I can sleep at night but not as well as I should.

Is there any soundproofing tips you can offer? 

Ta

knightstyle

What sort of windows are there?  There is a sort of secondary glazing film that reduces draughts and a helps a bit with noise.

MovingForwards

Thick curtains, make sure the trickle vent is closed and ear plugs are optional.

Norman_Castle

If the windows are upvc check the rubber seal around opening windows. One of my windows seemed to be letting in a lot of noise recently which was due to the seal not sealing. Try sliding a piece of paper between the seal and frame.

Explorer87

Yeah tried ear plugs but they don't stay in. I'm going to try curtains, just need to work out how to put them up.

SaintJudy

Swimmers earplugs work a treat for me, the squidgy silicon ones. They have the added benefit of not giving you that awful pressure feeling you can get from foam earplugs as well. You can get them from Boots and most big supermarkets but they look like this -  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicone-Reusable-Waterproof-Cancelling-Airplanes/dp/B08PBMR1S5

Ian_875

Explorer87 said:

Yeah tried ear plugs but they don't stay in. I'm going to try curtains, just need to work out how to put them up.

I've used earplugs for over 10 years now and after searching loads of types initially I now use 3M Classic

They're foam and you roll them into a sausage, push into ears and they expend. The 100% will not fall out.

Can get 20 pairs for £3.69 on ebay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40-x-3M-EAR-Classic-Foam-Ear-Plugs-FREE-UK-P-P-/230847878967) and if you put them in hot water after a few uses and pop on the raditor they go good as new again.

oldbikebloke

as you seem to be aware, given it is a rental don't fix things in place without discussing with your landlord first 

don't expect your landlord to pay for any extra fittings. You can ask, they can refuse.

princeofpounds

There will be two main sources of noise from the main road. One will be the rumbling, especially if you are on the ground floor. Not much you can do about this given the long wavelengths, without floating the room on acoustic-dampening supports.

The higher frequency noises you can do more about. Firstly understand that noise is transmitted disproportionately through gaps, even tiny ones. So closing trickle vents (though that can cause humidity problems, so you will need to ensure ventilation is ok), checking seals etc. is important. It's one reason why hanging heavy curtains alone won't have a big impact (but it all helps on the margin, and you need curtains anyway)

Noise is most effectively attenuated by interfaces between materials; an amount gets reflected at each boundary. It's very related to the acoustic property of the material and the distance between boundaries. One of the most effective things you can do is secondary glazing - it's actually more efficient than double glazing for blocking noise. That's why the glazing film can help a lot despite being remarkably flimsy, but if you're allowed to install another proper window frame that's even better. 

The best acoustic windows are triple glazed, with differing properties in the layers and not evenly spaced. The frames and the installation are just as important as the glass itself. I'm not suggesting you install that as secondary glazing - the improvement over secondary glazing would be marginal - it's just FYI.

Hopefully you'll find you get used to it fairly quickly anyway.

MovingForwards

There's no fix curtain poles, but I don't know how much weight they would hold.

CookieMonster

Explorer87 said:

Yeah tried ear plugs but they don't stay in. I'm going to try curtains, just need to work out how to put them up.

You can get 'fitted' ear plugs, which work almost perfectly: have a look on motorcycle websites and forums.
Of course, you won't hear the smoke alarm then...