Looking to reduce road noise from old double glazing

dr_bogenbroom

FreeBear said:

Type of existing windows, and do they have trickle vents ?

Single glazed will be poor at stopping noise, and trickle vents will let quite a bit through. If you are looking at replacing just a couple of windows facing the road, and you don't have trickle vents already, you can get away without having them in the new ones. Some installers will tell you that trickle vents are mandatory, they are not unless already fitted. Building Regulations say that trickle vents can be omitted where the windows face sources of heavy noise (e.g. a busy road), and there is also a cop out if you are replacing fewer than (I think) 25% of the windows.

Double glazed will cut down on noise, and triple glazed is supposedly better.

@FreeBear about the trickle vents - they do seem to let in a lot of noise even when closed! I’m wondering if I can remove these from existing windows? 

FreeBear

dr_bogenbroom said:

FreeBear said:

Type of existing windows, and do they have trickle vents ?

Single glazed will be poor at stopping noise, and trickle vents will let quite a bit through. If you are looking at replacing just a couple of windows facing the road, and you don't have trickle vents already, you can get away without having them in the new ones. Some installers will tell you that trickle vents are mandatory, they are not unless already fitted. Building Regulations say that trickle vents can be omitted where the windows face sources of heavy noise (e.g. a busy road), and there is also a cop out if you are replacing fewer than (I think) 25% of the windows.

Double glazed will cut down on noise, and triple glazed is supposedly better.

@FreeBear about the trickle vents - they do seem to let in a lot of noise even when closed! I’m wondering if I can remove these from existing windows? 

Ah, so you have them fitted already... Oh poo. Any replacement windows would need them unless you can find an installer willing to turn a blind eye.

Whilst the existing vents can be removed, you'll be left with some ugly holes that have been drilled through the frames. Expanding foam is good for filling holes.

RAS

We inadvertently massively reduced traffic noise by installing secondary glazing in a bedroom and ground floor room facing the main road. Done as a temporary measure for temperature control reasons, it paid dividends when the road was upgraded and large estates built nearby. 

dr_bogenbroom

RAS said:

We inadvertently massively reduced traffic noise by installing secondary glazing in a bedroom and ground floor room facing the main road. Done as a temporary measure for temperature control reasons, it paid dividends when the road was upgraded and large estates built nearby. 

Aside from trying curtains secondary glazing seems to be the next choice - looks wise is it ok? 

Albermarle

This was the hotel I stayed in. You can see the secondary glazing in some of the photos.

Our Rooms - Burford Lodge Hotel, Hotel in Burford

dr_bogenbroom

Albermarle said:

This was the hotel I stayed in. You can see the secondary glazing in some of the photos.

Our Rooms - Burford Lodge Hotel, Hotel in Burford

Actually looks pretty tasteful - it’s our long term home and if it makes life that little bit more comfortable I couldn’t care (although I’ve to get approval from the Mrs first and that’ll be a hard sell)

Jolaaled

I kept my older double glazing and added sliding secondary heating with acoustic glass. It transformed my life! No traffic noise ..just a murmur from the tractors...best thing ever. 

dr_bogenbroom

Jolaaled said:

I kept my older double glazing and added sliding secondary heating with acoustic glass. It transformed my life! No traffic noise ..just a murmur from the tractors...best thing ever. 

When you say heating do you mean glazing or am I not understanding? Either way that sounds like a great result!

Grenage

I used expanding foam in the trickle vents at my last place, and that made the world of difference for noise. 

I also made some DIY secondary glazing on some original single glazed windows.  It was done to stop the cold, but it made quite a difference to noise too.

Chrysalis

Grenage said:

I used expanding foam in the trickle vents at my last place, and that made the world of difference for noise. 

I also made some DIY secondary glazing on some original single glazed windows.  It was done to stop the cold, but it made quite a difference to noise too.

I have considered this but read it can break the glass so backed out of it.

Traffic noise is a weird one for me, sometimes I barely hear it like my ears adjust, and I have gotten used to it as a ambient sound when sleeping.  However my road is an emergency vehicles route, so can get the occasional sirens and I am right next to a junction.

The junction used to be a mini roundabout which meant cars were mostly not having to stop and accelerate again, they changed it to traffic lights which are favourable to the side street so they cycle a lot.  Luckily the pedestrian crossing on it doesnt beep, and most people crossing dont press the button as well as there is still an island in the middle.

The emergency vehicles around here often suddenly turn on their sirens when they approaching the junction, which to me is a lot worse than if they on continuously before they get here and the sound gradually ramps up rather than coming out of nowhere, over a decade later I still sometimes jolt to them suddenly turning them on.  They usually use just lights at night luckily.

Overall the biggest annoyance is the people round here addicted to riding old motorbikes round in circles all day long at the highest revs possible, they do things like accelerate for about 50-100m, stop then accelerate for another 100m stop, continuously for several hours.  There is also one bike that has a really loud misfire after each rev, of course he does the same rev stop, rev stop thing, so there is a misfire for each rev cycle whilst he is doing that.  Most of this activity is in the summer, and in summer they can do it all the way through the night.

When I put in some black out thermal curtains they actually surprisingly did reduce the effect of the quiet traffic noticeably.  Which has made me more open to other potential DIY tricks on reducing noise ingress.