From traffic to police sirens, pets, pedestrians, and more, highly populated areas must balance the convenience of city living with the noise pollution that comes with it. However, it’s not just city-dwellers who are concerned about excessive noise in their neighborhoods.
No matter how quiet a suburb or neighborhood appears on the surface, there’s always the potential for noise from neighbors, passing vehicles, and neighborhood kids.
Excessive noise can be a major turn-off for both renters and buyers. If you’re a developer, contractor, landlord, or real estate agent it isn’t enough to accept the noise for what it is and move on. Instead, it’s essential to make sure your properties remain as quiet as possible.
A primary way to do just that—and boost your sales, rental, development, or building opportunities—is to soundproof your residential properties.
How Does Soundproofing Work?
Most commercial soundproofing utilizes a form of fiberglass or foam insulation within the walls of the home. Insulation provides an additional barrier through which sound must travel before entering the house from the outside or exiting.
As a benefit, this insulation also protects the home against severe temperature fluctuations which can reduce energy bills.
Advanced soundproofing technology involves the use of custom sound decoupling devices within the home’s walls. These devices are attached to studs and joists and are further covered by metal hat channels or wood in the form of furring strips.
These layers serve to reroute noise vibrations that are attempting to enter or exit the home.
There is a silicone core within the sound decoupling devices where it transforms sound into harmless heat energy.
Why Should You Soundproof?
Soundproofing a residential home offers its residents several benefits, which ultimately translates into a house that is more attractive to a buyer or renter and more profitable for you.
Soundproof your residential homes to achieve the following:
Reduced Noise Transmission From Outside
Whether the residence is a single-family home in a suburb or a unit in a multi-family building downtown, the opportunities for noise disturbances entering the house from outside are high. Soundproofing offers protection from noises ranging from vehicle and air traffic to pedestrians, and more.
Decreased Noise Transmission From Room to Room
Many residents soundproof the interior of their homes to prevent the loudest portions from disturbing those within it. Soundproofing can eliminate conversation, music, appliances, and more.
Adherence to Local Regulations
Preventing resident’s noise from disturbing the rest of the neighborhood or building is just as important as blocking outside noise from within.
Many jurisdictions have instituted noise pollution laws to deter residents from disrupting others, and adding soundproofing is a great way to ensure your residential dwellings adhere to these laws.
Enhanced Privacy
Another concern related to noise leaking from the interior of a residence is the potential for privacy concerns that arise when others can overhear personal conversations, phone calls, and other interactions between the home’s residents.
Soundproofing ensures the interior activities within the homestay as private as your residents would expect.
Increased Ability to Work and Focus
Now that more workers have begun telecommuting from home, a quiet home environment is essential for continued employment for most people.
Soundproofing prevents interior and exterior noises from disturbing professionals and students working at home. Creating a quiet space is important because it can lead to heightened focus and productivity.
Improved Health and Safety
Excessive noise can harm residents’ health in several ways. This includes lack of sleep, hearing loss, increased blood pressure, and other heart issues related to prolonged noise exposure.
Soundproofing a residential home eliminates the contribution of noise to these health concerns.
Professional-level Entertainment Capabilities
Today’s renters and prospective homeowners get more of their entertainment at home than ever before. Installing a top-quality, soundproof home theater or game room area can serve to block out distracting sounds from the exterior as well as keep movie and music noise within.
For residences that will host other noisy activities—such as automotive hobbies, dance rehearsals, and more—a soundproofed home can allow participants to practice as they desire without disturbing others.
Adding soundproofing to your developer’s, contractor’s, or real estate agency’s residential homes ensures the utmost in quiet, comfort, and privacy for your residents as well as those surrounding them.
Better yet, taking soundproofing seriously now can prevent your property from becoming susceptible to violations of evolving noise pollution regulations in the future.
Installing soundproofing can help ensure your residential properties remain desirable to renters and buyers and that it continues to increase in value for years to come.
