Noise Control Within Dwellings

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Noise Control Within Dwellings

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no.

18

c.

2 _{NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL}

CANADA

DIVISION

OF

BUILDING RESEARCH

HOUSING

NOTE

NO. 18

by

ALAN

VEALE

REPRINTED FROM

CANADIAN BUILDER, VOL. XIV, NO. 6,

JUNE 1964, P. 46

This Noie may be reprinted without amendment provided acknowledgement is given to Canadian Builder.

O T Z A _ \ . Y !

-

+

/

BUILDING

X

H

!

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tWWitHW

Sound Barrier

(ordinary wall with well

54 310.5

A

----

Optional Sound Barrier

sealed openings)

FIGURE 1

-

This diagram shows an example of a one-story dwelling where layout has been used to advantage to control noise in Ihe house.

*NOISE CONTROL WITHIN DWELLINGS

Noise from neighbors is a well-known hazard of apart-

ment living but noise

within

houses or apartments is usually

dismissed

as unimportant. Yet this shouldn't be so because

noise within a household is frequently an annoyance and

inconvenience far beyond what is generally realized. What's

more, it is likely to become worse because of current trends

towards lightweight construction, more mechanical equip-

ment and wide use of home entertainment items.

In this article, Mr. Alan Veale, of the Housing Section,

Division of Building Research,

NRC

_{describes the benefits}

of noise control within houses and d e W some of the meth-

ods which can be used to control it through construction,

layout and fittings.

While there are some building regu- individual reactions vary greatly and lations to control noise between units in that some people suffer considerable dis- apartment buildings, there are none - comfort and annoyance due to noise. and probably never will be any

-

for The control of such noise, therefore, can sound control within houses. There is be of marked advantage to occupants also little definite evidence available of and might become an important sales people's reaction to noise except that feature of the houses involved

Here are features that people might like to have in their homes:

-A "quiet" bedroom where infants, aged or sick persons, or night workers can sleep during the daytime without disturbance;

S u f f i c i e n t separation between parts of the house so that individual mem- bers of the household can choose their activities without interfering with the preferred activities of others (TV vs. sleeping, studying vs. entertaining);

-A minimum of mechanical noises from plumbing services, heating equipment, and fans;

S o u n d privacy for bathrooms; -Freedom from reverberation, particularly in rooms with many hard surfaces;

-Freedom from outdoor noises.

Methods of noise control

Noise can be controlled, with varying degrees of effectiveness and cost, by several quite different methods. Each

'When this article originally appeared in Canadian Builder, it was entitled "Noise Control, How To Achieve It Within Dwellings At Little Extra Cost".

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method has advantages and limitations that must be understood to achieve the desired result.

"Preventing" noise. _{Some noises can}

be wntrolled very effectively and e w - nomically by stopping or reducing them at their source. Carpets, cork tile, and other "soft" floor coverings will greatly quieten footsteps or the impact noises of dropped objects. Plumbing noises can be reduced by the use of quiet valves, resilient supports and gaskets between pipes and the building structure, "quiet" toilets, and air chambers to prevent water hammer. Counter surfaces of resilient materials will prevent dish clatter, though hard surfaces are often preferred for their durability. Modern houses have much mechanical equipment which can be noisy. In almost all cases, relatively quiet models are available, though usually at some increased cost. In addition, equipment can be placed on resilient padding to reduce vibration.

"Confining" noise. Airborne noise can be confined to the room or area where it originates by construction barriers. To be effective, these barriers must be relatively heavy and without any cracks or gaps. To control noise within houses, ordinary partitions are usually sufficient, provided doors are heavy and well sealed and there are no direct leaks through heating ducts or other wall openings. Only limited benefits can be obtained from partitions of greatly increased sound resistance, since noise will still travel around partitions through the floor or ceiling structure, and through doors. Impact noises, such as footsteps, are more difficult to confine, but they are a problem only in two-storey houses (or houses with basement living quarters). The difficulty of confining noise is greatly reduced if noisy areas can be located at a dis- tance from the areas where quiet is most desired.

"Absorbing9* noise. Sound-absorbent materials can be effective only under certain circumstances. They are useful to "muffle" or "quieten" noises within the room or area in which the noise originates, but they are not "sound proofing" in the usual sense and do not reduce the transmission of sound from one room to another. The best example of their correct use is "acoustic tile" on the ceilings of large offices to reduce the clatter of many typewriters. There are few circumstances where sound-absorbent materials are necessary or helpful in houses as sufficient absorption is usually provided by curtains, carpets, and furniture. They can, however, ef- fect a small but significant improvement in basement recreation rooms, kitchens, hallways and some living rooms where there is little sound-absorbent material.

The noise from equipment can also be slightly reduced by surrounding it with sound-absorbent materials.

House layout

Noise control should start with the choice of a good house layout. This can provide partial noise control, and can also reduce the extent and com- plexity of sound barriers. Here are some suggestions:

-Where construction barriers are planned to divide the house into two or more areas, or to isolate particular rooms, the house layout should allow these barriers to be reasonably short and simple to construct.

--Outside traffic noises can be slightly reduced by setting the house well back from the street and by avoiding or limiting doors and windows which face the street.

-Noisy mechanical equipment should be as remote as possible from quiet

SUMMARY

Measures to control noise within houses or apartments need add very little t o the cost, and would appeal to homebuyers and renters. There are four main steps in de- signing a house t o reduce noise:

1-Plan the house layout so that noise sources are as _{distant as pos-}

sible from quiet areas, and so that the usual required partitions can serve as barriers around noisy areas.

2--Construct barriers where necessary to confine noises to one part of the house. Regular partitions, but with heavier and carefully-sealed doors, perhaps with re- arranged heating ducts and without other openings, can serve as satis- factory sound barriers a t very little added cost.

3 S o u n d absorbing materials are useful for slightly reducing the noise level in rooms where the noise originates, particularly kitchens, recreation rooms, hallways or other areas where little absorption is provided by curtains, carpets or upholstered furniture.

4--Choose plumbing and mechanical equipment which is relatively quiet and mount it o n resil- ient pads. Choose Boor and counter materials which have some resil- iency.

Noise control measures must be installed correctly to be effective and even then will not work mir- acles-they can only reduce the noise levels.

areas, or should be located where the noise can easily be confined by construction barriers.

-Bedrooms on the lower floor of houses should be placed beneath the quietest upstairs rooms, which are probably other bedrooms.

-The bathroom should not be next to, or over, the living room, the dining room or the quietest bedroom.

-Neither hallways nor stairways should connect directly with major rooms. A door, a corner, or a small vestibule at the end of halls or stairs will help to reduce noise transmission.

Figure 1 shows an example of a one- storey house where layout has been used to advantage to control noise in the house. A

-

Bathrooms, stairs, kit- chen, and back entrance are grouped and can be completely isolated if desired (dotted line shows placing of additional optional noise barrier);

B

-

Bathrooms are back-to-back and can easily be isolated. The common bathroom partition or the bathroom-kit- chen partition would be the best place for the plumbing stack;

C

-

Sleeping and living areas are separated by a simple barrier. The only additional cost would be for the hall door and heating duct re-arrange- ment;

D

-

This would be the quietest bedroom with two barriers between it and the living quarters;

E - Clothes closets slightly improve the performance of sound barriers;

F

-

The hallway does not open directly into any room. Some sound-absorbent material on the ceiling would help a little.

House construction

Noise control by means of various construction measures can be very effective at small added cost but correct installation is essential to achieve the desired noise control. Some specific construction procedures are:

1-Good protection against traffic and other outdoor noises can be provided (except when windows are open- ed) by improving the sound transmission resistance of exterior doors and windows, since exterior house walls al- ready have satisfactory resistance. Win- dows should be close fitting and weather-stripped. Two layers of glass with at least a 1-in. air space give relatively good protection. Sealed double windows with a narrow air space are less effective. Single windows, whether of ordinary weight glass or ?.4 in. plate, give very little protection. Exterior doors should be thick, solid and close fitting to give effective protection. Weather-stripping is helpful. A storm door is even more helpful. Trees,

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shrubs, and garden walls are of very little help in reducing noise from out- doors.

2-With judicious planning, the regular partitions of a house, plus one or two extra doors, will serve as sound barriers to divide the house into several separate areas. The average house partition of 2- by 4-in. wood studs with wallboard or plaster on both sides is a fairly adequate noise barrier within houses (but not between different apartments) provided it is not made ineffec- tive by heating ducts, poorly fitting doors, or other openings. Doors must be heavier than average and carefully fitted or weather-stripped to be as effective a sound barrier as ordinary partitions. Electrical outlets and medicine cabinets should not be placed back to back in partitions which are intended

as sound barriers, and preferably should not be in these partitions at all.

The sound resistance of house partitions can easily be increased a little by increasing their weight (thick plaster or double layers of wallboard) or by incorporating resilient separations (wallboard mounted on flexible metal clips or glued to a resilient underlay such as fibreboard).

3-Hot air ducts and cold air return ducts provide easy paths for sound transmission within houses. They should at least be arranged so that the paths from room to room and particularly the paths from one side of a sound barrier to thc other, are relatively long and in- direct. Alternatively, oversize ducts lined with sound-aborbent material are helpful. Hot air house-heating systems must have sufficient cold air return ducts so

that doors can be tightly closed when desired to prevent the circulation of noise throughout the house without interfering with the free circulation of air necessary for uniform heating.

&Impact noises, such as footsteps, easily pass downwards through ordinary floor-ceilings and are particularly annoying and difficult to confine. Car- pets are effective in preventing impact noises and other resilient floors are also helpful. Special floating floors and plas- tered ceilings supported independently or on flexible clips can effectively reduce the transmission of impact noise, but their added cost is not normally justified in houses.

5-Other noise control measures, such as resilient counter tops and resilient pads under mechanical equipment, should be installed where feasible.