Smart project.
Looking through the proposed projects, pay special attention to the overall space-planning solution of the whole house – to the shape of the roof, facade and other details. Various protruding elements of the facade (terraces, bay windows, loggias), as well as floors displaced in level relative to each other, are able to effectively dissipate the sound wave. So, for example, with the general building of the street with houses with rounded facades, it is possible to obtain a zone of silence even in a large and noisy city, since this form of buildings scatters reflected sounds. Efficient sound dispersion is also facilitated by building, in which a number of houses are made with protruding elements relative to each other, thereby protecting the premises behind it from noise, forming an acoustic shadow.
The use in the construction of arches, domes, semicircular niches in the walls, as well as curved canopies leads to a decrease in the level of acoustic comfort, as they reflect and amplify the sound. For example, a two-level room with a beautiful dome-shaped ceiling has an excellent aesthetic appearance, but the TV turned on or a loud conversation on the first level can create a lot of inconvenience for those who decide to relax in the rooms of the upper tier. When planning rooms internally, try to ensure that in the part of the house that is more exposed to sound, there are flights of stairs or utility rooms (kitchen, laundry, workshop, garage, bathroom, etc.). Premises that are intended for relaxation (children’s room, living room, bedrooms or guest rooms) are best placed in acoustic shade.
The optimal layout of rooms, in terms of noise, will allow to exclude the unfavorable proximity of rooms with different noise levels, which will create more comfortable acoustic conditions. For effective sound insulation in houses where several generations or families live, as well as in houses with row buildings, the so-called townhouses, it is extremely undesirable to place sanitary facilities (toilets, bathrooms) of one apartment with adjoining sleeping quarters of another.
Wall material.
The soundproofing characteristics of the house depend not only on the layout of the rooms and their optimal location, but also on the correct choice of building materials and masonry techniques during construction work. To a greater extent, the effectiveness of sound insulation of walls depends on their thickness and mass. The thicker and more massive the walls, the better. Walls with a three-layer structure, as well as single-layer walls built from large-format hollow blocks of porous ceramics, from aerated concrete blocks, ceramic or silicate bricks, have good soundproofing characteristics.
Double-layer walls have a smaller layer of bearing masonry, which reduces its mass. In addition, the heat-insulating layer, when used in the form of thermal insulation of facade slabs glued to the outer surface of the facade and covered with thin-layer plaster, can cause resonance and, thereby, significantly worsen the sound-proofing characteristics of the wall. When selecting heat-insulating materials, it should be borne in mind that not every good insulation can improve the sound-proofing properties of a wall. In addition, the internal cladding layer, for example, gypsum boards mounted on a separate frame, contributes to the improvement of the soundproofing characteristics of a massive wall, but only if the free space between the wall and the gypsum board is filled with mineral wool. These same drywall boards, but attached directly to the wall (“flattened”) with an adhesive solution, can cause unwanted acoustic effects such as resonance and sound amplification.
Window openings.
The area of window openings also influences the soundproofing properties of external walls to a large extent. Usually, the noise insulation characteristics of windows, compared with this indicator of walls, differ by up to several tens of decibels. The required level of sound insulation of a window opening is calculated on the basis of the noise pollution present in the area, as well as on the basis of the maximum permissible noise level for a particular room. When choosing windows, remember that windows of the same design, with the same glazing, made from the same material, but by different manufacturers, can significantly differ in their soundproofing characteristics. Based on this, when ordering windows, choose the manufacturer that accompanies the windows with appropriate certificates of conformity that confirm their characteristics, including acoustic ones. Currently produced windows, glazed with a standard double-glazed window, have a sound insulation level in the range of 25-32 dB, which is expressed by the RAtrans indicator.
If you plan to install metal-plastic windows with a ventilation valve in your house, then remember that they worsen the acoustic comfort in the room. Depending on the parameters of the window and the type of ventilation valve used, the window may have different soundproofing characteristics. So, for example, if you install a conventional ventilation valve on a window with a sound insulation degree of 32 dB and an area of 5 m2, this will lead to a decrease in the sound insulation characteristics of the window by 4 dB, and in the case of using a special acoustic valve – no more than 2 dB. But, alas, such ventilation valves in the domestic market are still a rarity. Among other things, the design of the window also affects the soundproofing characteristics.
Windows with the following design features are best protected from noise:
double-glazed windows, which are made of laminated (laminated) glass, which is two or more sheets of glass interconnected by a transparent resin or PVB film, and in which the space between the glasses is filled with an inert gas,
if the shape of the window is not square, but rectangular,
with a small window area (the smaller the glass area, the better the sound insulation characteristics with the same window designs), with tight closing of the window sash to the frame around the entire perimeter,
in the absence of a ventilation valve that worsens soundproofing characteristics.
A correctly chosen project of the house, optimally selected material for the walls and installed high-quality metal-plastic windows with high soundproofing characteristics will help you effectively get rid of a large amount of external annoying noise, give peace and quiet to your home.