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How to Reduce External Noise in Your Home

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Depending on where you live in Australia, noise from neighbours, busy roads, airports and even wildlife can be frustrating, especially if these sounds disturb you at night when you would prefer to be sleeping soundly. Of course, you can opt for a pair of earplugs, but this is not really a practical solution during the day, and many people find them uncomfortable to wear in bed anyway. Instead, it is better to look at ways of soundproofing your home, and the tips below will give you a good idea of how to go about it.

Insulate Your Home With Foam

Many Australians have cavity walls in their homes that are not insulated, even though having them filled with insulating material would reduce energy costs. In addition, using a foam insulation system - which is pumped into the wall cavity from the outside - will not only insulate your home from the external temperature but also dramatically lessen the amount of noise you hear from outside. External sounds come into any home in the form of a wave. Installing foam in the walls of a home makes a lot of sense because the foam absorbs the energy of any sound wave that hits it.

Upgrade Your Doors and Windows

Obviously, keeping your windows open will allow more exterior noise into your home. However, when you close them, they can sometimes act like resonators, seemingly making the problem of unwanted sound ingress worse. Modern double glazing products feature panes which are held securely in place with rubberised trim. This has a dampening effect so that up-to-date double glazed windows don't vibrate as much against their frames when noise hits them from the outside. As a result, the amount of noise you hear inside is reduced.

Fit Carpet and Curtains

As mentioned, absorbing sound is the key to reducing the amount you notice noise from the outside. This will also help it to stop bouncing around inside your home. In order to improve the acoustic dampening inside your home, fit carpets and heavy curtains rather than Venetian-style blinds and laminate flooring, which are both hard and allow sound to reverberate. If you don't have the budget for a fitted carpet, add drapes and a rug or two to achieve a similar effect.

Handling Lower Frequencies

Where bass rumbles from neighbours' stereos or low-pitched traffic noises are causing a problem, it can be too much for conventional soundproofing measures to overcome. If so, look into professionally fitted plasterboard, which is specifically designed to reduce lower frequency noise. This can be fixed to your home's walls and easily decorated over.


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