So I want to come home after a working day, lie down on a sofa with your favorite book, relax… But here’s the neighbors from above – the constant holidays and feasts with songs under the karaoke, the neighbor through the wall is a small child who has their teeth and he constantly cries, on the other hand, a neighbor who seems to be fond of artistic drilling of holes: otherwise it is incomprehensible that he does there for the third year every day with this sound, and an old grandmother lives below: she is not very good with hearing, so she twists the volume control and radio to the full – you already begin to recognize the heroes of her favorite series By voice.
Silence of people is necessary not only from a psychological point of view, as the need for rest and calm, but also from physiological: it is not for nothing that noise norms are not somewhat, but sanitary, that is, loud sounds affect human health directly. So, the noise of 40 decibels will prevent you from relaxing and getting enough sleep, but if the sounds are louder than 85 decibels, then a serious danger to health appears here, among other things, constant loud sounds can cause various mental disorders.
Of course, with noisy neighbors you can try to fight with the help of police officers: unfortunately, this, firstly, is far from always effective, since the chance of the actual visit of the police 50 to 50: or will come – or not, but wait for them in any case you have to, that is, for some time you will have to endure noise. In addition, a legislative ban exists only noise of a certain volume (just those prohibited by sanitary standards) at a certain time of the day (late in the evening, at night and early morning, so if you came from a night work shift, and at the repair brigade in the repair brigade a daytime work shift began the next apartment, then you can’t do anything with it anymore. Again, no police will calm the child who has a tummy or his teeth cut, even if this happens at four in the morning.
The photo belongs to David Castillo Dominici/Freedigitalphotos.
Unfortunately, many existing houses for a variety of reasons are in such a state that it is heard not like a punch, even as a neighbor walks from above, walks around the apartment. Such an unpleasant situation can develop for various reasons, but, most often problems arise if you live in a panel house, there is such a level of sound insulation – unfortunately, almost the norm. Plates can do not fit to each other loosely and then the sound will seem to “leak” into your apartment in the resulting cracks-this happens due to the inaccuishes of the workers who built the house or due to the deformation of the building for any reason (for example, due for shrinkage – a completely natural process), in addition, in the plates themselves there are holes for wiring and communications, which also does not contribute to the preservation of silence.
In order to deal with this problem once and for all, you can make noise insulation in the apartment yourself. It is best to confuse this event to global repairs – so as not to raise the floors just made and not overlap the wallpaper. Moreover, noise insulation is better to do everything and at once, complete – then you can forget about the annoying noise forever, and you yourself, regardless of your schedule, to your neighbors, if anything, do not interfere.
Starting work on sound insulation is worth it with various communications openings. Such as, for example, sockets or entry place and leaving the riser. Find all the sockets and mounting boxes in the walls-oddly enough, some of them may be hidden under the wallpaper, so if someone lived before you, then do not be lazy to tear out the wallpaper and find everything that you need will soundproof. Remember that some manipulations with a socket or any other place of exit of the wires are possible only if they are de-energized, otherwise you suffer yourself mortal danger. Pull out all the excess from the hole (that is, disassemble the socket), measure it and cut out a plug of dense cardboard (corrupted is perfect, you can take a piece of the old box from the TV) or mineral wool specially compressed. The plug inserted inward is carefully cemented for reliability and all the parts and wires pulled out previously pulled out – that’s all, this communication channel with neighbors is blocked.
For some reason, risers in apartments are extremely often done, without observing construction standards, so they will probably have to work with them. Even if there are no holes right now, then it may make sense to create them and make a fixation for the pipe as it should, so that at some point this way to look into the apartment above or below does not shock you with its sudden appearance. According to the norms, a pipe, in the place where it passes through the ceilings, should be “wrapped” in a piece of pipe of a larger diameter, and the gap between them should be filled with a soundproof material. If there is no sleeve, then we will not be able to put it, except that we agree with our neighbors and change the entire riser, instead we break the concrete to a depth of about 10 cm, wrap the pipe with fiberglass or something else noisy-jokes. Then just cement so that the surface is leveled. It remains only to close the cracks at the joints of the panels: in the corners, between the wall and the floor and between the wall and the ceiling, respectively. If the panels fit tightly, then we just walk at the seam by a silicone sealant – this should be enough, but if there is really a gap there, you will have to expand it somewhat, clean, plunge and, when the surface dries, supplement the insulation with acrylic sealant.
When all local problems are resolved, you can proceed to the general soundproofing.
Fiberglass, foam polymers and some other special materials are used to sound insulation of the floor. Moreover, depending on which flooring will be used, the insulation material is laid either directly for it or under the screed. Thus, you “close” from the neighbors from below, and the neighbors will not hear your every step.
The walls and ceiling are soundproof according to the same technology, unfortunately, it “eats up” a certain amount of space, unlike the one that is used on the floor, but, having evaluated all the pros and cons, most prefers to sacrifice several centimeters of the area to enjoy the silence. First, steel profiles are attached to the surface – this is a frame for drywall, which will become a new wall surface. Moreover, the fasteners here are somewhat unusual – between the profile and the wall in the places of fasteners, rubber gaskets are placed, which, by depreciation, drown out vibration noises – that is, transmitted through solid surfaces, for example, the sounds of a perforator. Then the space between the profiles is filled with sounding material, it can be similar to the one that is used on the floor, but the thicker its layer, the better the insulation, so that mineral wool is more often used.
Thus, the room will be completely soundproof, although, of course. The best effect can be achieved if you make such isolation throughout the apartment.