* A guest post by Jamie Gordon.
If you are staying up at night because of noisy neighbors, barking dogs and traffic, you should consider learning how to soundproof windows yourself. Soundproofing your home isn’t as expensive or difficult as you might assume. It can help you get a better night’s sleep, avoid distractions during the day, and will allow you to relax better. It also isn’t as unattractive as you might assume, either. Nowadays you can get some great custom window replacement services, that can include soundproofing, which really make your home look great.
What is Sound Proofing?
Sound proofing refers to cutting off outside noise from getting into your home, and treating the noise that’s in a room so that you absorb it and stop it from bouncing around outside and disturbing people. Many people seem to make a mistake when it comes to distinguishing between the two and will go on to install thick curtains on their windows to keep noise out.
If you are a home theater enthusiast or a budding musician who practices often, this is tremendous for you, since it prevents noise from ricocheting off your walls. But curtains aren’t really going to do the trick as well as soundproof windows will, when it comes to blocking outside sounds like traffic from entering your home.
How Sound Travels
Before you start to use soundproof windows, you should understand a bit about how sound works and how it travels. There are several low frequency waves that make up sound. These waves are similar to radio waves. These waves are emitted when something makes a sound, and they will travel in all directions away from the source. These sound waves will keep on travelling until they make contact with a form of resistance, such as a sofa or a wall.
Once that happens, they bounce off these surfaces and have been known to cause an effect that is referred to as reverberation. This actually strengthens the sound. When you soundproof windows, you will be required to use adequate materials that work well not only to block or absorb sound, but also to prevent it from echoing or reverberating. This keeps things quiet and peaceful.
Where to Begin?
Knowing the right place to start makes all the difference when it comes to using soundproof windows. To be able to make your living space soundproof, you need to first locate its entry points. Noise of any sort will find even the smallest crevice through which to seep into your home. The very first step in keeping noise out, is to plug the leaks.
Your windows are most likely the biggest culprit here, and more importantly, the window frames. It is as important to check the seal around your windows, as it is to install soundproof dual-pane windows to keep sound out. Start by installing a new frame or at least improve the seal of your old frame by weather stripping or caulking. This will act as an additional buffer from the outside sounds. You may want to check out websites like augustawindow.com to see about window and window frame replacements if a sealant has not helped at all and you need to take further measures.
Of course, if you have done all these little things, but still find the sound from the outside penetrating into your home, then your best option would be to consider soundproof windows. These additional panes are attached to your existing windows, your seal is improved, a layer of air between the two layers of glass is added, thereby preventing noise from entering in.
For a wide selection of soundproof windows for your apartment, visit CitiQuiet.
Oh great tips, I really need to do this (Caulk and weatherstripping) first before thinking about buying new windows, since we cant afford them anyway.