Soundproofing or Deadening Sound in a Rental
Hi. Does anyone have experience soundproofing a room in a rental apartment, where you can’t rebuild the walls? I live on a top floor near a A/C compressor of a large building and the sound is very loud. It is not possible for me to move right now. I would like to try to block…
Hi. Does anyone have experience soundproofing a room in a rental apartment, where you can’t rebuild the walls? I live on a top floor near a A/C compressor of a large building and the sound is very loud. It is not possible for me to move right now. I would like to try to block the sound by maybe putting in window plugs like in this link:
http://www.studio-acoustic-solutions.com/window-plug.html
Anyone have any suggestions or experiences doing something like this? Or experience using acoustic tiles or padding on the walls to deaden the sound? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
this is not a cheap solution, but soundproof windows are an option. They won’t eliminate the sound, but will make a significant difference.
I had 2 soundproof windows installed in one room in our apartment and yes it made a difference.
But they aren’t cheap. They cost about $1000 per window (about 3 feet wide x 6 feet high). Probably not the kind of expensive you want to invest in as a renter.
We bought them from citiquiet. they did an excellent install job.
Here’s the biggest issue, likely (and I’m a recording engineer, though not much of a building guy), and that is that sound proofing such as the wall type you fabricate a room with really only works to keep sound from escaping, it doesn’t do much to prevent sound from entering. The idea behind treating walls is that it cuts down the reflections of certain frequencies. It doesn’t really “soundproof” a space except in the way that through more material between a sound and where it’s going can lessen the waves escaping, but it only works to a certain point and then you really have to deal with, as mentioned, the structure.
Working on blocking the sound from escaping the compressor space is the only way to solve this.
Additional information about soundproofing walls: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/solutions/soundproofing_walls/
Ceilings: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/solutions/soundproofing_ceilings/
denton – Hm, I’m not sure if there is steam or anything coming from it. I’ll try to keep an eye out and see, but off hand, I don’t remember seeing any.
Steve – thanks for the website referral. I’ve looked online and had a hard time finding information about soundproofing when it comes to a rental building, where you can’t actually change the structure of the walls. I’ll have to look at the McMaster website and see what I can find out. 🙂
that sound will be hard to silence if it is passing through the structural elements of the building. Anytime I have had to deal with sound from HVAC equipment in commercial buildings, I have been less than successful unless we were able to get some padding between the equipment and the structure and get some space – at least 4′ between the wall and the machine.
If this is airborne noise you will have more luck with it, including using a variety of sound insulators.
There is a bit written about this and I am sure you can find some articles on the web. Also, Mcmaster Carr Sales sells a variety of soundproofing and deadening materials. They also do a good job of explainging the different products and their uses. Check their website: Mcmaster.com.
Steve
If it’s a large building, it way be a cooling tower. Do you ever see white vapor coming from it? Anyway it is up to the owner of the equipment to bring it within legal limits. Bklynite is right.
Bklnite – that’s a really good point. Maybe I’ll talk to the building first and if no results, go down the 311 path…The sound is so loud, it’s really hard to sleep! Not the way one wants to live, you know?
Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts.
I’m just suggesting because I know a renter who called 311 about distressingly loud noise coming from the rooftop AC unit of a neighboring building, and to my surprise they actually showed up with db meters, and some time after that owners of the neighboring building got the noise under control. There’s a section here on ACs and rooftop circulating devices.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/noise_code_guide.pdf
If they can’t shut it off they may need to fix it to comply with the law.
Another angle… can you contact the owner of the building with the load AC compressor? They should have switched from AC to heat by now, but maybe there’s something wrong with their equipment. There are regulations about how much noise you can make, and if it’s really loud call 311 with a noise complaint they can send someone to your apartment to measure how many decibels in your apartment. If it’s over the allowable limit they’ll go after the owner where the noise is coming from.