Sound Insulation For Your New Custom Built Home

Sound Insulation For Your New Custom Built Home

The ideal lot is in a quiet, peaceful, neighborhood. Unfortunately, that is not always the real world circumstances. Many times, a building lot is closer to downtown Orlando, busy highway or even one of the local tourist attractions. 

If you're sitting on you Lanai or front porch looking for some peace and quite a water feature such as a fountain or falling water will help. A bit of background music might do the trick too. You might even try a concrete block privacy wall or fast growing shrubs. Perhaps, a viburnum hedge that grows 15' high might be a solution. On the other hand, unless you're absolutely sure the bamboo plant you are selecting is the exact clumping variety you want, do not plant any bamboo on your property! Five years down the road you might need a front end loader to dig it out.

If you want quiet inside your home double pain windows, concrete block exterior walls and foam injected inside the block wall cavities will go a long way in making the inside of your home quieter. Avoid sliding patio doors as the air gaps lets in quite a bit of noise as well as outside air.

Sound control between rooms is a different story altogether. Avoid hard flooring surfaces such as tile and hardwood. Select wall to wall carpeting for a quieter room. 

Solid core interior, swing, doors will make a big difference in sound control. Sliding pocket doors are very poor at sound attenuation. Have your Builder insulate the interior walls of all bedrooms and the space between the 1st and 2nd floors if your home is 2 story. Don't forget to insulate the walls on the utility and home theater rooms too!

Install insulation around PVC waste lines in your 2 story home. Years ago when cast iron piping was used in construction, water flushing down a 2nd story waste line was not an issue, now days it is. Listening to the sound of the upstairs toilet flushing is a big no, no.

Watch the gap under interior doorways. Before they changed the building code, Builders were obligated to provide a 1 1/2 " gap under all doors for air circulation. Now the code requires a return air vent inside each bedroom so the gap can be minimized.