This post will answer you the most confusing question, “Why Can I Hear Everything Through My Walls?”.
So, are you ready to discover the truth?
Here you go!
Can you hear everything on the other side of your wall?
Maybe it was the laughter, the music, or how they moved.
And you want to know why?
You first need to know why sound travels so effortlessly through walls.
Most builders keep expenses low when building townhomes or apartments.
Or maybe not paying enough attention to details has led to poor construction in many cases.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to resolve the concern of “Why can I hear everything through my walls?”
Ways to Reduce the Noise Through Walls
We’ll go through them in order of difficulty, starting with the least invasive.
You’ll learn how to deal with less serious noises from next door early in the list and more serious noises later on.
1) Make use of the furniture and decorations to decrease noise
Yes, an easy step, right?
It’s possible that some of the noises you have to deal with aren’t all that bothersome, like the sound of dishes or music playing at a very low volume.
A good number of these noises are airborne, meaning they move through the atmosphere.
As a general rule, placing various pieces of furniture and household decoration along the path that the sound will travel will help reduce the sound.
Here are some of the options that you could do:
- You could put a couple of books where the sound is coming from on a wall.
- Rearranging the position of your furniture will also help.
- It’s also a good idea to install a sound-reducing curtain that could muffle the noises coming through the walls.
- Using a white noise machine could mask noises, which is good because it’s not expensive.
- You could also put foam on the back of all the large furniture. No one will even know it’s there.
2) Use acoustic sealants, and fill in any holes or cracks in the wall
When it comes to soundproofing a room against airborne noise, the worst opponent is anything that allows air to enter the wall and produce sound.
Inspect the walls for flaws, cracks, or gaps before moving on to the next stage.
It’s simple to cover them up using an acoustic sealer to keep the noise out of your room.
Using an acoustic sealant is very similar to using any other glue.
It’s merely a matter of soundproofing, which is improved with these materials.
3) Make the wall better at absorbing sound
You must strengthen the wall’s capacity to absorb the vibration that transfers the sound when dealing with impact noises.
Installing various acoustic foam and drywall panels can help you achieve this goal.
To further reduce noise, stud walls can be insulated with fiberglass or other sound-absorbing materials.
If you are renting and can’t alter the wall, other options exist for increasing the wall’s acoustic absorption capacity.
Large canvases could be hung on the wall.
Canvas reduces the sound’s impact by absorbing it.
You could also install soundproof drapes.
These will not only assist in reducing noise, but they may also improve the room’s aesthetics.
4) Increase the wall’s mass
However, this is the most challenging approach to avoiding noise from your neighbors.
Unfortunately, it’s the most effective, especially when dealing with a lot of noise coming through the walls.
Thinner materials are stronger at transporting sound.
Increasing the wall’s mass reduces the sound’s impact by providing resistance to sound passing through it.
This can be accomplished by adding drywall to the current walls to make them thicker.
Due to drywall, much of the noise will be kept out of your home.
5) Talk to your neighbors
Another easy way to deal with the noise coming through your wall is to visit your neighbors and talk to them about it.
You can’t shield yourself from all noises, even if you soundproof your apartment.
If your neighbors’ noise bothers you, try to reason with them and persuade them to lower their volume.
How you approach the topic is of the utmost importance in finding a solution to the problem.
When you’re in a bad mood, you should avoid conversing with your neighbors.
It’s in everyone’s best interest to wait until the anger has subsided before you open up about the issue.
If even after the conversation, your neighbors don’t change their attitude, then you must ask your landlord or the building management for assistance.
On the other hand, It’s important to keep in mind that your neighbor may be going through the same problems as you are and that enhancing sound insulation requires work on both sides of the wall to get the desired results.
What if the neighbors in the apartment above you are the ones who are bothering you instead?
The noise might not only come through the walls but also from the ceiling above you caused by the neighbor upstairs; what will you do about it?
If you live in an apartment, you may hear noises coming from your neighbors’ apartments upstairs.
In this situation, the ceiling needs to be soundproofed, and there is also a way to solve the problem, which is to install an acoustic drop ceiling directly on top of the ceiling that is already there.
Acoustic drop ceilings are a type of ceiling that can reduce the amount of noise in a space in one of two ways.
a) One function is to take in the sound waves and stop them from reflecting off the room’s walls.
b) The other function is to prevent the transmission of sound waves.
Conclusion
It must be challenging to make a living in an environment without peace and quiet, right?
Different people lead very different lives.
There are probably some people who adore partying nonstop throughout the day and night, while there are also those people who would instead relax in peace on the couch with a good book.
With the ways to deal with the noises coming through the walls mentioned above, I hope this will help you live the kind of everyday life you want at home.