How to Soundproof a Room from Noisy Neighbors.

Here is how to soundproof a room from noisy neighbours if you get unlucky!

Moving to a new residence comes with its good. You get to unwind from the previous stresses in the old neighborhood.

You get to breath fresh oxygen as opposed to the contaminated atmosphere under which you had lived for years suffering the wrath of pollution.

But one thing you probably do not know is the lifestyle of your next-door neighbor(s). Most commonly, you will be getting the noisy neighbors, with loud children and dogs!

This is the last thing you want to experience, just yet.

So, in the midst of such circumstances, what do you do? Do you put up with them?

Most families find themselves stuck in the deadlock of having to live with the mess or just move out and try to look for a better, quieter environment.

It is true that too much noise can hamper, disrupt and startle many things. For example, you will never have it easy during sleep and if you are the kind of person that enjoys working from your home, well – you may start giving it a second thought.

But it’s still possible to live with these people even when they become extremely noisy: soundproofing your rooms.

Stay closer because this post will help you know how to soundproof a room from noisy neighbors and still manage to give them a grin whenever you meet on the sidewalks.

Before that…Have You Talked to Them About the Noise…

You could be blaming (of course, in the heart) your neighbor, their loud children and dogs, and conversations, etc. But without having talked to them, there is little they can do to help you.

After all, they are never angels to predict your sufferings.

A wise move would be talking to your neighbor in the friendliest tone. But what’s more, you need to be clever in your approach, you may make things even worse. Just keep in mind you just joined the community not long ago.

Befriending the noisy neighbor may take time. And after you have built the relationship, it becomes easier to talk about the noise problem and how it’s having a serious impact on your life.

If you are lucky enough to have an understanding person as your neighbor, then you will not continue suffering. But things can go either way and yet you still have to find out means to conquer the problem at the hand.

At this point, you can now start to think about investing in the soundproofing measures. Fortunately, there are many of them, some of which are great DIY projects.

Here are the Reasons Why You Suffer from Noisy Neighbors.

Noise travels through the weakest points of your room. If you discover this, you should be able to handle the problem.

What are the entry points to noise from the neighbors?

• Thin Walls

It is likely that you will share walls with your new neighbor. Whether it is your living room or bedroom that is next to your neighbor’s, if walls are thinner, you will hear them as loud as they get.

Make no mistake, you will hear their TV, pets, conversations with his or her children and spouses – virtually everything. The worst case scenario is when they get drunkard and keep on shouting throughout the night.

• Your Doors and Windows are Culprits

Up to now, you should be aware that you can’t learn how to soundproof a room from noisy neighbors when windows and doors aren’t in the bigger picture.

Proper soundproofing, for your information, should begin addressing the windows and doors. These are some of the obvious channels that can leak all sorts of outside noises.

It is not uncommon to hear footsteps, conversations, and children crying, via these parts. So in case you have written off soundproofing these areas, you have surely failed in your goals.

Understand that even the tiniest space between your door or window and their frames can spill in serious amounts of sound that could be disruptive to your household.

A Rented Room or Own Home?

I found this really vital to include here for your good. Your soundproofing project planning will be informed on whether you just rented the current room/apartment you are staying. Or you bought the home permanently.

No way you can start soundproofing a home with expensive more permanent solutions if you don’t own it. The tenure rules are clear and do not allow that.

Which means you that will need to familiarize with short term solutions on how to block noise from next door neighbors. They may look simple and cheap but they can help you reduce noise up to significant levels.

Homeowners, on the other hand, have nothing to limit them except budget concerns. Otherwise, they are at full liberty to implement both the temporary measures of blocking sound and the longer-term methods.

The good thing is that in both cases, you will not do anything in vain if you follow the required instructions to the latter.

8 Ways to Block Noise from Next Door Neighbors

The following section combines the different methods you can use to block noise from reaching your home. These are both temporary and permanent solutions.

1.   Start with Soundproofing Your Doors

As I said, we need to start here.

Most of the wooden doors are hollow with a thin cardboard cover. Perhaps with a honeycomb core which is good at transmitting soundwaves within it.

Sometimes, the doors have cracks because they have become older. Others have smaller or bigger spacing between them and their frames.

Having discovered all these weak points, the next step will be coming up with a plan to seal or soundproof the door with suitable materials depending on which part you are looking at.

All manner of gaps, cracks, and spaces can be sealed off using a suitable weather-stripping, acoustic caulk or other products. This is to ensure that the gaps are eliminated to cut off the noise.

Other options include hanging moving blankets, soundproof curtains or acoustic foams. All which block off a certain amount of noise.

2.   Don’t Forget To Soundproof the Windows

If you soundproof the doors, the next part should be soundproofing your windows. The noisy upstairs neighbors can cause you lots of harm every time they talk or play music loud.

So this noise is directed through your window below and you can hear them crystal clear. You can’t even try opening the window.

You want to start with the sealants I talked about in the door soundproofing project.

Windows, just like doors can have many gaps that let in light and sound. Some of these gaps are extremely small – they need to be carefully traced and sealed properly.

There cheap, temporary methods of soundproofing would be great for the tenants. But the homeowners can explore many more methods including sophisticated ones that involve lots of money.

For example, if the professional curtain and blankets don’t finish the job well, why can’t you up your style and get double or triple pane windows? But only when you have a reliable budget.

Other options to soundproof your window include the addition of the acrylic layer. This makes it even more effective at blocking out the sound waves.

3.   Rearrange the Furniture in the Room

If you have been reading all my other posts I have created about soundproofing, you notice this point consistently. This is because it is free and easy to implement if you are truly committed to the course.

You want to arrange furniture like bookshelves as closer to the suspect wall as possible and fill it with many books. The same with a closet filled with clothes.

Don’t get to the point of doing so with your couches and sofas. They are pieces of furniture but you keep using them every other day.

Furniture reduces the speed of sound waves by blocking the pathways. Which reduces the bouncing-off over hard surfaces.

The outcomes are not bad; reduction of echoes and reverberations.

By rearranging the bed and finding a further place from the shared wall for it, you can expect to have a better sleep than before.

Talking about furniture, consider your paintings as well. You can place them on the wall that you share with your neighbor and you will be shocked how effective things will turn out in terms of noise reduction.

4.    Soundproof the Shared Wall(s)

I mentioned something about sharing a wall(s) with neighbors. They can bring in a lot of noise.

Therefore, you will consider soundproofing them.

You can soundproof walls using acoustic foam panels. These are good at both sound deadening and absorption since they are made using fiberglass mostly.

Your choice of an acoustic panel should focus on its density and thickness. Not just attractive looks as some of them can be!

Make sure that when purchasing these panels, you consider the best options available on the market for soundproofing.

Instead, go for the dry walls if it is not a rented house. While dry walls can be an expensive pursuit, it gets your concerns well sorted.

A dry wall is a panel that’s constructed using gypsum and it is mostly used in the construction of interior walls. There are many types – think about the likes of gypsum panel and plasterboard.

This is not the easy way of soundproofing a wall cheaply but what it does it worth a try.

The dry wall is fixed on the existing wall using nails or screws. And this process is very easy and quick.

So what are the advantages of drywall? Well, …it’s durable, thick to reduce the sounds, and can even withstand fire.

5.   Soundproof Even the Ceiling!

If you stay in a story apartment, you could be bothered by your upstairs neighbors. If they play loud music or keep trampling their floor – which is your ceiling! – you will get the impact of it.

You want to try out materials such as a heavy acoustical mat or acoustic foam panels. This one is capable of killing off too many vibrations and sound from above.

The dry wall could do good because it will thicken the ceiling and make it hard for the full, free flow of sound waves down the room. You can screw the dry wall on the ceiling quite simply.

6.   Carpet Your Floor

The floor can be an ideal channel of sound waves if you are staying just upstairs above an inconsiderate neighbor. So you have to do something about it.

Soundproofing a floor is not a hard thing compared to the ceiling. All you need is the necessary carpeting material. Use soundproof tiles on the floor of your children’s room located upstairs and direct to the living room.

Therefore, find a suitable carpet mat or padding such as CraftRugs® Durable, reversible Premium Grip™ Rug Pad that you could place on top of your existing carpet. Another option is to add fluffy but heavy-duty rugs on the floor.

Rugs are good for improved home décor because they come in different varieties.

7.   Use White Noise Machines

White noise machines are special devices which are capable of playing sound at different frequencies all at the same time. They give out unique sounds and can imitate the sound produced during rainfall or when waves move in the ocean.

As this noise goes, it absorbs and muffles your neighbor’s TV or conversations or crying babies. And the good news with the machines is that they don’t cause equal disturbance for the neighbor.

Therefore, you will enjoy whatever thing you were doing in your home. Children can sleep and you can work.

A good deal is this Big Red Rooster White Noise Machine that comes with natural sounds to help you put up with the noisy neighborhood. It has high-quality sounds that guarantees sweet dreams.

Final Thoughts

Going forward, you shouldn’t be stranded whether to put up with a noisy neighbor (s) or run for your life. If they can’t change after you talk to them, the best step is to consider the best ways on how to soundproof a room from noisy neighbors.

Try to implement the steps given in this guide – there is no doubt you will come out victorious and live your desired quiet and smooth life.

The thing is not to shy away from testing different methods if one doesn’t work. Keep in mind that some methods apply only to the homeowners and not tenants.

Last update on 2023-06-04 at 23:55 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API