Keep It Quiet : Soundproofing isn’t cheap, but there are some simple noise-relief measures homeowners can take themselves.
Apartment manager Frank Hill could not rent a lovely second-floor unit at the Amie Apartments in Brentwood, no matter what he did. He reduced the rent, installed new carpets and tile counter tops and added ceiling fans.
None of that mattered because something less tangible was missing: the sound of silence. The apartment perches above the corner of Chenault Street and Barrington Avenue, a noisy two-lane thoroughfare that stretches between Wilshire and Sunset boulevards.
“You couldn’t carry on a conversation with all the trash trucks, car alarms and postal trucks rumbling by,†Hill said. “It was so frustrating; I couldn’t rent it for five months, and that’s $5,000 down the drain.â€
As a last resort, Hill convinced the landlord to pay about $400 each for acoustic windows, specially laminated sliders that fit inside existing window frames, to reduce sound about 75%.
Less than a month later, a couple moved in. Now Hill installs the windows in every apartment unit as it becomes available.
Quiet can be hard to come by in the Southland: Diesel engines roar, horns honk, babies cry, lawn mowers whine, stereos pound. The basic human craving for privacy touches nearly every person in every house, condo and apartment.
An acceptable level of noise, according to the state Uniform Building Code, is 50 decibels for both airborne sounds (voices, music) and impact sounds (walking, moving furniture).
When a home is built, the state building code requires that floors, ceilings and walls muffle sound to that level, which is about the equivalent of rustling leaves or a purring kitten in your lap.
But experts say this is rarely enforced. In addition, even approved building materials may not be good enough.
“Construction materials are tested to see if they meet the 50-decibel requirement in laboratories with carefully controlled concrete rooms,†said acoustical consultant Jack Purcell of Chatsworth-based Purcell & Noppe. “But you never really know how they will perform in a particular home.â€
The most important thing a homeowner or renter can do to make sure a house, condo or apartment is comfortably quiet is try it out before buying or signing a lease, Purcell said.
“Just like test-driving a car, you have to test-drive your home,†he said. “If you can get access to the next-door unit, have someone go in and play the radio, fill the bathtub, walk on the stairs, see if it would make you crazy.â€
Purcell works on occasions as an expert witness for homeowners and developers engaged in construction defect litigation. The most common complaints he hears are about loud plumbing and thin walls.
Cutting through a wall to wrap pipes with neoprene or to replace plastic pipes with cast iron can be expensive and difficult. So can filling the space between the outside stucco and the inside drywall with dense fiberglass.
Purcell suggests asking the neighbor to first try such intermediate measures as threading aerated connectors to bathtub spouts to slow down velocity and keep water from splashing hard on the bottom of a tub, which causes vibrations. An aerator costs about $2. He also advises having the home’s water pressure checked and, if needed, investing $150 to $200 for a new regulator to keep water pressure in the range of 50 to 60 pounds per square inch. For walls that aren’t properly insulated, layers of drywall, gypsum board or even fiberglass can be added and then painted or wallpapered.
In many cases like these, acoustical consultants and special materials can be more than a homeowner needs. Hiring a consultant like Purcell can cost from $75 to $125 an hour. Many consultants specialize in such commercial work as designing sound studios or they work for architects and contractors who retrofit or build multiple apartments or condominiums.
Specialty acoustic materials can also be expensive. For example, the 3- by 8-foot windows Hill had installed from Long Beach-based Quiet Windows are about $600 each, including installation labor. Enkasonic floor mats made of nylon filament, sold at Park Noise Control in Anaheim, absorb such impact noises as footsteps, but they cost up to $3.50 a square foot. Steel louvered vents that replace crawl space screens and cut down on airborne noise like traffic sounds sell at Orange County-based Acoustic Standards for about $100 each.
“I get calls twice a day from people fed up with traffic or parents whose kids play their music too loud,†said Vince Jones, a commercial sound consultant with Acoustic Standards. “But once they find out it costs thousands of dollars to really soundproof just one room, they look to more simple solutions.â€
Simple solutions include considering how sound travels into a home and taking a look at windows, doors, ceilings, floor and ventilation ducts.
“Common sense tells you if light seeps along the edges of a front door, so does sound,†said John Wylder of Noise Control Materials. “If windows don’t shut completely, they can’t keep out the wails of the crying baby next door.â€
Weatherstripping along window and door jambs will help, as will hanging heavy doors and drapes. Weight counts when keeping out sound.
The people who know better than most how noise pollution can drain the quality of life are those who live near busy transportation hubs. Noise level measurements increase exponentially, just as earthquake measurements do. So people who live near Los Angeles International Airport, for example, are subjected to noise levels in the 100-decibel range during takeoffs and landings; the average noise level is 75 decibels, about the same as having a lawn mower engine running in the living room.
The Federal Aviation Administration has set aside millions of dollars to retrofit residents’ homes in LAX’s neighboring communities of El Segundo, Inglewood, Westchester and Playa del Rey.
In November, the Los Angeles Department of Airports agreed to match the FAA funds for residents who promise not to sue LAX in the future.
Sound insulation costs about $18,500 for apartments and $45,000 for single-family homes. The work will include new acoustic windows, double-pane patio doors, acoustic front doors so heavy they require four hinges to hold them in place, insulation between roof rafters, drywall on the topside of the ceiling rafters and steel louvered ventilation in place of crawl space and attic screens. Two-speed air circulation systems will be added because acoustic windows and doors can’t work if they are opened for ventilation.
The city of El Segundo will not tap the Department of Airport funds, however, because residents there refused to sign the required easements giving the airport use of their airspace without future legal recourse for the homeowners.
The El Segundo City Council ruled last August that homeowners who did want to sign the easement could pay the 20% matching grant money themselves to get FAA money to have their homes insulated from sound. Already, 175 have signed up to pay--in some cases up to $9,000--and work on their homes is expected to begin in June.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority faces its own noise control battle now that the Green Line is running. Hawthorne neighbors, for example, are demanding the MTA do something about what they say is a several times daily 75-decibel intrusion into their lives.
“It’s aggravating, to say the least,†said Harry Alenik, who hears the Green Line pass behind his backyard dozens of times a day. “You can’t carry on a conversation when it goes by.â€
The MTA has promised to grind down the rails and check train cars for defective wheels. If that doesn’t help, MTA officials have said, the agency might pay to build a wall between the track and neighboring homes.
Whether they live near the path of a jetliner, train or a stream of cars, when all else fails, some people turn to sleep machines that play innocuous sounds, like those of rain or surf. They can be found at retail electronics store for about $40.
Brentwood apartment manager Frank Hill, who doesn’t have the acoustic windows in his own apartment yet, prefers to play jazz CDs. As Hill said, “George Winston outplays the traffic any day.â€
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Sound Advice
Acoustical consultants can be found in the Yellow Pages under Acoustics. Fees typically range from $75 to $125 and hour. Most have backgrounds in architecture or engineering.
If you decide to hire one, ask about his or her background, education and specialties and get references.
For more information about acoustical consultants, call:
National Council of
Acoustical Consultants
Springfield, N.J.
(201) 564-5859
or
Institute of Noise
Control Engineering
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
(914) 462-4006
(To be a member of the institute, a consultant must pass a written and oral exam.)
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