Dealing with noise while renting.
For the loud neighbors, streets and roomies.
Along with the global rising cost of rent, dealing with unwanted noise in your home is perhaps the second biggest annoyance in the shelter department, as a musician with nomadic tendencies I’ve been on both the receiving and producing ends across multiple continents and I’ve picked up a few insights and solutions that I hope you can use to improve your noise issues.
Low Cost and pratical: Soundproofing can get expensive and my target
audience here are my fellow renters which I assume want to spend as little
as possible and do as little modifications to their rental, gotta get that
deposit back !How to take a nap when your neighbors are drilling on the opposite wall.
I swear I was a cat in my previous life because napping is one of my favorite things in the world, but what to do when there’s a literal construction site on the other side of your wall !?
I start here because this is both the most extreme case and one that exemplifies that you might need “tools” of your own along with some adjusting, this is what I recommend :
In the war against noise, especially while sleeping, the humble earplug is the first line of defense, but like any other tool it needs some getting used to…
Earplug Tips:
Expect anywhere from a week to a couple of months to get used to sleeping
with earplugs, you also need to experiment with different brands, sizes
and firmness, correctly inserting them is also a bit of an art.
I settled for Macks Ultra Soft (Nrr 33Db), you can use the
same pair for a few days but make sure to have a sterile place to store
them during the day, you can also side-sleep and I've had no problems
hearing my alarm.
The biggest issue I have is that they can get itchy at times, gently
shaking them from the outside usually helps. ANC Headphones
I ruined my first pair of fancy airpods pro while using a massage gun and ordered a replacement pair the next day (💸 !) , thats how useful they are, while I use them mostly when out and about, if your neighbors are driving you crazy they beat over-ear ones for some tasks like computer work/cleaning/cooking etc,etc, I still recommend you invest in a second over-ear pair of headphones with ANC, I have an old Bose QC ( about 10 yrs old ! ), that absolutely nukes exterior sound especially when paired with earplugs, I did replace the pads with comfier ones for sleeping though.
Sleeping with over-ear headphones
I haven't managed (or thankfully needed) to sleep a whole 8 hours with them
and I invariably turn sideways at some point during the night, so I use
them almost exclusively for naps up to an hour long (don't judge) and
sleeping face up, one more praise for naps is that they give you a test bed
(pardon the pun) to experiment and usually the world is extra loud during
nap time,and yes it does take some time to get used to them.White noise app
The pièce de résistance of this whole nap setup is a white noise app, I tried various and settled for White Noise Lite from Tmsoft . Finding the right noise to fall asleep does takes a bit of experimenting ( I like Pink Noise ).
Masking sound is another way to combat noise, I have a tower fan that does
double duty as a white noise machine on loud nights and mornings but a
dedicated white noise machine ( which are more or less cheap) has been on
my wishlist for years.Know thy enemy !
You might think that your neighbor/city/roomie is your enemy and well they aren’t, the sooner you realize this the sooner you can stop suffering (see below), your real enemies are vibrations propagating through stuff, mostly air and construction materials, we call these vibrations sound waves, and noise when they are not pleasant, and like any enemy they have weaknesses you can exploit to your advantage.
But my neighbor/city/roomie is from hell !
And you are probably right and we should get together to trade war stories
like that time my downstairs neighbors threw a 3 day rager,the 2
week long street construction project or that time my roomie came home
from the bar with 2 girls and a dog!
The thing is that you have no control on other folks actions
(but 100% on yours !), every noise guide tells you to go talk to your
neighbors and see if they can turn it down, and I am here to tell you that
they are all wrong, ultimately people are not willing to change their
habits for you any more than you are for them, and like cleanliness we all
have different standards.
You might also be thinking that money, specifically the lack of it is the
culprit, if I was rich I'd finally afford a nice quiet place, but there
is no guarantee you won't have noise problems even if you are a billionaire
with a mansion. Money does help in soundproofing if used judiciously at the
construciton phase but is not a given.Declare war on these invading vibrations, not those creating them and defend yourself first (with earplugs/anc headphones/white noise) , and then your home like you would a castle by fortifying it (this needs some discussion), going on a crusade against your neighbors, being on the offensive so to speak and declaring war on them while possible in my experience will create other problems, drain your resources and sanity !
How sound propagates.
Why am I hearing street food stand noises (chopping/reggaeton/cursing) inside my apartment’s kitchen on an 8th floor !? The answer has to do with how sound propagates, it’s a little hard to visualize, but sound waves are like fiery balls of vibrations rapidly expanding and multiplying in every which direction:
Sound absorption, reflection and transmission
In the above illustration, sound waves encounter a wall and some bounce from it (sound reflection) and some pass through the wall (sound absorption) generating another sound source on the other side (sound transmission), notice that the sound waves change in intensity and that at each point they expand in a 3D manner (in every which way).
Not so good vibrations. When your upstairs neighbors play fetch with their
pet elephant, they are not only generating sound waves, but also
structural vibrations (literally shaking the house) which are a secondary
type of annoyance, that is if you canceled all the noise coming into your
house, you would still feel (not hear) some vibrations if someone was say
hitting a wall hard enough, while harder to eliminate, we will talk about
diminishing them as well.Every material has a different response to sound, that is they can absorb it, transmit it or reflect it, the amount of material is also a factor and to complicate matters more sound is divided in frequencies, low like thuds and rumbles, highs like beeps and squeaks and medium like your roommate or neighbor yapping about, music usually covers the spectrum, here’s a table with construction materials ranked by how much outside noise they block (reflection) along with comparable transmission and absorption.
Chances are your current noise/sound predicament is tied to the materials used to construct your abode, lack of them and/or their current condition, this table also exemplifies why it is hard to soundproof, all the top sound blocking materials are construction materials, cork is expensive and wood while relatively cheap transmits almost the same amount as it reflects, sound waves and interior designers love wood, occupants not so much ! Drywall which probably surrounds you is only marginally better but it’s cheap.
Sound absorption and blocking are NOT the same !?
Absorption usually gets rid of reverb and echo and in generally makes the
room you are in "nicer" and "quieter, we musicians love this, highly sound
absorptive materials like my favorite the acoustic panel do not block
outside noise, but rather make it "nicer", muffled, less clear and so
while I recommend them they are more like a peace treaty solution rather
than a complete victory over noise. Back to my dilema , this is a diagram of my previous apartment along with the materials and how sound traveled through them.
My solution was to treat the thin metal space above the windows and that cut the noise in half ! I also added outdoor panels and wooden dividers, but that was mostly for privacy yet also helped in the sound department, all in all it was quiet inside and passable outside, not bad for a place next to one of the most trafficked streets in the world !
Become a sound detective
So you now know how sound propagates, whats next ? Well, pinpoint the source of your sound issues, sound loves air, so wherever you get an air current, sound will happily travel through it, blocking those is a good first start and can be done easily and mostly cheaply with diy foam runners , sealants or draft stoppers.
Sealing a room where you can take shelter like your bedroom, also keeps out
light and bugs. I always start with the bedroom, its the bunker inside your
castle.Sometimes noise comes from weird places like door frames, pillars, window sills, some worn out floor or ceiling patches, etc,etc. Using a db meter app can help pinpoint and map them, this is important because sound as discussed expands once inside your place but could easily just be leaking through a small area, it also gives you a plan of attack for the main battle that is blocking sound.
Fight smart!
You could also write down the times at which sounds happen and
plan ahead to not be there if possible, sorry obnoxious sound you missed me
...I was at the park having fun.On that note and before we move on to sound blocking techniques, I want you to realize that your noise tolerance could be a finite resource, if you spend your mornings surrounded by noisy seals at the harbor or loud coworkers at the office, your tolerance to noise at night at home could be lower, so a sensible approach is to aim for an overall reduction in noise through the day, not to stop your neighbors kid from practicing piano from 7:30 to 8:00 pm every other day.
Block the noise
If sound loves air it hates mass and labyrinths, add enough material, especially dense material, and sound will be reflected and not transmitted or if the material is constructed in such a way to trap or disperse sound waves it will become muffled, finding cheap, available and easy to install materials is the hardest part here.
Acoustic Panels/Tiles: If you remember from the material list, acoustic panels are not very good at reflecting sound, so why recommend them, why first ? Few reasons: they are easy to install, affordable ( although not cheap ) , and can be used as the foundation for more complex sound blocking structures, their versatility alone is why I recommend them, you can tape them to floors, doors, walls and ceilings, cut them to size, make free standing structures and when you leave your rental take them with you. So let’s take a closer look and discuss cost/installation in a review of sorts.
Cost: For an average room size of 20m² and height of 2.4 mts (8 feet) you are looking at 480 tiles for all 4 walls ( 120 per wall ) and 225 for the ceiling, so about 705 for the whole room, where I live I pay around $2 USD per tile, so about $240 per wall, $450 for the ceiling, and a whooping $1,410 for a room, this doesn’t even guarantee you blocking the noise! Hence the need to first find out and map precisely where the sound is coming from.
Installation:A mixed bag as they can be easily placed on walls with double sided tape, but this tape (even good quality ones) can sometimes peel the paint of the wall and you will need to paint over, at least on some spots, in some instances they can simply be stacked up letting gravity hold them in place, taped, nailed or screwed.
Advanced acoustic panelology !
One day someone will invent a perfect soundproofing panel that is cheap and convenient to install, for now the best you can do is to stack materials, here’s a couple of recipes to get you started:
4 quick, dirty and affordable variations based off acoustic tiles
1. Just stack a couple and join them with sewing pins, this will
almost double the sound absorption.
2. While air is still sounds best friend, if you encase a volume of it
between 2 acoustic tiles you create a resonator that can reduce the
volume as it bounces and dissipates energy.
3.and 4. Composite sandwiches of sound blocking materials, substitute
particle board with whatevere hard and thin surface you can get your hands
on, if using softer spongy materials like foam board place them in the
middle.
I use sewing pins to hold these together, but you can also tape them or
glue them together.Special Bedroom Curtains: While I usually sleep with earplugs and have the windows closed , it is nice to mute the outside street noise and light, to this end I designed ( more like hacked ) a 3 layer curtain setup with movers blankets sewed in one of the layers, it considerably mutes the outside street noise on command, my next upgrade is to somehow incorporate pockets for acoustic tiles, here’s how that would look:
“Experimental” sound proofing materials.
If acoustic tiles seem to expensive, fret not, the main idea I want you to take home is that fuzzy materials can disperse sound and hard surfaced ones have a good chance of reflecting them, mass, not necessarily volume in both cases can help the war effort, a common sound absorbing panel design for musicians involves towels, fabric and a wood frame, add some hard surface backing and you are in business:
Rubbery materials also make excellent sound proofing "components", yoga
mats and gym mats can be had for relatively cheap, foam based materials
can also be great but they need to be dense ( think your foam mattress),
make sure they don't offgas else you are just trading for a bigger health
problem.Upstairs stomping :
This is a though one as ceilings are not something you want to be messing around in a rental, are hard/dangerous to work on and the “stomping noise” that is driving you crazy is both vibrations and sound waves that can be amplified in whatever room you are in, so it is like the olympics of soundproofing on a budget and no one ( including myself ) has been able to come up with a perfect solution, so I recommend you aim for livable not noise free and these are some strategies ( from easy to hard ):
- Make the room less sound bouncy : rugs, furniture, curtains, drapes etc,etc, can be used to absorb the upstairs noise, if your room is full of hard surfaces the sound will most likely be amplified.
- White noise is the prefered way I deal with upstairs neighbors, but instead of a dedicated white noise machine I have a couple of air purifiers on most of the time which provide the added benefit of clean air !
- Acoustic tiles, Same medium cost/ medium benefit solution we’ve been discussing, but with the added difficulty of having to place them on a ceiling, usually with double sided tape, a ladder and a prayer.
- Bed Cage/Canopy You can buy a bed canopy or bed frame that encloses the bed for not much money, usually made for hanging mosquito nets or decoration, but they also serve as a base to add slats ( anything that bridges the overhead gaps safely) and acoustic tiles/soundproofing on top of those.
- Hanging Tiles and soundproofing structures, If you can screw into your ceiling you can use wire hooks and platforms ( usually particle board ) along with acoustic tiles and other soundproofing materials.
Paradoxically dealing with downstairs noise is easier, rugs, mats,
mass loaded viny, furniture can all be placed with little issue.Vibrations.
If dealing with upstairs noise is hard, dealing with unwanted vibrations or the vibrational component of sound seems beyond our current means as renters, even folks with lots of money like music studios encounter difficulties and great cost as you sometimes need to make a room inside a room that is not connected to the outer room, pure magic and wizardry !
But we are not defensless, far from it, like noise you want to stop vibrations from spreading and to do that, besides placing furniture strategically, you can also place said furniture on pads, I like to use leftover acoustic tiles, but you can also find rubber and felt feet for beds and furniture that are mostly cheap.
More money and expertise required
So let’s say you are staying at your rental for a few years and are willing to fork some money and even leave your soundproofing when you move, obviously if you bought a place you are in this category as well. While I am no professional sound-proofer I have swooned and researched how the pros do it and there’s even something for the budget minded ( double drywall ).
Do consult with your landlord/property manager about these type of
projects before embarking on them, your deposit is at stake !2X Drywall/Sheetrock + Green Glue + Mass loaded Vinyl
The “easiest” soundproofing technique is to double the drywall/sheetrock on your walls and ceilings, it is fairly cheap compared to acoustic tiles but does require especial tools, knowhow and finishing, so once you add labour and additional costs it might not be that cheap.
Retrofitting and existing wall with soundproofing materials is the next step up and involves removing/replacing the existing surfaces and stuffing them with insulation materials, typically acoustic insulation which is relatively cheap and also thermally insulates.
The spare no expense route usually involves getting down to the studs and rebuilding the walls as sandwiches of sheetrock, mass loaded vinyl, a thing called green glue and a nice acoustic material like wood, additionally to “decouple” the room from vibrations, specialized and expensive hardware needs to be added, usually between the harder outer surfaces like bricks and the wood framing… $$$$!
When to Leave ?
In the dozen or so apartments I’ve rented, I’ve never left a place due to noise and have gotten my deposit back every single time ( I did have to threaten legal action in a few occasions) , the most egregious one, a family controlled building I was staying rent free had a dodgy speakeasy as neighbor on one end, and a derelict warehouse that hosted raves on the other, even then I found a way to make it work but happy to leave as even free was too much to pay for this situation, so when should you leave your place due to noise ?
Online advice can be too eager to recommend you find a new place, I on the other hand think almost all rentals have noise issues and finding a new place and moving can be as stressful as living with noise with no guarantee you will find a new noise free place, so I believe on trying to make it work…up to a point.
Even before moving into a new place I budget about one months rent for soundproofing and general repairs, yes, even if its a rental I will be spending my money on fixing their place to my standards, obviously I try to make everything easy to take down and not damaging, remember the deposit ! A lot of people balk at this, but I also believe they are neglecting the sad reality that slumlords are the norm, noise issues are usually not considered important and well, that in the end its your own personal war and you are your own army, nobody else will fight for you.
If I gave it my all, and after some months I haven’t seen improvements, I’d definitely start looking for a place though.
Thanks for reading and I hope this guide helps you in your war against apartment noise and you find peace and quiet !
