Indoor SoundIndoor EquipmentLots of things in your house make noise and generate Indoor Sound - like the dishwasher, refrigerator, ice maker, clothes washer & dryer, toilets flushing, showers and other water running, etc. Which of these are placed so that they may be distruptive to other activities?Our refrigerator is really loud when it is running and it backs up to a wall of one of the guest rooms. The noise from the back of the refrigerator is louder in the guest room than in the kitchen. This makes it difficult for some people to fall asleep at night, and when the ice maker refills with water or the ice drops out it is so loud that it wakes people up!
Indoor ConstructionOne of the reasons for this is how Indoor Construction is completed. Most homes do not have any insulation inside interior walls - it is just the wood or steel framing with drywall on both outside faces. This means that sound is transmitted easily. A master batch toilet next to the office makes it so that if you are in the office talking on the phone the person on the other end of the phone can hear the toilet flush. The shape of some rooms and the construction can amplify the sounds in adjacent rooms of the house.
Indoor SoundOther items generate Indoor Sound - TVs, Stereo's, Home Theatre's, etc. Remember kid's having the fledgling rock band in the garage? That's because the walls surrounding the garage are insulated from the house. But in normal home construction a teenagers room with the stereo turned up all the way is not!Next Lesson Learned - A common wall between a Family Room and a Master Bedroom should not be the wall where the TV is placed. The sound of the TV may end up being louder in the Master Bedroom than in the Family room due to speaker placement or where the internal TV speakers are located. Some Building Material companies are producing new products for home interior sound isolation. If you are building a new home ask your builder or contractor about installing this particularly around walls of rooms where sound will be generated or where you want to keep sound out.
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