Eric Ungar’s Acoustics from A to Z: B – Buildings
Or want to sleep or have enjoyment,
We need to stop intruding noise
From streets, TVs, and neighbors’ toys,
From footfall impacts, other shocks,
Most anything that squeaks or knocks.
One person’s music is another person’s noise. It all depends on what we want to hear. Achievement of the desired acoustical environment in a room involves providing envelope structures that block noise intrusion from adjacent areas and adding acoustical absorption to avoid the build-up of noise that gets through the envelope.
In addition to dealing with audible “air-borne” noise in adjacent areas, one also needs to address “structure-borne noise” – that is, noise that results from mechanical vibrations of the envelope structures. The walls, floor and ceiling of a room tend to act somewhat like loudspeaker membranes whose vibrations in the audio frequency range radiate sound. Structurally radiated noise in rooms may result from people walking or chairs scraping upstairs and from vibrating equipment (refrigerator compressors, unisolated plumbing or the legs of pianos, for example) in contact with walls or floors.
What can you do to deal with noise from the neighbors? Ask them to avoid annoying activities at times when you don’t want to hear them. Get them to install thick rugs or, better yet, a floating floor. Get vibrating equipment isolated. Build an isolated ceiling and secondary walls, so that you in effect have an isolated room within a room. Start living with permanent earplugs. Or, move elsewhere.