Your home is your refuge. You’ve furnished and decorated it to your taste and have the thermostat set to your ideal temperature. You may have resigned yourself to thinking the one thing you can’t change is outside noise, but that’s not the case. Acoustic glazing can help reduce unwanted sounds and transform your home into a quieter, calmer space.
Environmental noise is one nuisance that can easily infiltrate. From the occasional emergency siren that disturbs your sleep, to traffic noise as you work – sometimes you simply don’t realize how much you’re impacted. If you’re hearing outside noise in your home, those sound waves transported through the air can enter via gaps in window or door frames or through windows with inadequate sound insulation.
The sound from a vehicle measures around 70 Decibels (dB), while a siren is around 110dB. Compare that to normal speech, which is 50-60 dB. To enjoy a tranquil and comfortable home, the noise levels inside should be no more than 35 dB during the day and 30 dB at night. Anything more than that can affect relaxation, increase stress levels and impair learning ability. In short, it can impact your health and your quality of life.
Walls, floors or ceilings can allow noise into your house. The windows, however, should be one of the first elements to consider when you’re looking at improving sound insulation. Soundproofed glass with a noise reduction rating of 40 dB, for example, will approximately reduce the 70 dB noise of a vehicle to 30 dB inside your home.
First, the frame and the quality of the material: the material of the window frames can be wood, aluminum or PVC. Secondly. the installation: If the windows are not well sealed, noise will find a way through, along with cold or heat. Thirdly, use experienced professionals. And finally, the glass composition: the glass is an important factor in soundproofing windows, as it usually makes up around 80 percent of a window’s area.