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I have a little office with a door, which I keep closed. But I hear everybody like they are behind me.
My house is made with concrete blocks, not wood like in the USA.
I tried by putting a sort of sealer on the door (which is metal filled by some wood and other isolator materials), made with foam. It reduced the noise like 5% at most :(
What do you recommend me to do?
I've heard sometimes the dogs can be take to the vet to surgery so they don't bark that loud. I'd suppose that's prohibited for wife and children.
Your first post sounded to me to be advocating a very rigid and controlling parenting style, which I am strongly against, so I spoke out against it as politely as I could. Your second post does not seem to me to have that tone, and instead sounds to me like you advocate parental responsibility and calmly-spoken, reasonable expectations of children, without threat of punishment, which I am strongly for :) so yay for us. LOL.
You need to dampen the sound waves. This is most effective by absorbing the energy at the peak of the wave. A cinderblock house is amost entirely reflective (vs. absorbtive) surfaces. The natural reverberation in such an environemnt will be distracting in itself.
Wall hangings would be useful here. Do not hang them directly against the wall. A space of at least a couple of inches would be more effective. High frequency sound waves have a shorter wave length. For most effective absorption you want to catch the reflected wave at the its peak.
The heavier the material the wall hanging is made of, the better. Decorative hand woven rugs would be good.
The wall hangings will effect the sound twice - first when it passes through, and then when the reflection passes back through.
Cover as much of the walls as you can, balancing esthetics and expense against the desired effect.
I would predict that doing this will result in not only a lower subjective sound level due to the reduction in reverberation, but also a real sound reduction from both the absorption and, more importantly, the fact that everyone will speak more softly since they won't feel the need to shout over the top of the reverbertion.
Also, get yourself a SOLID door for your office. A hollow door can actually serve to amplify sounds of the right frequency (think of the body of a guitar amplifying the sound of a vibrating string).
WBF
Sorry about any confusion with the first post. No, I wasn't advocating a "Do as I say, or I'll kill you" approach. But I do advocate a "Take responsibility for your children, or I'll kill you" approach. :)
ikkyu,
Not a parent yet, but I was a 5 year old once. Plus I've seen plenty of other 5 year olds since then. When my parents (or teachers) told me to do (or not do) something, for the most part I complied. Especially if they explained to me the reasoning behind it. I think most 5 year olds can understand the concept of "Daddy needs you to be quiet so he can do his work. His job is very important and he needs us to help him. When he's done or takes a break, then you don't have to worry about being quiet."
To me at least, the OP made it sound like noisy kids and wife were the status quo that had to be worked around, not periodic burts of noise that sometimes interrupted work. Besides the work issue, I don't see anything wrong in teaching kids (and adults) to use an inside voice.
When my parents (or teachers) told me to do (or not do) something, for the most part I complied.
ALL of us. Believe me ALL of us.
But today's kids are very different. Now, you can go jail to spank a kid, that didn't happen in the past. (At least in this country, you could do it, now don't)
You and me and all of this older generation complied with everything because we were afraid from parents and teachers. Today's kids don't fear anything.
Just wait till you have kids. My thoughts were exactly like yours, until I had mine. ;)
The title "How does the sound travel!? My house is too noisy" was clear about pointing to solve an acoustic problem, rather than shut up three lovely kids just because they're playing. These houses we live in, don't have free space on front or rear. I can't send them out.
As some have commented here and in other parts, it seems I have a real acoustic problem. Cinder block walls, tiles on the floor, hollow doors, no carpet anywhere, nothing hanging from the walls...
:(
No kidding!
But it's not everyday, and when they do it, they finish early.
Egg Crates, the hard cardboard kind, attached to your entire wall and door will do the trick quite nicely but don't forget to leave yourself some air spaces around the windows as you will find yourself getting too low in oxygen
Ann
I love it when childless adults dispense formulaic wisdom on child rearing. :)
not to mention those who think all children will have the same response.
or even that a younger sibling will be similar to an older one...
You and me and all of this older generation complied with everything because we were afraid from parents and teachers. Today's kids don't fear anything.
I love it when childless adults dispense formulaic wisdom on child rearing. :)
[edited by: LifeinAsia at 5:16 pm (utc) on Mar. 9, 2007]
First word my oldest daughter ever said was "dada".
First word my youngest daughter ever said was "dada".
First word my son ever said was "NO!" - and yes, he said it capitalized with an exclamation point. The last 11 years of my life have required more energy than the first 45.
Whoever has ears, let him hear. :)
I love it more when adults who can't control their own children try to give parenting advice
LifeinAsia,
and again we part ways here.
*Some children can not be controlled!*
You don't yet understand this - it appears you were controllable by whatever means your parents and guardians used. If you ever have children, you may have the type who are easily *controlled*. However, you may not and then your world will open like a flower.
After all, how do you control a child? First, you start with love: "I want what is best for you, so please do what I tell you to."
If the child does not do what you tell them? Do you move to coercion or threats?: "I know what is best for you, so if you don't do what I tell you I will take away this toy or priviledge or maybe even hit you."
And if the child still refuses? "I have taken away everything you own .. I guess I have no choice but to remove my love from you. or the hitting begins"
And then, the child still refuses?
Now, we are only back to love again. A parent can guide and instruct with love, but some children will not stand to be controlled.
[edited by: LisaWeber at 6:36 pm (utc) on Mar. 9, 2007]
Places like this forum mix all kinds together and well, here you go....
One thing keeps coming to mind.. your office is in the middle of the house, with noise coming from both sides. Part of the solution will be to address the rooms around you as well. The idea is to create an overall quieter house, without imposing an iron fist and without completely isolating yourself.
On the topic of children, enjoy them while you can. Be happy that they are active, healthy and screaming.
Live long enough to be a pain in the a*s to your kids....LOL
Consider sound waves moving through a room. When they hit an object they will either bounce off or be abosrbed. (Actually, both will happen, but to different degrees based on the material).
Depending on the dimensions of a room, different frequencies will cancel or amplify each other as they bounce off the walls (and furnishings). This depends on whether the peaks are aligning with the other peaks or with troughs. In other words, every room will become a natural comb filter attuned to a specific set of frquencies.
Egg cartons can help with this effect, since they will to some degree diffuse the sound waves.
They will not absorb the sound energy to any meaningful degree. They "may" improve the subjective experience of the room's acoustics by modifying the comb filter effect.
If we consider a room that is a perfect 3 meter cube and perfectly reflective (something close to a normal bedroom with cinder block walls) then we can calculate problem frequencies. A sound eminating from the center of the room will travel 1.5 meters to reach each wall, the ceiling and the floor. A 229 hz sound wave has a wave length of 1.5 meters. Middle C is 256 hz. The wave will reflect off the wall at its peak, and it will align with near perfection with following wave peaks, actually amplifying itself.
Egg cartons can difuse a portion of the wave, but the bulk of the wave will pass through, reflect off the wall, and pass right back through. It takes mass to absorb sound. Egg cartons are anything but massive!
Now here's the important thing for this discussion. A female voice generally falls between 165 and 225 hz. If we assume a child's voice is at the upper end of a female voice, then we see that an average room (a near 3 meter cube) will resonate at very near the frequency of the child's voice. A 225hz sound wave has a wavelength of 1.5244 meters! The comb filter effect causes the reflected sound to be much louder than one would expect. The paradox of this is that people (kids) will speak LOUDER in an attempt to "talk over" the reverberation!
It is like pointing a live microphone into a speaker! Annoying feedback!
Attenuating the sound is a better approach than diffusing it. That is accomplished by catching it at it's peak with an absorptive material (good for higher frequencies), or trapping it (good for lower frequencies).
My original suggestion of heavy wall hangings, though not perfect, does offer the benefit of doubling the absorption. It is important that the treatment not be applied directly to the wall, but rather that a space is left between the wall and the treatment.
WBF
