Noise annoys

This site often has posts on music – sound effectively – but there’s the question of when there’s too much noise.

The Irish Times recently had a piece on how to soundproof a house from too much noise from neighbours, whether television, music or general, from a neighbours. In truth there’s not a lot one can do. The key is to add ‘mass’ to a wall but that’s not guaranteed to block out all or even most of the sound and as can be imagined it costs a good bit of money. Worse, as the piece notes, to be fully effective it needs to be done on both sides. Getting agreement on that is a hell of a challenge.

I’ve been that soldier myself, in various houses. The worst was arguably living in a terrace beside a bunch of students in the late 1990s whose favourite pastime was to play the Wolfe Tones at top volume in the very early hours of the morning at weekends and during weeks.

Then, living in another terraced house, there was the neighbour who liked to throw parties on a Sunday night, playing Abba, the Beatles and other classics. It was sorted but it was tricky because relationships between neighbours can be odd things at the best of times. 

Sound is amazingly intrusive, in part because of a strange combination of shapelessness and familiarity to the sounds. You can make out the melody, just about, but it’s distorted.  

I’ve wondered as I get older why it doesn’t seem to bother me quite as much. Hearing loss, perhaps, but also I like to fall asleep to music on a device using earphones (turned about as low as is possible). The problem is when the sound from outside overwhelms the earphones. 

Still in a terraced house but bar the odd party (and who could begrudge people holding one?), it’s reasonably calm. Apartments are a different matter entirely.

In the 1990s I used to work for a company, one of whose arms installed electrical consumer units and electrics, wiring, switches, the works, in domestic interiors. Occasionally, I’d go out on a trip with the sales reps just to see what they were doing. It linked vaguely into what I did but it really was just an excuse to hang out. The reps would take great delight in knocking on walls to demonstrate how thin they were and how easily sound travelled. It was an eye-opener and, as they said, party walls were more robust in the past.

Has that improved? Anyone know?