Turn down the noise!

On many new suburban home sites, the space around each home is getting smaller, while noise levels are increasing from everyday living, increased traffic, or even bigger and better entertainment systems.

With many of us still working from home, having somewhere quiet to take calls or be in Zoom meetings has taken a new importance.

Fortunately, the family doesn’t need to walk around on eggshells, even if the walls are currently paper-thin, as there is an ever-increasing variety of soundproofing materials available on the market, which will drastically reduce the amount of internal and external noise transmission.

Silencing your home can be as easy as installing wall batts, or using one of the many plasterboard products. However, to block out sounds more efficiently, the soundproofing should be combined with roof and wall insulation, solid core doors, and door seals.

Some types of plasterboard to consider include –

Gyprock Soundchek - is a 10mm thick plasterboard that has sound reflective and absorptive properties, surrounded with heavy duty liner boards. Soundchek comes in two levels of sound resistance; the first makes conversations inaudible and significantly lowers other sounds, while the next makes loud sounds such as music very hard to hear.

Barrierboard – an Australian-made plasterboard composite that can reduce noise levels by up to 75 percent. It is made up of two sheets of varying thicknesses that are separated by an insulating layer. The panels can be fixed straight on to common walls without having to make many changes to architraves or doorway construction.

Boral SoundSTOP - was designed to be used in high-performance acoustic wall and ceiling systems, reducing sound to the extent that loud voices are only heard as a murmur on the other side. If greater sound blocking is required, another layer of SoundSTOP can be added to one side of the wall.

If this is all too hard right now – or if you are renting - carpeting and soft furnishings can also help to dampen sound.