DIY & Remodeling With Meredith Swinehart
Fact: The science of sound is complicated. The materials, dimensions, systems, and construction methods of your home make for such a different sound environment than in mine that there's no point in trying to describe any one sound dynamic here.
But readers have sent us queries on soundproofing at home, and we suspect most already know the quickest fixes—take shoes off, get a pair of noise-canceling headphones, etc. (see Seeking Silence: 10 Low-Tech Strategies for Coping with Urban Noise for more ideas). So for those for whom interior noise is a major problem, we sought to dive a little deeper.
For guidance, I spoke with Ethan Salter, principal consultant at San Francisco acoustics consulting firm Charles M. Salter Associates. Our conversation made it clear that we won't be prescribing panaceas here, but instead we teased out some possible scenarios intended to prompt your thinking.
Note: You may well find you require the help of an engineer, an acoustics expert, or a good contractor after reading through the suggestions below. If so, you read it right.
How do I soundproof a room?
There's no such thing as soundproofing," says Salter. "Just mitigation and reduction."
Where do I start?
With the source. It sounds obvious, but the first step is always to identify what's making the noise and see if you can't stop it. If you can't, mitigate it.
Above: Exposed plumbing in the LA laundry room of Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen, featured in 11 Money-Saving Remodeling Strategies from a Hollywood House Flipper.
I'm thinking of big solutions but need more help. Is acoustic consulting only for the superrich?
Salter has a lot of commercial clients but works closely with homeowners as well. "They're not all rich," he says, while making an important point: "Sleep is a health issue, no matter who you are." His past clients include people in smallish houses who are desperate for noise control: "Maybe someone is awakened at night by the garbage truck outside, or they live in an apartment above a bar." Salter describes the consulting process as one of initial factfinding to set the goals of the project, then outlining solutions based on his clients' budget. "There are many ways to reach the end goal," says Salter, "and I like to give clients options."
Scenario 1: Plumbing noises are driving me crazy.
If you can quickly identify the source of the noise, spend money on a higher quality component—a gear, a plumbing valve, etc.—that will operate more quietly. Sometimes, it really is that simple.
If the problematic noise is coming from within your walls, you'll need to go straight to the source, says Salter. There are as many solutions as there are scenarios you might find inside, but here are a few to prompt your thinking:
- A plumbing pipe might cause noise if it touches the gypsum board of the wall, through direct surface-to-surface conduction. One solution is to add air space between the pipe and the wall, separating the solid surfaces so the sound lacks a direct path to travel.
- A pipe may have a rigid but necessary attachment. Is there an attachment that is equally effective for plumbing purposes but quieter, say one made of rubber or plastic instead of metal?
- The wall itself may be so rigidly attached that it's exacerbating any source of noise. A possible solution is a more resilient mounting system using channels or clips instead of drywall screwed directly into the studs.
Above: Books absorb sound in a Clinton Hill loft by BWArchitects. (See An Artist Lives/Works in Brooklyn.)
Scenario 2: My bedroom is close to the kitchen, so it's hard to sleep if someone is banging around.
By nature, kitchens don't have many soft materials—food prep requires hard surfaces, which create noise issues. In your initial design phase, think about minimizing sound: Choose quiet plumbing fixtures and appliances, and use soft-closing hardware so cabinets and drawers shut silently. Since you can't do much else at the source, solve the problem on the receiving end:
- Block the sound by installing a solid-core bedroom door with a gasket that goes all the way to the bottom. If there's even an inch of room at the bottom of the door, the thickest door in the world won't make a difference. But most rooms rely on the air space beneath interior doors for air flow, so you'll need to account for air flow somewhere else.
- Mask the sound by adding white noise. There are apps, sound systems, computer programs, and machines that all do this. White noise doesn't cancel sounds, but it makes your mind less able to focus on singular sounds coming from the kitchen.
- Absorb the sound by adding soft surfaces in the bedroom. When sound waves enter, you want them to be absorbed as quickly as possible. Rugs, cushions, and blankets are all obvious choices, but Salter even suggests bookcases (filled with books) and hanging artwork on walls.
Above: A hidden TV solution in an apartment by Shelton Mindel & Associates; see more in 12 Elegant Solutions for Hiding a Flat-Screen TV.
Scenario 3: I want to read (in peace); someone else wants to watch TV.
- Find a way to turn down the volume. This sounds like a cheeky answer, but there are creative options. For instance, if the viewer is sitting 10 to 15 feet away from the television, he or she will need to crank up the volume. But speakers mounted nearer the viewer will dramatically reduce the need for volume.
- Is the TV mounted on the wall? If so, some of the same concepts addressed in the plumbing question apply here. A rigid mounting job may be amplifying the noise of the TV through the wall. Consider taking it off the wall and setting it on a piece of furniture. If that's not an option, get help finding a more resilient (less rigid) mounting system.
Read on for more sound advice:
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Home Inspiration With Margot Guralnick
When we first met Paula Greif back in 2012, she had set out to make every utensil in her Brooklyn kitchen herself out of clay: See The Handmade Kitchen. (We date our infatuation with small-batch pottery back to that post—and Paula's work remains the standard bearer.) Since then, the former graphic designer and director of music videos and commercials has devoted herself full time to her ceramics, and set a new goal: To establish her own all-in-one studio, home, and retail shop. After a two-year budget remodel of an impossibly skinny three-story structure in Hudson, NY, she has just opened for business.
Photography by Paula Greif for Remodelista.
The Shop
Above: Located on Warren Street, Hudson's shopping hub, Paula's new quarters are a mere 10 feet wide (nine feet on the inside) and "must have been built as an alley infill," she says. The building, likely a commercial space to begin with, was used as a house in recent years. Paula gave it a gut renovation, including introducing a storefront and painting the exterior black (it's Benjamin Moore Black Tar).
Above: Paula worked on the project with her friend Stephen Shadley, Diane Keaton's longtime interior designer, who happens to be building his own place across the river. Starting on the ground floor, which includes the shop and studio in the back, Paula had every room paneled with pre-primed horizontal poplar Trim Boards for a shiplap effect: "This was my splurge. It makes the place feel like a treehouse in Scandinavia, or a glamorous trailer."
Above L: Ceramic serving utensils—which look something like pieces from a children's book illustration brought to life and are fully functional (even dishwasher safe)—are displayed above a chair made from an old headboard. Above R: A beaker and plate.
Paula works in stoneware, porcelain, and terracotta, and uses a range of techniques: "hand building, slab, wheel, pinched." Most of her pieces are one- or few-of-a-kind. Her new shop is the best source, and they're also available online at Paula Greif Ceramics, but tend to sell out fast (Paula sends alerts to subscribers every few months when she replenishes her site.) A Spotted Pitcher, similar to the beaker, is $210; an indigo-dotted Peacock Platter is $285.
Above: Paula's work and her new setup are inspired by celebrated ceramic artist Lucie Rie, who fled Nazi Vienna and had her own live/work studio in a mews house in London from 1939 to 1995. A longstanding collector, Paula furnished upstairs and down with the best of her antiques holdings.
Above: Paula's wares are displayed on simple wooden box shelves.
Above: A porcelain bowl and compote with hand-drawn lines. Similar Striped Nesting Bowls are $300 for a pair, and a 7.7-inch-tall Footed Bowl is $295.
Above: More from Paula's blue-and-white collection. Her signature cat dishes, she says, "started as a funny going-away-to-college gift for my kid, Anna—we're cat people." See terracotta versions of the Cats in her online shop.
The Living Quarters
Above: The interior narrows from 600 square feet downstairs to 400 square feet on the second floor, home to the living room and kitchen.
Paula's vintage Knole settee, a long-ago purchase, is "in its fourth life, last slipcovered in white canvas and now upholstered in yellow linen." The floors throughout are painted Benjamin Moore Decorator's White in a gloss.
Above: The room doubles as guest quarters thanks to this pair of 1940s chairs that each convert into a twin bed. Paula bought them from her next-door neighbor, antiques dealer Vincent Mulford. The Indian block-printed pillows are from Layla in Brooklyn. The New Guinea wall hanging and many other of Paula's best finds came from late-great downtown NYC shop Joel Mathiesen Antiques.
Above: I did everything at the lowest cost possible," says Paula, who credits her builder Glenn Young of Catskill, NY, with "always having the right solution." In the kitchen that involved coming up with an affordable combination of custom cabinetry with white Formica counters on plywood. Paula looked for white appliances, and paired an Ikea built-in range (a since discontinued model) with a Whirlpool cooktop and a 24-inch-deep Summit refrigerator ("the cheapest counter depth you can find"), both special ordered for her by her local Home Depot in Catskill. Paula sprang for a Bosch dishwasher and vent—"worth it for their soundlessness."
The kitchen opens to a newly added back porch that makes the narrow space feel bigger. The yellow floor mat is from Ikea and the ladderback chair is a Brooklyn street find.
Above: Paula's Grohoe Minta Pull-Out Spray Faucet came from Faucet Direct—"I was hesitant to buy stuff online but was blown away by the service; I had to exchange things and there were no questions asked and shipping was free." The aluminum cabinet pulls are Ikea's Blankett design ($3.99 for two)—"not bad knockoffs of Sagatsune."
Above: The paneling extends to the 300-square-foot top floor, devoted to the master bedroom and bath. The soaking tub is the Wyndam Collection's 5.58-Foot Laura, another Home Depot special order ("They, too, were great to work with, and we got a contractor discount"). The sink is a Kingston Brass Sierra Square with a Grohe Starlight Chrome Single-Hole Faucet, both from Faucet Direct.
Above: In Paula's tranquil bedroom, a bench from the Essex Street Market in NYC holds one of her terracotta vases. The bed has Ikea white linens topped with a Turkish carpet from Kea Carpets of Hudson, NY.
Above: The shop is at 419 1/2 Warren Street, sandwiched between Vincent Mulford Antiques and Old Hudson Market, and is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays—"unless I'm off on a family or friend festivity," writes Paula on her site.
"What I love about living here is that there's so much talent and vision on all sides," she says. "Hudson has an amazing history and a complicated and diverse population. A big Bangladeshi community came in the 1980s, and so did the antiques dealers. More recently, the artists and young farmers and makers have moved in. I'm very at home here."
Where Paula goes, we follow. Take a look at her previous Brooklyn apartment and peruse more of her ceramics.
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Great tips! To add to that, here are other Effective Ways on How to Soundproof your Bedroom
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