Maybe you are having trouble taking a nap in your apartment during the day now, or maybe you work from home and you need quiet to focus. In any case, if you are here you most likely want to know what your options are for reducing noise from construction sounds in your apartment. And no wonder: construction can be incredibly (and constantly) noisy!
The best way to reduce construction noise in an apartment includes finding the source of noise leaks, sealing cracks in windows and doors that are letting in noise with acoustical caulk or acoustic strips, and purchasing soundproof curtains. Buying headphones or noise machines is another good option.
Soundproofing an apartment properly is a difficult task. Read on further to learn more about some of the options you have for reducing that obnoxious construction noise!
Checking Your Apartment for “Flanking Paths” or Sound Leaks
The first step in determining how you are going to soundproof your apartment is determining where the noise is coming into your apartment.
Some of the biggest culprits in most apartments include windows, doors, and gaps in the walls of the apartment (these can be caused by improperly installed electrical outlets and such).
Windows especially are often the biggest reason you may hear a significant amount of noise pouring into your apartment, as they have a relatively poor noise cancellation rating or STC.
In other cases, you may have noise coming in from construction down the hall or renovations next door, in which case the adjoining wall is most likely the root of your noisy woes.
Each of these different situations (and combinations of such situations) will require different methods in order to reduce loud sounds.
The next few sections will help to expand your understanding of where to start once you do find out the source of your troubles.
Dampening Noise Coming Through Your Window
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to stop the sound from sneaking its way into your window is with the use of acoustical caulk. This will be especially impactful if there is a gap in the caulk around the window in the first place.
Applying it is easy, and you can find many different (and generally pretty cheap) options for acoustical caulk on Amazon. Soundproof weatherstripping is yet another economical option for keeping the noise out that may be less invasive.
This is useful if you aren’t allowed to add something like acoustical caulk to the apartment, as it is relatively easy to remove when you move out. (Check out this other less visually intrusive weatherstripping as well. )
While the above options may help a teeny bit with your construction conundrum, by far and above the best option is the use of soundproof curtains. Soundproof curtains can more than double the noise rating of your windows (source)!
In fact, while you could possibly get double-paned windows (albeit most if not almost all landlords would probably prohibit you from making such extensive renovations to your apartment), soundproof curtains provide a much, much higher benefit than just double panes does.
That, and double-paned windows are extremely expensive (we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars expensive), whereas soundproof curtains can be acquired for less than 30 bucks.
Dampening Door Noise
Frustratingly, many apartments come with cheap, hollow doors so as to save them as much money on construction as possible (this is also probably the cause for all your other noise-related woes as well, funnily enough).
So if the construction noise you’re suffering from is coming from somewhere else in the complex, or from the other side of your apartment building, then you may be benefitted to a large extent from sealing your apartment door.
This can be done with an acoustic door seal kit (if you’re looking for an extremely serious one, here’s one option), or more cheaply with some sort of pipe insulation foam or a rubber draft stopper and some foam weatherstripping around the sides of the door.
Diplomatic Options
Depending on where you live, your city may have restrictions on loud noises, encoded into their municipal quiet hours.
If you are bothered by construction noises during the night time when you are trying to sleep, you might want to look into when these quiet hours are, and if they are being violated by the construction company that’s giving you noise-induced migraines and nightmares, then you may be able to get the city government to help enforce them. Finally, some much-needed shuteye!
Apartment Managers’/Landlord’s Obligations
If the noise you are experiencing inside your apartment is especially egregious, and it is a regular problem (including when there isn’t construction) caused by improper building construction, then you may be able to get your landlord to front the bill for upgrades to the apartment that will reduce the level of noise in your apartment. This will not always be the case, though, so make sure to do your research.
Noise Machines & Headphones
The sad truth of the matter in situations like the one you may be facing right now is that there is often no foolproof way to keep noise out of the apartment to the degree that you would like.
One way to deal with this in a way you can control is to use a white noise machine in order to help block out some of the sounds or help you to ignore them and focus on what you wanted to do anyways.
Noise-canceling headphones are another excellent choice for this and can help you to block out the unwanted noise and listen to or watch what you intended to without construction noise getting in the way.
Noise Coming Through the Wall
If you are dealing with noise coming through an adjoining wall, as would be the case if they are renovating the apartment next to you or renovating down the hall, there is one option to help with it that you may not have thought of yet: bookcases!
If you get some real wood bookcases and fill them with books (essentially using them to cover the offending wall) then the noise coming into your apartment will be greatly reduced.
