Excessive household noise isn’t music to the ears of homeowners. According to Owens Corning, 78 percent of homeowners say normal household activities are disrupted by superfluous noise, and nearly half admit the daily din elevates stress and tension levels. Eight in 10 respondents say their home has no form of noise control.

“We saw repeatedly homeowners couldn’t read or listen to music or just relax,” said Portia Ash, residential noise control manager for Owens Corning. “They wanted to focus on activities but couldn’t.”

Construction pros don’t automatically take noise abatement steps. Batts of insulation, one of several steps to dampen noise between interior rooms, are normally limited to exterior walls.

The typical interior wall of 2x4s covered by drywall tests to an sound-transmission class rate of 35, hardly enough to stifle normal conversation from the next room. But each 10-point gain in the rating cuts noise in half, according to Ash. The optimal rating should be at least 63.

Owens Corning has identified noise control as an intense issue for homeowners. The company has added ceiling and floor products, special caulks and a wall framing system to homeowner arsenals to defeat abusive sounds. These QuietZone products are sold at most home store retailers.

It is hard to retrofit existing construction for noise abatement. Instead, Ash recommends planning for noise control at early stages of construction. “The best thing is to plan around the noise zones where noise will become an issue” once the project is complete, says Ash. For remodelers, this may mean stripping walls, floors and ceilings to the studs and joists to muffle sounds.

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