make a sound-proof fence?
I live near a road with heavy traffic night and day and it's driving me nuts As long as there are no windows open, there is no noise but well, it would be nice to be able to have the windows open once in a while And of course, to actually be outside in our beautiful little garden. To make things even more interesting there is a walking path along our property so ppl can freely gaze inside during winter when there are no leaves on the trees that grow on the edge of the garden. So, we would like to build a good fence. Both to block the view from strollers and also to cut some of the god-awful traffic noise. it would be 180 cm most probably. Since the garden is a bit elevated from the path it means that it will in fact be 2 meters up from the path. What should I do? I don't want to make a cement wall (we'd never get permisson for a fence that high either, made of cement) and we are thinking about a wood fence, double, with space between the woodplanks for some sound proof material. Should I try some kind of rolled material, used for soundproofing walls and ceilings or a cement block? Combination of both? All advice greatly appreciated There are two components to blocking sound: physically block the sound to reflect it and absorb the sound to prevent its transmission. To accomplish the first, a solid fence from wood will suffice. For the sound absorption, a soft material such as plants works well. If you erected a solid wood fence and planted thick plants on the inside of it, that should be a winning combination. To control sound year round, use evergreen plants such as mophead cypress, camellia, or fragrant tea olive. There may be many other suitable plants for your locale. If you have the space, trees will keep the sound from coming over the fence as they grow taller. Some shrubs, such as camellia and holly, will grow tall enought to block sound coming over the fence. Hope this helps. A solid barrier works well for bouncing sound away, but, consider that your neighbour's houses and fences are also solid barriers bouncing sound away - into your front yard, or off the inside of your own fence and back again at you. A fence front bounces road noise across the street, and so on. Height helps - if you can see houses across the street, they'll be reflecting road noise back at you. Best absorb the noise with foliage. Trees (e.g. hedge) or trellis. Cedar is the ultimate, I guess, but you may not like the looks, mass, or maintenance. Note the plain bylaw limiting fence height, but little or no regulation of trees or structures supporting plants. I disagree. Trees and shrubs are not sound proof materials. I have a school in my back yard. I have a 8 foot redwood fence with 3 feet of lattice on top of that. I have many trees, layered in front of the fence with shrubs in front of the trees and the sound is absolutely not affected. I might as well sit and have lunch with the students in the school yard as sit in my back yard...the sound is the same. I too am looking for a way to sound proof my fence. Of course, in order to do that now, I have to fight my way behind all the trees and bushes. ednamaelucero, Welcome to the forums. I agree with you that landscaping isn't going to do much to block noise. A fence isn't going to do much to block it either, but it will do a better job than landscaping. In metropolitan areas here in CA, the State or the City has built tall block walls along some busy roads and freeways in an effort to reduce the noise. But, being over 6' tall, those are ALL engineered walls. At 11 feet tall, yours should have been as well. Here's info on soundproofing a fence with mass loaded vinyl: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Texts/00336712.html Hi, I was wondering what your solution is for soundproofing your yard with a fence. You stated that you would use double wood and a sound proof filler in between. What are the allowances cities allow you as far as how high you can build a fence? I have fibromyalgia and the only house that we could afford has a back yard facing a busy street. I need peace and quiet in my back yard and my bedroom faces the street. I look forward to any suggestions. I need an economical but true fix to this problem. I understand that a water feature is a great asset as well or even 2 water features. I look forward to any assistance and thank you for your help!!! I'm in much the same situation, and am trying to find a good solution. We're in the Bay Area where owning a home is real luxury, except our neighbors don't seem to realize so. They keep us up all night doing laundry on their back porch, which is outside our bedroom. They also play really loud music from their kitchen, which is also outside our bedroom. The noise is just one of many issues we have with them. They suck beyond belief. They have been gone on vacation for two months and it has been wonderful. I really hope they don't come back, but I know that's not realistic. Our houses are really close together. I read that the best solution is a concrete or brick wall. I am somewhat handy, but everything I read online says not to even try to build a brick or cinder block wall yourself, and that it will likely cost $100 a foot. I am assuming it costs about the same to pour concrete panels. We simply can't afford this, but if it is the only real solution, I suppose we could try and save for a few years and see what we can do. We have a 30 year mortgage, which like many in the area is under water, so we're not going anywhere. I see lots of Web sites out there that sell vinyl panels or rolls for soundproofing that you can put in a wood fence. I worry though that I never hear anyone talking about them on forums like this. Does anyone know if they work? I get nervous when the only people saying good things - or anything - about a product are the people selling it. I also want to chime in that everything I've read confirms that plants and trees do nothing to block noise, but they are certainly beautiful and can offer a lot of other benefits. Let me know if you have any experience with vinyl. Thanks, Matt Matt, Welcome to the forums. Sorry, but a fence simply isn't going to do much to block the noise. First, you're limited to 6' in height unless you get it engineered to be taller. And in the Bay Area, the engineering is going to be extensive (as well as expensive) because you are surrounded by so many earthquake faults. You've seen litterally hundreds of miles of sound walls that have been installed by your freeways. They are virtually all 16' tall. Cal Trans engineered every one of them. You don't want to know how many of your tax dollars are invested in every foot of them. You mention of $100/ft. doesn't even come close!! The footing alone was more than that! In addition to being reflected, sound can go over a fence and be spread out and down. That is the reason sound barrier walls are built as high as possible and still be cost effective. Dick
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