Cohousing-L Mailing List: Taming Noise

[Sherri Z. Rosenthal (enocommons]

Here are a few suggestions for cost-conscious noise taming, mostly drawn
from the world of audiophilia.

The most effective surfaces to sound dampen are those that are directly
across from your hardest, most noise-reflective surfaces, such as windows.
Boundaries where walls and ceilings meet are areas that generate a lot of
noise reflection and distortion, especially corners of the room. Placing
absorptive material  at a 45 degree angle to the right angles of these
boundaries is very helpful. Check out Michael Green's product "Corner
Tunes," which is self-adhesive and can be painted. www.audioadvisor.com
used to carry these.

Egg crate foam is easily purchased as a mattress topper at the "local"
Mega-Mart, and is much less expensive than bona fide acoustic foam. It can
be used in several ways:

*Most effective sound absorbtion is if the foam is made into a wave-like
structure. This, however, doesn't fit into many decorative schemes.
However, if you've got a place for it, here's one way of achieving such a
structure. Take a sturdy piece of cardboard or thin plywood. Spray an
adhesive on it. Press the foam onto this so that it "buckles" and forms
waves where portions of the foam are affixed to the board, and portions are
away from the board and form voids. The deeper the foam waves, the better
for capturing sound waves--but probably less attractive, too. The whole
thing can be covered in fabric, which improves its looks (maybe). Fasten
the entire panel to a wall or ceiling.

*A bit less effective, but much more easily integrated into a decor, is to
make such a foam panel without any wave-like action. I would definitely add
a fabric cover. Use rather loose-woven fabric. Do not paint the foam, which
will significantly impede its sound absorption ability.

*Put acoustic foam on the underneath surfaces of your tables and chairs,
and you turn them into sound traps. (BTW, that is a good thing.) A decent
alternative is to use thick carpeting rather than the foam, if you can get
carpet samples for free or at very low cost. Make sure the carpet is thick.
A nice 1970s shag would be good. Those close cut carpets won't absorb much
sound, however.

The aim is to reduce the reverberation time in your room to under 1 second.
Stand in your empty dining room and clap your hands. Listen for the
reverberation. You want to dampen that out. While there is such a thing as
a room that is too "dead," I doubt that any of us run that risk with our
Common House dining rooms. Once you effectively dampen the reverberation,
speech in the space will be more understandable, and you may be able to
avoid the cycle of increasing volume that crowds tend to generate as
everyone strains to be heard and understood. 

Best,
Sherri Zann Rosenthal
Budget Audiophile
TCN VP
Eno Commons, Durham, NC