Cohousing-L Mailing List: Acoustics in common house

[Melanie Mindlin (sassetta]

There are a number of ways recommended to dampen the noise in the common house. 
 Rugs, for example, would help a lot but of course we want to be able to do 
easy clean up in the dining area so they are not appropriate.  We tried pieces 
of rug glued under the tables, which didn't make much difference and came 
unglued.  

Then we saw some lovely homemade acoustic panels in the common house of our 
nearby cohousing community in Bend, Oregon.  These are about 30" square (the 
exact size is not important) made out of 2x2 wood with some light canvas type 
cloth stretched over the frame and filled with blue-jean insulation batts on 
the top.  These are hung from short chains (about 2-3" long) from hooks in the 
ceiling.  They are in a regular pattern with a couple of inches between the 
panels and can be taken down for cleaning if necessary.  We made them ourselves 
over several community workdays.

We are quite pleases with the results.  Not only are they attractive, but they 
really work.  Since we did all the work ourselves the cost was very reasonable 
and they're out of the way where nobody has to bother with them.  It was a 
little tricky working around our existing light fixtures, but we calculated the 
whole pattern and size of panels ahead of time to fit around them.

Melanie Mindlin
Ashland Cohousing Community

Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Holly McNutt <holly.mcnutt [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ exclusive dinners vs community dinners- Mary Ann
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <E81F6155-038F-4568-951B-266EE24C18DA [at] gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;     charset=us-ascii
> 
> Mary Ann - If/when you find some good noise abatement solutions, pleas let me 
> know Thanks, Holly
> 
> Visionary Properties
> www.visionaryproperties.vpweb.com
> holly.mcnutt [at] gmail.com
> (303) 447-2339 direct
> (303) 517-4180 cell
> (303) 447-8204 fax