Now hear this: Noise control is big on the home front

By: DAVID BRADLEY - Associated Press | Thursday, December 8, 2005 8:07 PM PST ∞

Homeowners have heard all about R-values, BTUs, and HVAC systems.

Now, there's another acronym they should get to know: STC.

STC stands for sound transmission class. It rates how well walls and ceilings muffle sound. If you have a home theater or loud music blaring from teenage rooms, you already have a good idea of the need to control surplus noise.

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," says Portia Ash, residential noise control manager for Owens Corning. "They wanted to focus on activities but couldn't."

Today's homes are loud. Add surround-sound media rooms to the routine mix of pets, kids and kitchen clatter and you have a formula for noise. It can be a particular irritant for the growing force of home office workers who want peace and quiet. Rumblings from movies, stereos and horseplay can be disconcerting during conference calls or periods when concentration is needed.

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 STC rate of 35, hardly enough to stifle normal conversation from the next room. But each 10 point gain in STC rating cuts noise in half, according to Ash. The optimal STC 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.

Floors and ceilings are often overlooked from a noise standpoint. As two-story great rooms and foyers, along with open spaces merging kitchens with family rooms, sound has free reign to bounce and roam. These sonic waves seek even the tiniest crevices to escape confinement.

There's even a noise control upside for home theater aficionados who love to crank up the sound. According to Ash, proper noise control reduces the echo effect and enhances sound quality for listeners.

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