We’ve all dealt with noisy neighbors at some point in our lives. Whether you can hear them through walls, windows or even the fence in your backyard, it can be hard to find a solution. In this article, we’ll be focusing on stopping that noise from your neighbor’s backyard from getting in the way of your time to relax or just hang out in your own backyard.
In recent years, more and more exterior soundproofing solutions have become available for residential purchase and use. When you think of exterior soundproofing, you may think of tall, concrete walls built buy interstates, or even industrial metal sound panels used in factories.
See out tips and tricks below for how you can use products and materials available for residential users for exterior soundproofing.
See More: Building a Soundproof Privacy Fence
Taller Fence to Soundproof Outside Noise
When it comes to exterior soundproofing, don’t forget that you can use something that you might already have – a fence. Now, a chain link fence will do absolutely nothing to block sound, but wood and vinyl fences can help to block some of it.
For example, on either side of my backyard fence, both of my next door neighbors have dogs, and they like to spend time outside. Previously, inly a chain-link fence separated the yards, but eventually one neighbor installed a vinyl fence, and the other a wooden fence, and while I can still hear the dogs barking, it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be.
However, even if you have a fence made from sturdy material, if it’s not at least taller than the line of sight from the noise source, it won’t do much to block sound. When using just a fence to help with exterior soundproofing from noisy neighbors, it’s important that the fence is anywhere between 6′ and 12′ tall, otherwise the noise wont’ diffract at an upward angle, away from your backyard.
Thicker Fence For Soundproofing
Tall fences made using thick materials can block even more sound than just a tall fence on its own. However, as the material continues to double in thickness, the soundproofing ability will not continue to double. This is a concept otherwise known as ” diminishing returns”. Diminishing returns are most common with concrete walls as they increase in thickness, and in drywall as you continue to layer it on top of itself.
Concrete walls are extremely effective at blocking road noise from bordering neighborhoods, so it’s safe to say that it would help to soundproof from noisy neighbors.
Noise Ordinance for Neighbor’s Noise
If building up your backyard fence isn’t something your interested in doing or able to do, you can always go the legal route to quite your noisy neighbors. Municode is a very helpful tool to see what the noise ordinance is in specific areas, and from there you need to figure out if your neighbors are actually violating the noise ordinance in your municipality.
Keep in mind, noise ordinances aren’t as straight forward as you would think. A noise ordinance will say you can’t be louder on average than a certain decibel level over a certain period of time. For example, a noise ordinance could say that you can’t exceed an average of 70 decibels in the span of 1 hour. In order to determine this, you would need to have an SPL meter to measure and store the sound levels over that 1 hour.
Exterior Soundproofing – Stop Noise from Neighbor’s Yard
When looking into exterior soundproofing methods, keep in mind the following tips:
- The taller, and more solid the fence you have, the better. It should be 6′ tall or taller.
- A thick wall or fence can help to block exterior noise from a neighbor’s yard. However, at a certain point, doubling the thickness of a fence will not double the soundproofing ability.
- Consider taking a legal route and look into the noise ordinance in your area, and see if your neighbors are violating it.
