Rīta Panorāma

Eiropā sākas augļu koku un krāšņumaugu ziedēšanas sezona

Rīta Panorāma

Laika ziņas

Kā uzlabot skaņas izolāciju dzīvoklī?

Neighbors' noise – can anything be done?

Many apartment buildings in Latvia suffer from very poor sound insulation. Hearing what the neighbors are doing, listening to or watching on TV is a cause of frequent annoyance and reduces the quality of life. LTV asked on March 22 if anything can be done to improve sound insulation in apartments.

If you don't want to hear the neighbors, you will have to make the walls of your apartment thicker. Silence these days is considered comfort, and comfort costs.

Riga City Council representative Edīte Matuseviča told Latvian Television: "In cases where the installation of sound insulation does not affect the common property of the house, as long as it takes place inside the apartment, as long as it does not change the layout of the premises within the boundaries of the apartment, approval is not necessary. If someone wants to build a new wall, where there was none, then, of course, coordination is necessary."

So, to make the existing wall into one that isolates the sound better, no permission is needed.

Certified civil engineer Juris Biršs explained what kind of materials should be used in order to hear the neighbors less: "Any obstacle that will be made of dense material is an obstacle to sound. Of all the materials we use in construction, one of the densest is gypsum. Gypsum boards are heavy. "

To reduce the sound coming from the neighbors, the existing walls should be framed with wood to a thickness of five centimeters. Metal frames will not work in this case, as they conduct sound very well.

"We can fill the wooden frame with cotton wool. Fiberglass wool is recommended. Cover it with gypsum sheets," suggested Biršs.

This solution, of course, will not ensure that we will hear absolutely nothing, but the effect will be quite significant. Sound insulation can be increased by inserting a layer of tin in the middle. This will increase the price of the wall. A wardrobe or shelves along the entire length of the wall, filled with books or clothes, will also give a good sound-deadening effect. Another solution should be found for packing the ceiling and floor, because they will not be able to block the noise that arises, for example, from footsteps and knocks.

"We use special sound-dampening materials. For example, there are such materials as "Isolgomma". Rubberized material, harmless to health. It works very strongly against vibrations and sound," said the construction engineer, though it is not simply a matter of tacking it to the ceiling.

"The best thing is to go up to the neighbor, tell him your displeasure and pay him for a new floor structure. We remove the floor covering. We put in this material that eliminates vibrations and sound, we put this material in a six-millimeter thick layer, we fill it from the top with concrete, then we apply our parquet, and we have the desired effect."

It is also worth remembering that the sound from neighboring apartments spreads very well also through communication channels and electrical contacts. They should be sealed with fireproof material.

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