Reducing Street Noise In Apartments: 5 Best Ways (Explained)

Here are some of the best ways to reduce the street noise in your apartment so you can feel miles away:

1. Start With Your Floors

While hardwood floors give your apartment a nice sophisticated touch, they are doing you no favors when it comes to muffling sounds.

Because there is no insulation on wooden and tiled floors, sounds will just keep bouncing off the floor and can even be amplified depending on how empty your apartment is.

The first thing you can do to start reducing all that busy noise from outside is to find creative ways to insulate your flooring without installing carpeting.

Regarding apartments, individual rugs and mats will go a long way to help reduce some noise. Add a large area rug to the room with the most noise.

Don’t be afraid to add multiple rugs to one room either if you feel it needs more insulation.

Layering rugs is very much on trend right now since we have entered the maximalist era.

A good tip is adding a runner rug to the hallway by your door if you have one. This will also help to reduce noise coming from your shared hallway.

2. Soundproof Your Main Living Space

When adding insulation to your walls in an apartment, you want to think of creative ways to add volume to your walls.

That way, the sounds coming from outside have many more layers to get through to reduce it.

It should also be mentioned that there is no way to completely soundproof your apartment without spending some major money, but these tricks will certainly go a long way to reduce the noise.

Add Big Furniture:

My favorite way to add some volume to your walls is to add bookcases to strategic places like thin walls or wall spaces that are located right next to a window.

Solid bookcases will go along to help to trap the noise from busy streets. This is especially true once you line the shelves with all of your favorite novels.

Wall Art:

Another way to add volume to your walls is extremely effective and perfectly on trend for this moment.

Wall tapestries are one of the favorite ways people decorate their spaces. Because they are made out of fabric, it adds a soft layer of insulation on your walls, which works much better at keeping out sounds.

Best of all, elevating your design while reducing noise is inexpensive.

Are First-Floor Apartments More Noisy? (We Checked)

3. Change Up Your Window Coverings

Soundproof curtains are designed to reduce noise from your window by up to 50%.

These curtains are multi-layered with fabric, and some even feature a thin layering of foam between the fabric to keep sound from getting through.

One of the best parts about using sound barrier curtains is that depending on the brand, you can completely customize them to not only your sound needs, but your style needs as well.

Sound-reducing curtains come in a few different varieties, which let you choose how much sound you want to keep out.

For example, 2-layer curtains are great for slightly muffling sounds so that you can still feel like you are part of a busy city while getting some peace and privacy.

4-layer curtains will work twice as hard to keep sound out, which is great for people who really need to cocoon themselves to focus.

Overall, any type of fabric curtain will do a much better job of keeping sound out than plastic blinds will. So, if your noisy apartment has blinds, it is defiantly time for a change.

4. Drown Out Noise With Noise

White noise machines are a great way to drown out outside noise without distracting your focus.

Standard white noise machines are the same ones used in spaces that need to give people a little more privacy, like a doctor’s office.

They don’t make a recognizable sound; instead, they produce a low humming sound like the sound you will get from a fan.

If you strategically place one of these machines where your apartment gets the noisiest from street traffic, you can reduce the amount of outside noise by 80%.

If you want to spice up your white noise a little bit, several different devices will do the same thing while offering a variety of sound choices.

So, whether you want to feel like you are in the middle of the woods or sitting on the beach with waves crashing, a sound machine is a great low-budget option for reducing street noise in your apartment.

How Thick Are Apartment Walls? 4 Helpful Examples (Explained)

5. Invest In Top-Notch Sound Inserts For Your Windows

While insulating your entire apartment is a huge financial undertaking, especially since you are just renting the place, there is an easier way to still add insulation without putting a huge dent in your bank account.

Insulated sound inserts are the perfect “middle ground” solution to help reduce street noise. Just make sure to get the right ones that are meant for your specific window style.

These inserts are meant to go between the glass panels on your window and are made out of lightweight foam to not only trap noise but stop it from entering your living space.

Overall, there are two standard types of window inserts that you can choose from:

Flat & Mesh Foam:

First, you have a flat foam piece that sandwiches between a window that opens outwardly.

The other insert is a sheet of mesh foam that snaps onto the inside of your window by either using clips or magnets. This is a great solution for renters since the installation is quick and can also be easily removed for cleaning.

For a more secure soundproofing option, you can even spend a little more money to make a custom window insert that is made to the exact dimensions of the window you want to cover.

However, the one major downside about window inserts is that since they use mesh and foam, your window view may be slightly muted when the inserts are placed.

While you will still be able to see out of your window, it does give it a little bit of a tint which can reduce the amount of sunlight let through.

10 Advantages Of Living On Higher Floors People Don’t Realize

Sources:

Soundproofing Your Apartment

How To Soundproof an Apartment Without Removing Walls