While you want your custom Vancouver home to be built to exacting specifications and to be a stunning representation of your vision, you should also give some thought to an often overlooked, yet vital component of your overall strategy: sound insulation.
So, What Exactly Is Sound Insulation Anyway?
When speaking of building custom homes in Vancouver, sound insulation relates to some of the ways noise can be mitigated. These mitigation efforts include both sounds from outside your home as well as from within your home.
When we work with families on custom building projects in the Vancouver area, we bring a lot of passion to the table. While this brief article could be a highly technical description of the precise ways we handle sound insulation on custom home projects, instead I would like to simply share what is possible so you can better understand what we can do should you entrust your custom home project to us.
Amazing Ways Sound Insulation Can Keep Outside Sounds Where They Belong
Can I tell you a little secret? Keeping outside noises to a minimum (and in many cases, drowning them out completely) is one of the features Larch Construction includes in every custom homebuilding project we take on.
This is because we’ve embraced the idea that homes should stay warm in winter and cool in summer. As a result, we far exceed Vancouver’s energy efficiency standards in the way we insulate both the interior and exterior walls of your home.
An added benefit to doing these things the way Larch Construction does is because you will wind up with a home that keeps out unwanted noises and enables you to peacefully enjoy your home.
When you think of excessive noise, I’ll bet you overlook all the ways the interior of your home can contribute to noise pollution:
- People talking
- Noises from TV(and other devices)
- Appliance noises
- Home theatre sounds
- People coming and going (if you rent out the lower level of your home)
The thing is, this just the tip of the iceberg.
A single noise won’t make your home a haven of chaos that threatens to send you into the abyss.
The problem comes in when noises stack up, one on top of the other, and create an environment where you feel you cannot hear yourself think.
At Larch Construction, we find compelling, creative ways of reducing noises within your home. Here is a quick rundown of just a couple of the sound insulation mitigation efforts we employ on a daily basis:
- Installing metal channels prior to drywall insulation to prevent wood joists from passing vibrations to the drywall
- Using QuietRock, a kind of drywall proven to reduce both high and low frequency sounds multiple times better than standard drywall
- Strategically using batt or spray foam insulation in areas proven to cause noise
Not So Obvious Places in Your Home That Adds to the Noise
There are lots of places in your home that can add to a climate of excessive noise. Not all of them are as obvious as others.
Take for instance bathroom fans.
Many people purchase and install (or have installed) cheap fans in their bathrooms to prevent moisture and improve the air exchange.
While I’ll cover this topic in more detail in a future post, I’ll focus right now on the noise created by ceiling fans in bathrooms. Imagine if you or a family member have a room adjacent to the offending noisy fan (or have a room directly above). The vibration and buzzing noises from these fans might just be enough to send someone careening towards the edge of insanity.
We pay close attention to these issues on every custom Vancouver home we build. Whether it is a noisy bathroom ceiling fan or the A/C or HVR, we work to mitigate noise or work closely with you in the initial design phase of your home to give you conditions more conducive to quiet, peaceful solitude.
Your Sound Insulation Options Are Limited Only By Your Budget and Our Creativity
There are many other things we can do to reduce both interior and exterior sounds.
We have creative solutions for anyone who wants or needs to keep sounds to the absolute minimum.
The choice of which sound insulation options make the most sense will be determined by the location you’ll build your custom Vancouver home as well as how sound insulation plays into your overall construction budget plan.
A Final Thought
The thoughts above are just a few of the details that go into planning custom Vancouver homes that are built to last. There are many pieces of the custom home building puzzle – budgeting, design, planning, building, and many others – that can help you make your Vancouver custom home a reality for you and your family.
When you’re ready to begin a conversation about how Larch Custom Home Construction can be a valuable resource in building your custom Vancouver home, you can reach out to us to get started.
