Everything You Need to Know About Soundproof Windows

Sound pollution is a reality of living in an urban area and dealing with the noises of the city. Even in more rural environments, sounds can leak into your home in a variety of ways. Windows are fairly essential features of the home, offering a way for light to pool in as well as a gaze into the outside world. Your windows play a major role in controlling more than just the light leaking into your home.

In fact, windows have a direct impact on sound both finding its way into and escaping from your interior. This is why it’s important to know the specs and details of your home windows. When it comes to soundproofing, one of the most crucial features is your windows' level of impact noise reduction.

Of course, a big window is beautiful but what about a big window with better acoustical control? Soundproof windows can greatly reduce the noise coming into your home from an outside world. If this is what you’re looking for, we’re going to cover the best types of windows and glass for soundproofing and sound control.

Everything you need to know about soundproof windows!

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Noise pollution

Noise pollution is a real thing that affects lives of many every single day. Although noise is a subjective term, it is generally used to describe sound that is unpleasant as well as that which the receiver doesn’t want to hear. Noise pollution generally disturbs or intrudes on the listener as it’s too loud, too high pitched, too low and so on. As many of us live in an urban environment, noise levels can be bothersome and in severe cases, harmful. There are many types of noise pollution, and the type that most affects you will obviously come down to where you’re living. Some examples are as follows:

• Traffic or road work;

• Social noise including that from bars, restaurants, nightclubs, etc;

• Transit noise including airplanes, trains and subways;

• Neighbourhood noise.

After prolonged exposure, some of these forms of noise pollution, such as that from trains or airplane, can cause permanent hearing damage. In other cases, noise pollution is simply annoying. Regardless of your situation, let’s move on to look at some materials and window styles that are best for soundproofing.

Soundproof windows: how do they work?

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In the most straightforward explanation possible, soundproof windows and doors reduce noise by muffling and dissipating soundwaves, causing them to lose power. This is carried out through the use of materials which have the ability to absorb or reflect the sound waves in a different direction. Windows that are built with soundproofing properties optimize their materials to specifically take on the noise.

Soundproof windows will not be able to completely rid of all sounds but will reduce up to 90% of noise. Higher frequency sounds are easier to block out as opposed to low-frequency sounds, so birds chirping outside will be harder to mask than cars driving or garbage trucks collecting trash. Therefore, when choosing a soundproofing window model, you’ll need to think about what sounds you’re looking to block out.

There are a few ways in which windows can reduce noise, and for it to really work, it will need to have two of the following factors:

Glass thickness: as a good rule of thumb, the thicker the glass, the more soundproof they”ll be.

Space between the panes: Gaps between the sheets of glass will aid in noise reduction. Plus, the larger the gap, the bigger the sound eliminating impact.

Lamination: Certain windows are designed with a layer of material between sheets of glass. There is no effect on how the glass appears, but there’s a noticeable reduction in sound.

In most cases, you won’t actually be looking to replace your windows. Instead, you’ll want to go with improving the ones already in place with three of the most common options:

• Replacing your current window glass with specially-made noise reduction glass;

• Replacing both the frame and the glass with soundproof windows, which includes frames and sealing materials;

• Secondary glazing, which will involve adding an extra layer of glass and is the lowest cost option.