ᐅ Prefabricated house, poor sound insulation / high noise transmission

theo1988 schrieb:

Hello,
I live in a prefab house (single-family home) built in 2017.
Unfortunately, the walls inside the house are quite thin and allow a lot of noise to pass through.
For example, if you put your ear against the wall, you can hear people talking on the street. Also, passing cars cause a booming noise inside, probably because the exterior wall is too light/thin.
The exterior wall consists of 80 mm (3 inches) polystyrene insulation panels, 12 mm (0.5 inch) OSB boards, 140 mm (5.5 inches) interior insulation, and 12 mm (0.5 inch) gypsum fiberboard.
What options are there to require the builder to make improvements?
Would it make sense to have an acoustic assessment carried out?
I would appreciate any help!
Best regards, Theo

Hello, first of all, thank you for the responses. I will start by replacing the window glass with soundproof glass. I hope this helps.
I’m still unsure whether to make changes to the exterior facade or add double drywall to the interior wall. If anyone has ideas about this, please feel free to share.
Best regards, Theo

theo1988 schrieb:

For example, if you hold your ear against the wall, you can hear people talking on the street.

As long as it’s quiet when holding your ear against the wall in a normal "living position," it shouldn’t be a problem.

theo1988 schrieb:

Or with passing cars, there’s a booming sound inside the house because the exterior wall is probably too light/thin.

The booming sound from cars inside the room can also be caused by an unfortunate resonance coupling. You can (have someone) measure what is resonating and fix it quite easily. This is independent of the wall thickness. It does not necessarily have to be due to the thickness of the wall itself.

theo1988 schrieb:

What options are there to make the construction company fix this?

None, unless they have not built according to standards or the contract.

theo1988 schrieb:

Would it be useful to have a sound report created?

Probably a waste of money. Get an acoustics expert to locate the problem, not just an inspector who only measures. The acoustician can then tell you whether a formal report and involving the construction company will help—or solve the problem directly.
Perception of noise is very subjective. You might simply be less sensitive than average.

theo1988 schrieb:

I will first replace the window glass with soundproof glass. I hope that will help at least somewhat.

I would first implement Hampshire's suggestion.

You can also temporarily place some kind of insulating material in front of the windows to test whether the measure with the windows is going in the right direction or not.

theo1988 schrieb:

I will first replace the window glass with soundproof glass. I hope that helps somewhat.

Just to understand correctly. You have a house still under the 5-year warranty period and think it is too noisy inside. Instead of commissioning an expert report, which could reveal the actual causes and allow you to have the construction company make corrections, you want to replace all the window glass yourself first? And if that doesn’t help, you will move on to the walls? That’s hard to understand, isn’t it?

Best regards! mini

Is there a decentralized ventilation system? That is always a factor to consider.

hampshire schrieb:

As long as it’s quiet to the ear in a normal "living position," that shouldn’t be a problem.

The droning noise of cars in the room can also be caused by an annoying resonance coupling. You can have measurements taken to determine what is resonating and fix it fairly easily. This is independent of the wall thickness. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with the wall thickness itself.

No, unless they didn’t build according to standards or contract specifications.

Probably wasted money. Get an acoustics expert to locate the problem, not just an inspector who only takes measurements. The acoustics expert can then tell you whether a formal report and contacting the construction company will help—or solve the problem right away.
Noise perception is very subjective. Maybe you’re just not sensitive to the standard.

Has anyone here really done this before? Called in an acoustics expert? Is that even the right profession? When I search on Google, I only find hearing aid specialists.
What exactly does the acoustics expert do, and how much does it cost? Do they really measure what is resonating and how?
Here, they wanted 800 euros just to measure whether it’s loud, and that’s useless because I can measure that with my phone just as well...

How do you expect the acoustics expert to tell you why it is loud? You can do the same yourself, right? You can hear whether the sound is coming through your wall or the windows. And you can look up your wall construction and your windows to see what sound insulation rating they have. For example, if the wall has 40 dB and the window 32 dB, then replacing the window will probably help a bit...