Noisy House? Carpet Can Help
Energetic kids, barking dogs, loud music, vacuum cleaners, the television – home is supposed to be your sanctuary, so why does it sometimes feel like the place for everything but relaxing?
When designing our homes, we often forget the adage about form following function and get carried away by the latest trends. Even among the most practical, flooring choices usually come down to look, feel, wear and tear, and cleanliness, but we rarely think about sound.
Popular culture and savvy marketers often convince us to spend money by turning our focus to the life we think we should want rather than embracing the individuality and nuances of our lives. While our flooring choices won’t necessarily solve the noise in our heads, the sounds in our homes can be significantly mitigated with carpet – while simultaneously boosting design, style, and function.
Before choosing a flooring, take a sound inventory of your home and its surroundings by asking yourself a few simple questions:
Who Lives in My Home?
If you live with small children, pets, or a spouse learning to play a new instrument, carpeting may be the best option for your home. Carpet will absorb sound, adding to your serenity by reducing noise. Hard flooring tends to amplify sound.
Who Lives Nearby?
If you live in an apartment or condo, you may have neighbors on all sides, not to mention above and below. Everyone has a responsibility not only for their own quietude but also for their neighbors’ who can be made crazy by high-heeled footsteps on hard flooring, loud voices that echo and penetrate thin walls, or any other sounds coming from your home. Carpeting makes for better neighbors.
Sound In – Sound Out?
What sounds are coming into your home from outside? Perhaps you live in an apartment in the city where the garbage trucks start churning and banging dumpsters around during the wee hours of the morning, or sirens ring out from police or emergency vehicles regularly. Hard flooring will amplify these sounds, whereas carpet will reduce them.
What sounds are going out from your home? Perhaps your child has announced their dedication to learning the tuba for band class. Or do you want to turn the music up to 11? Determining the sound levels can help you choose the level of acoustic absorption necessary to keep it in.
When choosing a carpet or any flooring material, don’t forget to think about sound! It’s not often that we consider how sound affects us when it comes to flooring, but we should – noise can make or break our living experience. Even interior designers ask us to comb through magazines or surf the net to create visually stimulating mood boards, but they rarely inquire about our sound lifestyles. Fortunately, with quality underlaying and carpeting, there are options for every sound situation, from mild sound absorption to full-on soundproofing of a room, such as a home theater.