If you live in an apartment, then you may need to cope with the noise from your neighbors, or alternatively, you may want to manage the sounds that are heard from your own apartment to avoid any complaints from your neighbors. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to minimize the sound levels from inside or outside your apartment. You can use these methods to manage the noise in an apartment building.
Use Heavy Draperies Over the Windows
You can use heavy draperies over your apartment’s windows to minimize the noise. There are companies that manufacture soundproof curtains or draperies that will absorb the noise from outside or inside your apartment. You can also use multiple layers of curtains to keep excessive noise from entering your apartment’s windows. To help these draperies to work optimally, you must keep the items closed.
Portable Acoustic Panels
It is possible to buy portable acoustic panels to place in strategic locations in your apartment, including in front of the windows or around the bed in a bedroom. There are foldable acoustic panels that you can place on the floor, or you can hang attractive acoustic panels on the walls of your apartment to reduce the level of noise.
Thick Carpeting
Having thick carpeting in your apartment helps to eliminate the sounds that occur from other apartments, but it will also keep your neighbors from hearing you while you walk around or move furniture. Using as much carpet as possible is the best way to reduce the noise, and you should also have think padding underneath the carpets. If you can’t install carpets in your rental apartment, then use thick rugs instead.
Soundproof Tiles
If you can’t install carpets in an apartment, then using soundproof tiles on the floors is another excellent option. Tiles made of cork can absorb the sounds made as you walk in your apartment, and it can also help to reduce the noise that you can hear from an apartment below your apartment.
Vinyl Curtains
When you have a larger apartment that doesn’t have any walls, you can hang vinyl curtains from the ceilings to separate the space into sections. The vinyl material of these curtains keeps sounds from reverberating from inside and outside an apartment, helping to create a quieter place to live.
Use Specialized Furniture
Ordinary upholstered furniture helps with the absorption of sounds inside and outside your apartment, but you can also buy specialized furniture that helps with soundproofing. Look for online or local furniture stores that sell acoustic furniture for living rooms and bedrooms.
Decorate With Wallpaper
Applying wallpaper to the walls in an apartment can help with the absorption of noise, and you can use specialized wallpaper for this purpose. Acoustical wallpaper is thicker, helping it to absorb noise so that you can have a more comfortable living space.
Apply Caulking Around the Windows
If the caulking around your apartment’s windows is degrading, then you will hear more noise from outside. You can buy liquid or roll-on caulking material at a local hardware store to install around the interior and exterior of the windows of your apartment.
Window Treatments
You can apply window film to the windows in your apartment to avoid hearing noise from the street, including screaming children or loud vehicles. Manufacturers make dark or clear window film that is easy to stick on your windows because it is self-adhesive.
Door Draft Dodgers
Door draft dodgers are made to keep hot or cold drafts from entering your apartment underneath the door, but these devices also keep sound out of your apartment. Place a draft dodger device by the apartment’s door that leads to a hallway, and you aren’t as likely to hear people talking or walking outside your apartment.
Sound Machines
You can drown out the annoying noises from outside your apartment by using a portable sound machine. One of these electric devices will emit pleasant noises such as the sound of a bird chirping or the sound of a bubbling stream.
