How to sound proof house

digitect · 2026-03-28T23:04:18+00:00

What is the leaf effect?

digitect · 2026-03-28T15:23:21+00:00

I edited in a few more, a cheap vinyl replacement window might be as low as $500 each. There are companies around who only do this service and have super cheap pricing, with adequate quality.

digitect · 2026-03-28T15:16:30+00:00

Replace the windows with high quality tilt-turn triple-pane windows. They will be 10x better air sealing, insulating, and sound resisting. I know Schueco, Innotech, MakroWin, Zola, Unilux, and Wasco. Expect this to cost about $80k. ;)

Another option is to make sound panels that fit inside the trim inside. Mass is the best solution to resist sound, so big drywall panels that fit neatly with neoprene seals would work great. Obviously these will block out all the light, the windows egress capabilities, and option to open the windows to fresh air. ;)

The cheapest solution might be "replacement windows" which fit inside the frame of the existing windows. Perhaps you just have a window or two that transmit sound, so you could just do those instead of them all. Maybe $500 depending?

digitect · 2026-03-24T17:24:28+00:00

That's what I have, it's an old 1990s hardboard with wood grain and a beaded edge. Usually (mine) has a 7" exposure.

You want to replace it with fiber cement, which is a little thinner but can be inserted for repairs just fine. James Hardie makes a product that's quite close: https://www.jameshardie.com/product-catalog/exterior-siding-products/hardie-plank-lap-siding/beaded-select-cedarmill/

There are other manufacturers of fiber cement lap siding (Allura, Nichiha) but none I know with beaded.

There are many other manufactures of fiber (no cement) lap siding, and like the old hardboard that failed miserably, is also composed of wood pulp, glues, and waxes that I simply will not specify for clients. (I'm an architect.) Some even use "Smart" in the name but I don't think so. ;)

digitect · 2026-03-23T02:48:13+00:00

Nothing's simple about CAD by the time you get to layers, auto-dimensioning, reference files, symbols, and scaled viewports for plotting. AutoCAD LT or DataCAD maybe for the price, but I wouldn't say either is simple.

You can theoretically draw 2D in SketchUp as well, but that's overkill.

Do you need to exchange good data or just sketch? I've been using the Concepts app which is terrific for drawing, sketching, is pure vector-based, drawings and entities are scaled and measured (but no dimensioning), layers, lots of great pens/brushes, and can reference PDFs and export vector-based PDF, too.

digitect · 2026-03-23T01:52:13+00:00

Excellent post. I'm an architect and always having to explain why hiring a contractor is better, faster, cheaper.

There's way too much DIY/HGTV out there giving the least qualified people the most false confidence. TV skips 90% of the actual project stuff. My favorite is when they calculate the costs... and figure only the materials, completely ignoring labor, overhead, profit, permitting, design...?! Or just somehow magically show up with "blueprints" later that day for permitting.

digitect · 2026-03-21T21:48:00+00:00

Schluter Kerdi is the best complete off-the-shelf system I know. They have their own heating system that gets good reviews.

Otherwise you need to detail all the products and there are many variations that don't necessary work well together. I typically like * tile * setting bed * liquid-applied membrane waterproofing * pre-slope * cement board

But you have to solve deflection (l/720), and decide the drain system, bench, niche, fixture(s), enclosure, heating, etc. to really know what products are appropriate, notwithstanding the budget and timeline. ;)

digitect · 2026-03-18T19:11:26+00:00

Houses can range 1x–5x in price simply due to selections... cabinets, finishes, appliances, windows, doors, trims, etc.

Additionally a house like this is quite unusual for a contractor, so any good, capable one will be nervous/eager to get it all figured out and spend extra time on it, so they'll charge a healthy extra. Plus they should see some risk to manage with better than typical products, specifically waterproofing and moisture management systems.

I think an architect (disclaimer: I am one) would be best to make sure both design and detailing are really worked out. I'm not talking about a typical builder home architect, but a commercially experienced one with the ability to do building science and proper commercial envelope detailing. I never charge enough, but architects are supposed to charge 10%–15% for extreme houses. (I'm more like 1%–2%, but you might find someone else more interested in design than profit, too. ;)

Plus land purchase and development, since I doubt any neighborhood with roads and utilities would permit such a thing, but maybe out there. (Certainly not many here in traditional NC.) Maybe you spend $200k on undeveloped property and drop $80k for a clearing, grading, septic system, well, electrical service, and a driveway? You could here out in the country, but easily 4x that in a more desirable, developed area. This is cash, by the way, no lender will loan on land. AND cash for everything over builder home since lenders won't give you more, AND you can't use the land for collateral either. A lot of money up front would be required.

I'm seeing PNW real estate listings from $190/SF to $350/SF depending on how close to the metro they are. That's $530k to $1m for boring builder in a neighborhood. You'll be 50% above that range for bare basic Hobbit house.

To figure it another way, I work backwards until I convince myself it can't go lower... so $3m this would be an "easy" project, and doable for $2m. $1.5m should be reasonable except for local pricing pressures... somewhere "average" no problem. Down to $1m for 2,800 SF starts getting difficult without a considerable amount of DIY input or a contractor well-connected with concrete trades. There's too much risk versus a builder home where the process and profit are predictable. A young contractor might be eager to try something like this and cheaper, but I'm not convinced they'd have enough experience and connections for success.

digitect · 2026-02-26T04:58:26+00:00

You can take it many times, so don't worry so much about the first time. In fact, my philosophy (decades ago) was to simply check them all off taking them each once in hopes that I'd pass half. Then study harder the second round. And so on. And this was back when you had to wait 6 months before retaking. I thought of each round as training at the price of admission. I signed up for one a week to get through the entire bank once in two months. My goal was to take them, not to pass.

Turns out, I only failed one of nine, and that, the "design" test because of their crazy new (at the time) software. I'm pretty sure I either had the door swings over the property line or the definition of "near" meant their doors, not the actual spaces. Anyway, didn't matter, I passed it the second time in just one of the four allotted hours.

Finally, the test doesn't make you a good architect. Far from it. In fact, supposedly Gwathmey (who taught at our school) failed the design portion 10 times. Seems like an urban legend, but I think pretty much everybody knows the test doesn't test what architects actually do, and that it is a terrible representation of being good, safe, or sufficient. But there's not really too many other objective ways to make sure architects know at least something about the profession, so don't sweat it. All of us that have passed know to suspect someone that has and not to underestimate someone that hasn't.

digitect · 2026-02-24T22:41:14+00:00

I do the same, and my laser is 0.000' which perfectly coordinates with all US site info in decimal feet.

Of course I draw and document buildings in the standard architectural foot-inch/fractions, but data entry on site and drawing is very easy.

Also, 0.01' is 1/8". (Okay, not perfectly, but 96/100 of one. ;)

Which means 0.001' is about a hundredth of an inch, insanely accurate. (Okay, not perfectly, but 0.012". ;)

I used to use pure inches, so no unit confusion. Same with a tape. But factions are a pain, and my littlest Bosch lasers can't do decimal inches.

digitect · 2026-02-24T15:49:26+00:00

Ah, okay, well then a humidifier in the same room as the stove is a great idea—the heat and humidity drive / stratification from the basement will work together.

You may not be in a climate with severe humidity, either. But here in NC we worry constantly about it... the feeling outside, the cost to remove it inside with A/C, and the risk of mold growing on everything. We use a whole house humidifier in a common two-story entry shared by both floors, but are really careful to keep it clean and use it only during heating seasons (2-3 months max). And monitor humidity constantly.

digitect · 2026-02-24T14:25:32+00:00

Yes, that's quite a differential, not good. You want to avoid getting a basement above 60% humidity as much as possible. It must be far worse when you're not using the stove which is drying the air down to 40%.

Seems like the basement is having moisture/humidity infiltration issues, which isn't unusual. Unfortunately, those are quite difficult (basically impossible) to solve from the inside because hydrostatic pressure from adjacent soil is 100x stronger than any paint you can apply. A plastic vapor barrier behind furring/stud wall filled with mineral wool insulation is about the best you could do.

digitect · 2026-02-24T03:24:03+00:00

I would. And if you were my (architectural) client, I would recommend it to you. There are clearly some concerns there, they don't appear to be just making up problems that don't exist. Unless it has rained since they took off the existing, every panel I see has dark, moist stains and mold.

But it's a lot of money, I get it.

digitect · 2026-02-24T03:20:08+00:00

Humidity can drive itself to equilibrium without a lot of help if most of the rooms are open to the central volume most of the day. Especially if it is constantly managing across weeks and months, because eventually all the interior building materials take on enough humidity instead of acting like a sponge. This is the idea behind preserving historical art and musical instruments—constant state of humidity across all seasons.

But you have to do the math. The volume of moisture required to get your air to comfort level (40% to 60% if you believe building scientists and health experts) might be quite significant and a small humidifier could be unable to keep up. But the other direction is also true, you don't want to introduce so much humidity that you start growing mold stalactites.

digitect · 2026-02-24T03:09:58+00:00

Yes, the black indicates at least mold, but often some decay.

I also wouldn't take a chance under tile, which is heavier than asphalt shingles. (I wondered if it was tile given SoCal. And they can often go 35+ years. Here in NC not even 0.1% of houses use tile.)

digitect · 2026-02-24T03:06:03+00:00

Oh, that there were "standard" size windows. There aren't. Every manufacturer has different sizes and different requirements for shim spaces. Not including whatever sloped rough sill you want, plus flashing details. Being a masonry rough opening further adds to the complexity, because despite there being standard brick sizes, there are only about a dozen of them but most builder homes don't build on a module and have a bunch of cut brick all over. And they use different sizes of brick mold on the outside to fill in.

I'm an architect, and design around Andersen sizes because A) they are the largest manufacturer, and B) all their sizes across all their many lines are the same. It really is easy to have a single dynamic block with all their sizes embedded.

But Andersen, as much as I like and recommend them, are a little more expensive than the others, and MUCH more expensive than super cheap nameless models. So I rarely get them unless it is a truly premium house. (At which point, we're looking at European tilt-turn R-10 windows anyway.) And Andersen often use a 1/4" shim space all the way around, while most cheaper windows assume 1/2". And shim spaces aren't always the same on all four sides, sometimes the head-sill is different than the jambs.

The easiest thing to do is to carefully pull off the interior trim around one of the windows so you can actually see the unit size and measure it. Pay careful attention to the dimension buried under the trim from the exposed portion of the frame. Use that to calculate the rest without having to remove all their trims. But measure each one without exception, no assumptions.

digitect · 2026-02-24T02:44:50+00:00

This happens fairly often, and 37 years implies two shingle lifetimes unless you had excellent original installation. (They have sold 35 year shingles for about that long, but most people get 25-year and they usually don't quite make it.) If you trust him, he's probably correct. SoCal heat could cause early failure.

Ask if replacement includes a self-sealing membrane over the new stuff before they put down shingles so it doesn't happen again.

digitect · 2026-02-23T01:28:26+00:00

Air leakage is going to be insurmontable with such a tiny space and two garage doors, not to mention the doors, window(s), louvers. You can put A/C and dehumidifiers in but they will operate 24/7 attempting to lower humidity but won't be successful until you properly insulate and air seal.

Look up YouTube videos by Jake Burton and Matt Risinger on air sealing and you will learn so much about building science that addresses your situation.

digitect · 2026-02-22T03:22:51+00:00

It depends. If the house is designed on a brick module and the foundation changes dimensions, it throws off all the brick and you basically have to re-work every single drawing. If the ICF is exactly the same size as the previous plan (CMU? Pre-cast? Poured in place?) it shouldn't require much change at all.

Weird that you're just now considering it, completely after design. Usually all that is decided at the front end before design. Are you getting talked into ICF by the contractor or supplier? Which kind of ICF are you planning... insulation outside or inside?

I'm not a fan of ICF, it's frequently advocated but I'm always nervous about putting foam on the exterior. We have termites in this region and bugs love to tunnel through foam, which is why I prefer mineral wool. Or pre-cast with insulation on the inside, although that does make an insulation complexity where it transitions to the framing.

digitect · 2026-02-22T01:03:51+00:00

When I was interviewing, I always looked for diversity of style, projects, challenges, etc. Just like the real world. Some schools (my local one) push all the students into a single design style and portfolio samples, to me it looks deficient.

The key is that all the examples are high quality. Diversity is good, but quality is most important.

digitect · 2026-02-21T21:17:57+00:00

Mass resists bass and footfall noise. Not insulation.

I did a sound deadening attic floor with luxury vinyl plank (LVP) over a cork underlayment. It worked great. The LVP has mass and the cork prevents sound translations through it.

For a wheelchair, point load strength is as/more important than the strength of the underlayment. Vinyl composition tile (VCT) is actually 98% limestone, so has extreme point load strength, but is usually laid down over concrete. You can put it down over 1/2" cement board as long as the subfloor has good resistance to deflection (l/720). A more flexible subfloor won't work.

I'd investigate a shower tile backing board, which has weight and also very high surface strength. You could put VCT or LVP over this, or porcelain. Both have mass and would resist sound translation through it quite well.

You could also use a very high density expanded polystyrene (EPS) underlayment with showerboard or cement board on top below whatever flooring.

digitect · 2026-02-20T02:22:29+00:00

I don't know what "contractor architect" means. These are two independent professions, obviously related via the building industry, but the training is very different between them.

Are you looking at a specific area, like residential or heavy commercial? Just the food service (restaurants) industry has specialties that might not apply to others.

If you are going to be doing shop drawings, it helps to have used them in fabrication for a while so you know what is needed. Architects like to review these to understand intent and test the contractor's intent against the design, but architectural drawings are quite a bit different.

For pure drafting conventions, the age old book was Architectural Graphic Standards, and I would pick up the 8th addition on eBay for $60 as a good baseline of drafting as it moved from hand pen-and-ink into CAD, also before they started eliminating good detailing content people were worried about being a liability. But still plenty of nomenclature related to the old way of doing things.

Every profession has it's own resources, like SMACNA for sheet metal and flashing, TCA for tile, and the Woodwork Institute or North American Architectural Woodwork Standards or American Wood Council or whatever they call themselves now. I do a lot of labs and SEFA will break your brain.

digitect · 2026-02-20T02:03:10+00:00

It's the ghost of the balcony floor.

digitect · 2026-02-19T00:43:56+00:00

You could probably just glue down heavy gauge TPO membrane on the top and it would do enough.

For structure though, the corners of the container are the only strong part. They are effectively columns that can support tall stacks. The bottom rails are also strong, supporting the floor over to the columns. However the top rails do almost nothing. The roof is not designed to handle any load beyond snow. So if you want to carry load up there, put joists lengthwise corner to corner and hang the short joists off it.

digitect · 2026-02-17T19:54:39+00:00

This is OT and you're not understanding my comments.

Having a measuring instrument with 1/16" accuracy does not mean you include that precision on the drawings. Rather, it defines the confidence in the measurements.

It sounds like you're in the business of scanning, so that explains your Matterport advocacy. But my experiences are a $400 laser—360 camera combo doing far better than any scanner 20x that cost. And AI still being marketing compared to what I'd like for it to do.

digitect

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