I'm sleeping next to a busy road with a lot of traffic noise (both low and high frequencies, although the low are the most annoying). The noise seems to be coming through the windows rather than the walls.
It's a rented apartment so I cannot make any major modifications like blocking off the window and it is also nice to be able to get the light in during the day. I've installed some somewhat heavy 6ft/2m high curtains that help a bit, but I'd like to do more.
The window consists of a 1/4" outer piece of glass, then 3" of air before another an inner 1/2" piece of glass. I'm thinking if it would help with the noise at night if I put between the glass pieces 3" of acoustic foam (e.g. this), where there's currently air?
As a side-question, would it help if the outer piece was replaced with a 1/2" thickness piece of glass?
Best Answer
"I'm sleeping next to a busy road with a lot of traffic noise"
You and me both. My situation/window is almost identical but I do not care about light because i live in Alaska and i want to block the light from coming in at 4:00 o'clock in the morning.
I did as you suggest, i put 2" open cell foam insulation ( white with silver foil on one side ) in between the inner and outer panes of glass. It does work for the higher frequencies but lower ones travel through walls ( solid objects ) more readily. I would like to replace it with closed cell foam to see if it is better with sound and light.
I used to sleep with a fan running for the white noise but now i use a sound generator app on my iPhone. It helps to mask the road noise.