Reducing noise/vibration

[JMartin]

I am buying a house that sits about 200 feet from a train track. The track is on an elevated embankment. They like to do a bit of switching with all the banging and clanging, then they power up the locomotive and shove it all away. I get a combination of noise from the cars and then the vibration when those engines power up.

The vibration is the most annoying as the whole floor vibrates in a buzzing kind of way.

My house has a full block basement and is constructed of wood siding under aluminum siding. My windows are old wood with old wood storms. My exterior doors have to be replaced.

This house needs lots of work from replacing the roof to new drywall inside to finishing the basement. What can I do as I proceed with the work to reduce the noise and vibration?

Thanks Jena

[ransley]

Research noise reduction, Floating walls are used in music studios, Dual pane glass, carpet, wall treatments are all done, but it is expensive.

[HeyBub]

It would be cheaper and quicker to sue the railroad for noise abatement and insist that they move their facilities and tracks to another location.

[Pat]

There are some good sound-dampening techniques out there, but as another poster said, once you open a window, all bets are off.

To start with, go research resilient channels. Put then in everywhere when you replace your sheet rock. It will isolate your inside walls from the outside walls so the sound can't get in. Some windows have better sound qualities than others, so get ones with good some dampening.

Use soft flooring. No hardwoods or tile, except as necessary.

[Joe]

Expanding on the above, why not gut the place, convert it into an anechoic chamber like the ones used for testing sound output in industrial stuff and be assured that you will be living in dead silence? Nah, better to cut the losses and move on I think.

Joe