I think it boils down to what you grew up with. I can sleep through almost any aircraft noise, and to be honeset traffic doesn't bother me that much, but I GENERALLY wake up to thunder, and teh only thing I cannot stand is the sound of the human voices, especially screaming babies. Oh and 'doof doof' music.
I have external shutters installed on my velux windows. They don't offer perfect silence but do reduce the noise significantly, making a huge difference when it isn't raining too hard. It's hard to judge however if this would be enough to prevent your son from waking up (mine are not in a bedroom). I had mine installed together with the windows but they can be retrofitted.
Koen
That is a little extreme but that approach is better IMHO than trying to reomve the root cause of the "problem". The noise is not a threat and can be safely ignored, he needs to learn that.
Our lad developed a habit of getting out of bed after being put down to sleep for any variety of suprious reasons. This started to become a PITA, so we adopted something seen on the telly (probably "Super Nanny").
First time he gets out on an evening put him back and talk quietly explaining it's time to sleep and that the rain noise is nothing to worry about, next occasion that night back into bed and just a "night night", third occasion just back into bed and no interaction. This won't go down well, it took about a week before our lad would go to bed and stay put but well worth it.
With something intermittent like rain noise it will probably take longer than a week but the key is to not to make a fuss over the noise or him waking. It's just something that happens, you can't do anything about it and is not a threat or danger.
I developed a habit of getting out of bed about the time my parents finished their after-dinner sherry so I was allowed to drain the glasses. :-)
Owain
The message from "Dave Liquorice" contains these words:
They all do that!
I rather like the sound of rain - but it's best in a tent.
Perhaps teaching him to enjoy it would be easiest.
I used to worry about not sleeping, then decided lying in bed with my eyes shut resting was just as good and stopped worrying about it. Sometimes I sleep, sometimes I don't. Rain noise is good though (generally).
Sheery *after* dinner? Sherry is before surely? Followed by a nice red with dinner, a desert white with pudding and finally port.
I agree, but at three-and-a-half I wasn't going to criticise my parents' execrable drinking habits.
Owain
Only with red meat.
dessert
... with cheese.
:o)
Makes you wonder how the Victorians managed to do anything, eating
5 meals a day, some of them with multiple courses, and wearing tweed in Africa.The message from Owain contains these words:
In the late 60s when I was having parties as a smallish boy mum used to make rather strong sherry trifles. Apparently the guests were very subdued and appeared extremely worn out by the time they were collected. Other parents assumed they'd been very busy...
Hi Paul
You can reduce the noise inside by fitting a blackout blind with a good track mechanism, or, to my mind best solution buy yourself an awning blind for it.
The awning blinds for VELUX are to my mind the best kept blind secret in the UK, because no-one seems to use them yet they are fantastic ( I have 3). They are designed to stop the heat before it hits the pane, and made from a black mesh material. They are far more efficient at stopping heat than other types of blind, and the nice little side effect is that they absolutely diffuse the noise of the rain too. Oh yes and they look great from the outside.
You can get the branded ones direct from VELUX at
Hope this helps
Decoman
Paul wrote:
Hi Paul
You can reduce the noise inside by fitting a blackout blind with a good track mechanism, or, to my mind best solution buy yourself an awning blind for it.
The awning blinds for VELUX are to my mind the best kept blind secret in the UK, because no-one seems to use them yet they are fantastic ( I have 3). They are designed to stop the heat before it hits the pane, and made from a black mesh material. They are far more efficient at stopping heat than other types of blind, and the nice little side effect is that they absolutely diffuse the noise of the rain too. Oh yes and they look great from the outside.
You can get the branded ones direct from VELUX at
Hope this helps
Decoman
Paul wrote:
Does anyone do the awning style blinds for ordinary windows? They would be useful for summer shading (too late for his year!) which would reduce my aircon costs.
Wow, they look great. Thanks for the tip! The Velux ones are =A397 each for my son's windows, Itzala ones are =A339. I can't see a lot of difference between them besides the 'name' and the Velux one seems to have a cord for easy operation. Can I ask which ones you use?
Thanks again, Paul.
Is it the rain on the glass or on the flashings? We have several veluxes, and the ones where more of the top flashing is covered by the slate are substantially quieter than those with lots of bare metal.
A
A thick coating of vaseline on the outside....
Hi Paul
I got the ones from itzala.net. A bit slow on the delivery but well worth the wait for the price difference. (saved 150 quid or so)
Actually I also should point out the blinds sit under the hood of the Velux window so when it is not fixed it is invisible. Excellent designers these Danes!
Rgds
Decoman
Nice one - it seems just the thing I'm after as well. Does the awning stay tight to the window ? - ie, what if it's windy, does it bash around? cheers for the info.
Well I haven't really had any really severe weather to comment, they are held by the tension so so far I have no complaints - they seem to remain tight....
On a separate note I was in Austria last week and noticed that these awning type blinds on roof windows are all over the place, yet I've never seen anyone else using them here but me.
Regards
Decoman
bob wrote:
I still haven't got around to buying the awning yet! How has your awning faired up to the recent wind and rain by the buckets load?
cheers.
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