Getting Control of Sound | Hour 1

Getting control of sound. Now you notice I didn't just say soundproofing, soundproofing your home, as if that was such an easy thing to do, which it's not. Well, here's the other aspect of this. The reason we are not entitling this episode soundproofing is that soundproofing is an aspect of heart of what we're trying to achieve by lowering sound pollution or noise pollution as it enters your home

or your property. But it's not the goal. Soundproofing should not be the goal it used to be, but that has changed in recent years and why has it changed. Well, it's changed because our scientific understanding of the role of sound in our lives is evolving, is maturing, is changing. Absolute utter silence, which is, of course what the goal of soundproofing is, is no longer the goal of an

ideal human habitation. It's not what we are after. It may be what we're after inside this studio because we have a very specific task at hand and we want complete control of the sound inside this room, but it is not the ideal for human habitation. So more on that as we roll out. We're going to take a deep dive into getting control of sound in your home, on your property, and that's going to involve a number

of different things. Soundproofing techniques. Absolutely, we'll talk about everything from mineral wool to mass loaded vinyl, dual glaze windows, double layered dry wall, block walls, tree cover, air ceiling. Your home is a factor. And we're gonna also get into the idea of decoupling. No, not getting rid of your spouse or your life partner, not that kind of decoupling.

Decouple a is a concept that I want everybody who's listening to me today to un understand, and it really kind of grasp fully before we are done today, because decoupling is one of the critical elements of getting control of sound, of stopping noise pollution from getting from point A to point b. We have to basically break the bridges that that energy travels over so that it doesn't get from point A to point B. Sound absorption is going to be part of our conversation, and now a

huge part of our conversation will also be sound masking, which is when you can't get rid of sounds that are coming your way. But what we do is we join them with other sounds, mask them, or blend them with other sounds that change the way the human mind perceives the sound, changes it literally from noise to something that is stress reducing. Okay, so instead of stress inducing, which is now the scientific definition of noise, we want to change that sound into something that is stress reducing,

and so that's part of our goal. Anyway, So many places to go today and we're going to do it all. And of course also we'll be taking your calls as we do, especially right smack dab in the center of the show. The phone lines are open right now. Now is your chance to give me a call. And of course, when it comes to calls, it's all about you. It's all about whatever's going on. I'm talking about sound control today. You can call me on anything going on that's got

you scratching your head about your home. So, whether it is a design question, an architectural question, a decore question, a construction issue, a DIY concern, you name it, anything you want to talk about regarding your home, that's what your call can be about. The number to reach me eight three to three, to ask Dean eight three three, the numeral two and then you just spell out ask Dean eight three three two, ask Dean. It's just that simple.

Producer Matt Toffler standing by. The phone lines are open. We're ready for you right now. Let me introduce you to our awesome team that brings you this show so faithfully every week. Elmer, of course, is on the board. Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean. How you doing, How you doing, Bud? How you doing? Are you with me? I'm doing good, yeah, you know, I'm up and uh yeah, I'm just happy. So glad to be here. All right, all right, that's good to hear, good to hear Elmer.

By the way, you know just for as little as he comments, right, just mellow, chill. He's the guys manning everything. He has got the board. I mean, he's in control of everything. I am just the talking head here who gets to share time with you thanks to you, all of me. Maybe exactly, that's what I'm talking about, Laser guy. Uh. We got producer Matt Toffler. I think I already mentioned that Matt is awesome, and he's nowhere near Mike, but he is on the phones. He's ready. That's who you're

gonna hear when you call in. And I know you're going to call in. Uh eight three three two ask Dean A three three the numeral two ask Dean. Matt will tell you everything you need to know, and you can listen to the show while you're sitting in the queue. And of course, my buddy Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk, Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. How's it going today. It's going pretty good.

just great. We've got a backpacking trip coming up, which you know I should talk about on the other side of the break, not to not to drag it out. We're going up to a place where I have spent so much time in my life, and I will. I mean, it is my second home, the Eastern Sierra's. We're going up. We're actually taking our granddaughter Olivia, who was eight, on her very first she's been gone camping before, carneal car camping, but no, this is her very first overnight too, overnight

full on backpacking. I mean, we're going to a place you cannot get to with a car. You've got to backpack it in and uh, and it's gonna be glory. I'll tell you a little bit more about it on the other side of the break.

plan today? You're smoking from chicken. There's your elephant. We saw a great elephant video this morning, baby elephant who was tried to charge a Safari van and slipped and rolled over onage. It's very cute. Today is Dodger Day. Today's Dodger Day. After the show is pitching one o'clock game. Yes, very show. Hey, starting again, yep, right, it's great. So we're gonna watch the game. You're smoking some chicken, some chicken.

We're gonna go through our backpacking checklist. Yep. We might have to make a trip to Arii later, or we are gonna have to make a trip at some point to get to pick out our food, our freeze dried ad water food. It's gonna be great anyway. We're kind of in that groove, all right, everybody. Here's the thing, getting control of sound on your home other than telling you where I'm going backpacking. That's what we're talking about on the show today, and we will do it.

Home with Dean, same handle for them all. And also I say this from time to time if your home is in need of some personal house Whisperer Designed. Attention. Why because design matters most? Yes it does. You can book an in home design console, not with the not with some person from our firm. I'm talking about me and the tea showing up at your house staring at the problem with you. All you have to do is go to house Whisperer dot Design for more information on

that house Whisperer dot Design. Okay, one more time. We've got the phone lines open. We're going to be going to the calls in a little while. Uh, eight three three two, ask Dean. Is the number to reach me? Eight three to three the numeral two, ask dean. Uh. And yes, we are going backpacking. We're very excited. We're going to a little a place, a little trail called Little Lakes Valley. It's in the eastern Sierra. The trailhead is about it's about halfway in between Bishop and Mammoth.

And the trailhead starts at ten thousand feet. Oh yeah, yeah, No. When I go backpacking, I want to get some serious elevation. And we start at ten thousand feet we will end up a little over eleven thousand square feet and the entire path, the entire trail getting to where we're going square I said, square feet. Oh my gosh, I am adorable. I cannot even I can't even get get houses out of the brain. I can't square feet. No, eleven thousand

feet in elevation above Zea level. Nothing. But I think there are seven if I counted right, there are seven pristine alpine lakes and meadows, just all of it. I mean, it is, Tina. You should post maybe we'll post a pick of just one of the shots so people can see the hellscape that we will have to endure to get. It is just it is literally my version of Evan, That's what it is. So yes, that was darcasm. Anyway, we're doing that, and we're very excited about that. It's

going to be great. A little bit of fishing catch and release only. But those trout in those lakes have been under ice. It's just now thought out, so they've been under ice for months. So even an idiotic, unskilled fisherman like myself, you know, you have to work hard not to get a bite. They are so hungry to munch on anything. And Livy is going to have a blast. So anyway, yeah, that's what's coming up. And so I'm pretty jazzed about it. Okay, let's get control of sound

in your home noise. Noise used to be a word like weed, weeds. And here I'll explain what I mean by that. Exactly what a weed is is entirely subjective. Did you know that people are always surprised Some people are surprised to hear this. Weed is not a scientific classification. There is no such thing in the world of botany as a weed. Okay. It is not a classification of plant. Any plant growing where a human doesn't want it to

be is a weed. Okay. So weed is a subjective term. Right, So we talk about weeds in our yards, But when we look on the hillsides around us, in the open spaces, they're open grasslands, they're natural grasses. But in our yards, that's a weed coming right out of the middle of my lawn. So you understand what I'm saying. It's a subjective term. Weed is entirely a term, a subjective to human perspective of plants not showing up where we are, showing up where we don't want them to be. So

that's weeds. And I said, noise used to be used to be a word like weeds. So until recently, fairly recently a couple you know, about a fifteen years or so, noise was also considered to be something solely defined by the ear of the beholder, right. And I've heard this my whole life. I've heard folks say, you know, I grew up in New York City and urban environment. I can't sleep without the sound of traffic in the background. I get that. I get some people just love it.

And when Tina and I go to a place like Manhattan or Brooklyn, we love the sounds of the city. It's just energizing to be there, to be in it, and to be a part of it for a while, for a while. And so I understand that, but I want everybody to understand this too. The research continues, and now noise is no longer considered a subjective thing. It's not a it's not simply like weed, a sound that you don't want to hear at a certain time. Okay, Noise used to be considered you know, what's noise to

one person may be music to another. But that is no longer the case. A growing body of research on the harmful effects of noise pollution on human health has actually led the American Public Health Association in twenty twenty one, i'd said these were recent changes to change the definition of noise from used to be unwanted sound that's entirely subjective. Now we haven't eliminated that part. It's unwanted and or harmful sound. And that's because our new understanding of noise

also reaches far beyond loud sounds causing hearing damage. Chronic noise, even at very low levels, can cause psychological stress, sleep disruption. It contributes this is now proven to cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, metabolic disturbances, exacerbation of psychological disorders, and premature mortality. Premature death. Noise interferes with cognition and learning, and it contributes to

behavior problems and reduces achievement and productivity in adults and children. Right, and so now we have a different perspective on noise. There is such a thing as noise, and noise is stress period physical psychological stress. And now the question is how do we fill our lives with sound but not noise. The idea of a noiseless place, it's been embedded in our vernacular. We know this. It's like we say Oh, I just want to live on a house on a

quiet tree line street. There's only so much we can do to protect ourselves from noise pollution in public, but that need not be the case when we're at home. And so that is the basis of where we go from here, and we will continue.

about getting control of sound now. I said, today's episode is not entitled sound proofing because getting control of sound is more than that, and it's also not ultimately soundproofing, but just changing the way that sound comes in and through our homes and our property. But nevertheless, we are going to start with techniques of soundproofing because if we want to lower noise pollution and the way that it enters our home. Then we've got to talk about techniques

of soundproofing. First thing you need to know, the biggest, most important thing you need to know. Don't call me or email me and say, hey, Dean, what's the one thing I need to do to sound prove my house, because there is not one single thing that we can do. Maybe in the future, maybe maybe in the future, somebody will figure out the one thing that you can do, some new technology that doesn't currently exist. But the fact of the matter is right here in this early part

of the twenty first century. Soundproofing is a layering game. It is a piece of layer after layer after layer, like you know, like peeling an onion. We've got to add this, that and the other thing in order to achieve soundproofing. I'll give you an example of the studio

that I'm sitting in right now. The studio is first built out of double wall construction, two walls fully insulated with an air gap in between them, and then on top of that, there's a layer of one or two layers of sound sound reducing dry wall set on resilient

channels to isolate the vibration as they come through. Even the glass itself as we look out from one area of the studio to the next, is double paned, double layered glass, and so on and so forth, and so you see, it's a layering effect in order to achieve soundproofing. And again sound proofing not exactly what we're after. Sound reduction,

noise reduction more specifically, so first step insulation. Of course, there's no better way to take the first hit out of sound that's entering your home than to look at the envelope of your home. And by envelope I mean the roofline and the exterior walls, and that includes windows and doors. We want insulating to be our first I guess layer of attack, okay, or first layer of defense. Insulation.

Insulation is essentially, in terms of sound, about putting levels of mass, mass, just stuff, thickness of stuff that inhibit an energy wave passing through them. And let's be real clear, this is an energy game. Sound is energy. It's energy that's moving through a medium. It moves through through air, it moves through the air around us. It is an energy wave. And the best way to imagine it when I say wave, is like waves that you see on the ocean, or better yet, maybe waves that you see

on a you know, on a lake. When you throw a rock into a lake and you see those rings of waveform around the rock, that is very, very much indicative of how sound travels through the air. Of course, it's invisible when it travels through the air. We don't see the air rippling around us, but it is nevertheless what's happening. That's energy traveling through a medium. Okay, So insulation is about taking mass and forcing that energy to

pass through mass, and as it does, it's weakened. Some of it is dampened, some of it is absorbed, some of it is deflected and diffused. And so the more insulation the better. When it comes to insulation in the outside walls of your house, if you are doing a major remodel or you're deciding to upgrade or change, I'll tell you right now, old fiberglass insulation is not the best or sound proofing a house. Now. Having it there as opposed to hollow walls way way better than nothing.

But if we are talking about optimal, we want more mass. We want thicker insulation, and I don't mean thicker in terms of depth. I just mean more dense, more density of insulation. So optimal right now would be either open cell foam that gets sprayed on. That's something that a lot of people don't have in their budget to pay for, or as far as putting bats in outside exterior walls. In between the studs bat insulation, we recommend it always go for either mineral wool or some form of denim.

But on exterior walls, I usually do mineral wool. And yes, by fiberglass insulation can have the same r value as far as heat and cold energy thermal energy, but mineral wool is so much more dense in its structure it always has a better sound energy insulating value. So mineral wool what used to be called rock wool, I think it's still I don't know if they've changed their name from rozel to rock wool or from rock wool to roxel. Anyway,

we're looking for mineral wool insulation. The other nice thing about mineral wool insulation is that it's better in terms than fiberglass in terms of pests, it's better in terms of moisture. It's just better insulation in my opinion, So mineral wool in the walls or denim shredded denim insulation excellent for sound control, and definitely denim is an option inside the house internal walls. And that's the other thing that I want to say and stress to you when

it comes to insulating a house. There's only so much, like I said, that you can do to insulate from sound the exterior walls, right, And of course there are rooms in your home, important rooms that have a an exposure to an exterior wall, but the rest of the sound that's happening inside your house has to travel through interior walls to get to that room. And so I always recommend it's just a few dollars more, honestly, just and I'm not exaggerating, it's just a few dollars more

in your remodeling budget. Any new wall that you build inside your house, interior wall, any new wall insulated with don't worry about thermal insulation, insulated with sound rated insulation. And the makers of mineral wool insulation not only make the thermal insulation for the exterior envelope, but they make well I'm thinking of like safe and sound that's literally

a brand name of mineral wool insulation. It doesn't have a They don't worry about it being highest rated thermal insulation because it's for interior walls, but it has fantastic sound insulation qualities for interior walls, because if sound had in the smaller the home, the more important this is. And I'll tell you I live in a small home.

So the fact that when I'm back in my bedroom and the reality is my living room, my family room, where the party could be happening, is is literally, as the crow flies, you know, less than fifty feet away from from you know, the primary suite. The fact of the matter is that every wall in between my bedroom

and the family room has interior insulation in it. And by the time I'm back in my bedroom, you know, the family room might as well be, you know, quite a ways away, further than it is because it's quiet. So layer by layer, hit by hit, this is a game of layers, and I can't stress that enough. All right, we will continue, but right now.

want to take full advantage. I want to show up. I want to earn my keep, all right, And today we are doing that by way of having a conversation about controlling sound. Hopefully the sound you're hearing coming out of my voice is not the sound that you want out of your house. Easy enough, just to just, you know, pick up your smart device or walk over the radio and just turn off the power. See problem solved. I've

already given you quality advice. But as far as the rest of the stuff is concerned, we're trying to figure out how to control sounds, specifically noise as it rolls into our lives. We got to cut that down because we have now learned that noise is not a subjective thing. It's not one person prefers it. Oh, you know, this sound is a noise to them, and to another person, it's sweet, sweet music. There is such a thing and

this is driven I think by evolutionary biology. There is such a thing as noise and objective reality when it comes to the way a human brain, uh and human emotions perceive sound. There is such a thing as noise, and it is noise that does damage to us. And it's noise that we want to reduce, chain mask, convert, and so on. And when it comes to our home, we've got better control over that than we do out in public. Obviously, in public, you know, you pop in

your noise canceling headphones and do your best. But at home, you're in charge. You're in control. That's why we're having that conversation. Also coming up just by the way, right after the next break, we are going to the phones. It is time top of the ten o'clock hour. And so in case you haven't given me a call yet, the number to reach me eight three three two. Ask dean A three three the numeral two, then you just spell out ask dean. Okay, we're talking soundproofing at the moment.

I've talked to you about insulation. Okay. Insulation is adding mass to a wall or to a ceiling line or to a roofline in order to make it more difficult for the energy that is sound, and sound is energy. Don't forget that, because that's the critical part of understanding how to deal with it. That it is energy that moves through a medium, and the medium being air. Okay, And yes, sound moves through all sorts of medium. Sound moves faster in water than it does in air. We'll

have this conversation a little bit further on. Because water is a better conductor of energy than air. Did you know that? Well, you should know. You do know that. You know that if I plug in a toaster right next to you and push the buttons down to toast something, that you will not get electrocuted. Why because there's energy happening all through their electrical energy. But electrical energy just jumping across the air over to where you are. No, No,

not going to happen, So you're free to toast your toast. However, classically, the classic movie murder scene, if you're in the bathtub filled with water and I drop the toaster into the bathtub, then guess what you're going to feel it. Water is a better conductor of energy than air. As a result, sound travels faster through water than it does through air,

and just fun fact, fun fact. Okay, I'll get into that a little bit more later, hopefully, But air is the medium that sound travels through in our normal lives, and so shutting down air air ceiling a house is a critical factor. No amount of think of your house like a boat, and the exterior of your house like

a boat. No amount of thick hulled walls, super insulated walls are going to change the or keep out sound if we've opened a window and we're just letting air flow inside, because whatever sound is out there is going to move through that air and gonna get into you. Okay. So airflow is a critical part of getting control of sound as well insulation on the walls, and there are

a number of ways we can do it. We've already talked about various types of what you would consider what you think of when I say the word insulation, mineral denim, insulation, spray foam insulation. By the way, when it comes to spray foam, open cell meaning the foamy stuff with lots of air pockets in it better than closed cell with no air pockets in it. So the big foamy insulation better because there's more it takes more for the energy to make it through the more dense insulation, which is

better for thermal reduction. You know, eat and cold energy is actually a better bridge of energy across it without all the open cells inside. So mass loaded vinyl is something that gets discussed a lot. It is a material that it's about an eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch thick. It is super heavy. I swear if you pick it up you think that you're carrying a lead block. That's because there's a tremendous amount

of material and mass in it. Adding a sheet of mass loaded vinyl over a wall can be another significant, significant layer. But I want to warn you about the fact that mass loaded vinyl it's expensive. Also, the way it gets displayed or demonstrated very very effective. But it is not the silver bullet that it would appear in those YouTube demonstrations that you see. And I'll explain why. In fact, I'm going to explain why right on the other side of the brake, and then we're going to

the phone, So don't go anywhere. I will tell you all. And maybe during the break you should check out a YouTube video on mass loaded vinyl, and then you'll see look for one where a guy's got a speaker inside a box that's covered in mass loaded vinyl and he's just sitting there talking to you, and then he's like, oh, and by the way, this speaker is going full blast, and he picks up the box and it's blaring, and then he puts the box over it and it's silent.

What's wrong with that in the real world. We'll talk about that right on the other side of the break, and we're going to the phones. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app