Fencing to Reduce Unwanted Noise
At Mossy Oak Orlando, we know that our clients build fences for a wide variety of reasons. You might want to tie your yard together with an aesthetically pleasing but functional fence. You might have young children or pets you want to keep safe and contained in your backyard for greater peace of mind. Or you might be considering installing a fence to help cut unwanted noise.
Particularly if you live in a more populous area, or near high traffic roadways, (or if your neighbors just like to party), adding a fence can be a great way to help reduce the noise you hear in your yard, house, and on your property in general. However, there are good choices and bad choices in fencing when it comes to noise reduction.
Here are a few of our suggestions for those of you who may be considering installing a fence for noise reduction purposes.
Avoid fences which are not fully solid, like chain-link fences or wrought-iron bars.
It may seem obvious, but any fence that has holes in its design, the way a chain-link fence or a wrought-iron barred fence does, will be less effective for noise reduction than, say, a wooden privacy fence or a solid aluminum fence. However, one fence with holes that is actually pretty effective for noise reduction is a double-sided wooden privacy fence done in a shadowbox style, where instead of just having paneling on one side of your fence, you alternate the paneling on your fence board by board so that one side of the fence fills the gaps that would have been left by the other side. Even though this type of fence has holes between panels, sound is still effectively blocked because of the way the fence boards are arranged.
Thicker is better.
The more heavy your fence is, odds are good the more dense your fencing materials are. Because of the way sound moves, it does not travel well through thicker material, like brick, stone, or thick tongue in groove wooden boards. Simply put, the thicker your fencing material, the better. You could even add insulation between two layers of fence paneling if you are really serious about sound reduction.
Height matters.
For similar reasons that thickness is important when building a fence for noise reduction, height is also important. It doesn’t matter how thick and solid your fence is if it’s short enough for sound to come right over it. As a general rule, you’re going to want a fence that is full height.
Don’t forget about the white noise.
While a thick, solid, tall fence can help dampen street noise quite a bit, there are other tools at your disposal that can help your soundproofing fence do its job more effectively. Adding a water feature like a fountain can help in this regard because the soothing sounds of running water will help dull down the sounds of street traffic.
As ever, if you need help with fence design or installation, feel free to give our friendly team of fence experts at Mossy Oak Orlando a call today.
