u/human_noX

I just left a rental property. PM found a stain on the carpet that a professional carpet cleaner couldn’t remove. I caused the stain. Landlord got a quote for $1500 to re-carpet the room. The stain isn’t that bad, I wouldn’t bother replacing the carpet if it were me but whatever. The PM sent us an email asking for a ‘goodfaith’ contribution to the replacement without stating a figure. I replied saying “show me an invoice when the carpets were last replaced” as I suspect it’s more than ten years ago and therefore legally worth zero dollars. However in the circumstance they provide evidence they were replaced say 5 years ago I want to counter by saying you never fixed the broken TV that was included in our rent for ~12 months. What would be the monetary value of not having access to the TV? We replaced with our own and took it with us when we left.

Now the rant - We as tenants genuinely acted in “good faith” through the tenancy - fixed minor plumbing issues ourselves, didn’t complain when they refused to fix broken doors, endured weekly open homes for 9 months as the property is for sale (still unsold), always cleaning before the open homes. Seems goodfaith only applies to our behaviour, not theirs. So I’m loath to hand over money when they wont even replace the carpet and just sell the property with a stain.

I have a disability that has extreme sound sensitivity as a symptom. I currently live in a quiet suburban street but still wear construction earmuffs (27 decibel) 16 hours a day, only taking them off between 9pm and 5am for sleeping when it’s dead quiet. Noises like my caregiver making food, them talking on the phone, the washing machine going, the odd bus or car driving past are too much for me. Hence the earmuffs. With the earmuffs and quiet-ish environment I can stay on top of my symptoms.

That said, the house I will be living in in the future is currently being constructed. I therefore have an opportunity to install some serious sound proofing with the intent I can take off the earmuffs which will be more comfortable physically.

I have been down the rabbit hole of soundproofing research and have learned there is lots that can be done, it’s all just a matter of cost. Fortunately I’m in the position where I can spend the money if it’s worth it, but given I can’t work and will never be able to I don’t what to waste what savings I have unnecessarily.

I’ve made a list of all the soundproofing options below, but what I haven’t been able to determine is what combination of soundproofing measures will deliver me the results I’m after (basically dead silence for most of the day/night). I don’t want a situation where I go overboard but equally I don’t want to have a half measure and end up wearing the earmuffs still anyway.

While this might seem like overkill for some people, I literally never leave my bedroom, and this is one of the very few ways I’m able to increase my quality of life, even a tiny bit.

Environmental factors: New house is on a rural block, probably 200m from closest neighbour, no road noise. House design is such that there is a spare bedroom between my room and the main living/kitchen area. My room is down a hallway with two doors (hallway door and my bedroom door.) Single story, concrete slab floor.

Likely main sources of noise are rain on corrugated iron roof, lawnmower, heat pump (positioned as far away from my bedroom as house design allows), water pump (not on town water - positioned 50m away next to the shed), noise of regular living (talking, TV, cleaning, cooking) from my parents (aka caregivers), wild bird calls.

Soundproofing options:

1. Two separate, parallel stud/plate assemblies with a gap in between - cannot do this as the stud work is already done.
2. Accousic double glazing windows (different thickness for each panel, different from regular double glazing)
3. Solid ‘external’ door as bedroom door
4. Acoustic batts
5. A layer of mass-loaded vinyl
6. A double-layer of 13mm and 16mm Soundchek plasterboard w staggered joints
7. Plasterboard glued together with sound absorbing “Green Glue”
8. Plasterboard hung from isolation clips
9. Soundproofing powerpoint and light fitting holes, window and door frames
10. Hang plasterboard 3mm above floor and caulk gap to floor
11. Acoustic caulking of all joints

So with all that said what I’m asking is:

1. Have I missed any ways of soundproofing, especially cost effective ways?
2. What combination of soundproofing measures do you think would do the trick of making an essentially silent room in what is already likely to be a pretty quiet environment.

Thanks for reading this far and thanks in advance if you have any suggestions.

I think I started noticing them about a month ago. Like I said in the title I don’t mind it, I’m just curious.