Here is our real life experience with constructing a window plug for our bedroom window which is a little smaller than 4 feet by 6 feet.
Here are the facts:
Window size: 4 feet by 6 feet
Location: Bedroom
Noise problem: One rude neighbor across the street starting up a noisy mustang car early in the morning. The noise is surprisingly loud and can be heard in every room of our home, even with the doors and windows closed! Other noises would be some freeway noise off in the distance and lawn mowers every Wednesday morning.
After constructing the window plug, we have noticed the following difference in the noise level...
The freeway noise off in the distance is gone.
The lawnmower noise now sounds much further away than before. The rude, obnoxious girl in the mustang can still be heard but the sound is less. I believe the remaining noise is coming through the walls.
The effectiveness of the window plug depends upon how you construct it. It can not be removable because noise would be coming in around the edges. Also, the soundproofing materials we bought weigh over 70 POUNDS! Yes, 70 pounds. My husband and I could not even lift the material up together to glue it onto our 1/2 inch plywood. We had to cut the 4 foot X 6 foot sheet of soundproofing mat into 1/3 sections before we could lift it onto our plywood board. Also we used thick, heavy soundproof tape called "Barrier Tape" to tape all around the edges so that noise would not come in around the plywood sheet edges.
Here's the construction in detail:
We purchased the following materials for our 4 ft X 6 ft window at
www.soundprooffoam.comOne 4 ft X 8 ft sheet of "Ultra Barrier" $258.82 plus shipping
One tube of Loctite Power Grab adhesive $8.99
One Stanley utility knife to cut the Ultra Barrier $7.49
Four rolls of Barrier Tape (each roll is 3 inches by 6 feet) $20.75 X 4 rolls = $83.00 for the tape
In addition, at Lowes (or Home Depot) we bought one sheet of 1/2 plywood $24.75
The construction is as follows:
Cut the 1/2 inch plywood to fit the window as tightly as possibe and then paint the side that will be facing out of your home with white paint. That way no one will see a sheet of plywood in your window.
(1) We first nailed several small pieces of wood around the window so that our plywood would sit 2 inches from the window glass.
(2) We put the plywood into the window with the white side facing the street. It should be a tight fit.
(3) If possible, use sound proof caulking around the plywood and then the sound proof Barrier Tape listed above. We only used the Barrier Tape and taped all around the plywood.
(4) Measure and cut your Ultra Barrier soundproof vinyl & foam mat into sections that you can lift.
(5) Don't put the adhesive on your plywood until you've checked the fit of your Ultra Barrier sheet first.
(6) Once you know your Ultra Barrier sheet is a snug fit for your plywood, then put the adhesive on the plywood and press the Ultra Barrier soundproof vinyl & foam sheet to the plywood. Hold it until it starts to set firm to the plywood.
(7) Last, you might want to add some extra strips of the Ultra Barrier sheet to around the edges of your plywood sheet for extra sound proofing. That's it.
Our window plug has reduced the noise level but if it had not, we were prepared to get a 2nd window added from
www.soundproofwindows.com . I got a quote for this size of window at $951.06. (4 ft X 6 ft)