What are the dangers of noise? The hazards of noise

Please note: Never leave your ceiling unfinished—doing so would be a real shame. In fact, the solution is simple: install a specialized soundproofing ceiling using professional-grade acoustic materials. Ideally, your ceiling should combine both sound absorption and diffusion. Of course, you’ll need to factor in the cost of ceiling installation when budgeting for your home renovation. Otherwise, a basic ceiling project could easily set you back 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. A more affordable and straightforward option is to use a lightweight steel frame paired with mineral fiber boards—this approach offers the simplest and most cost-effective way to address your ceiling needs.

1. The Dangers of Noise to Sleep

Sudden noises at 40 decibels can wake up 10% of people, while at 60 decibels, they can disturb 70% of individuals. Initially, such noise leads to sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, and even memory decline—these are the early psychological symptoms. Over time, it can escalate into emotional turmoil, mood instability, reduced tolerance levels, and irritability, ultimately contributing to a range of health issues, including hypertension, ulcers, and diabetes.

2. The Harm of Noise to Hearing

Noise can cause tinnitus, hearing loss, and auditory damage. People begin to perceive noise as disturbing when it exceeds 55 decibels. Long-term exposure to sounds above 85 decibels increases the risk of developing hearing loss to 21% after 40 years. For instance, continuous exposure to motorcycle noise for 8 hours can already lead to hearing impairment, while just half an hour in a loud rock concert environment may start damaging one’s hearing. Moreover, living in a noisy environment with levels exceeding 80 decibels can raise the likelihood of developing hearing loss as high as 50%.

3. The Harm of Noise to Vision

It is widely known that noise can severely damage the auditory system, even leading to hearing loss. However, there is also a subtle, intrinsic connection between the ears and eyes: when noise affects the auditory organs, it can indirectly impact the visual system via the nervous system, resulting in diminished vision.

4. The Harm of Noise to Intelligence

Noise can hinder children's intellectual development—children in noisy environments show 20% lower cognitive development compared to those in quiet settings.

5. The Harm of Noise to Physical Health

Noise can cause auditory nerve tension, irregular heart rhythms, and increased blood pressure. In high-noise environments, it may also lead to sexual dysfunction and menstrual irregularities in some women, as well as a higher risk of miscarriage among pregnant women.

6. Tips for Noise-Reducing Renovation

1. Stop the footsteps from upstairs

Soundproofing structure: ceiling; Soundproofing material: acoustic suspended ceiling

Almost all residents living in apartment buildings face this issue: the footsteps from neighbors upstairs can be incredibly annoying, especially at night when they disrupt sleep—often waking people up suddenly and making it nearly impossible to fall back asleep. This problem becomes particularly acute on big-event days like European Cup matches. Of course, it’s hard to interfere with others; after all, you can’t exactly stop someone from walking around in their own home!

Please note: Never leave your ceiling unfinished—doing so would be a real shame. In fact, the solution is simple: install a specialized soundproofing吊顶 using professional-grade acoustic materials. Ideally, your ceiling should also combine both sound absorption and diffusion. Of course, you’ll need to factor in the cost of ceiling installation when budgeting for your home renovation. Otherwise, a basic ceiling project could easily set you back 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. A more affordable and straightforward option is to use a lightweight steel frame paired with mineral fiber boards—this approach offers the simplest and most cost-effective way to tackle your ceiling needs.

2. Prevent the floor from creaking

Soundproofing materials: flooring; Sound-absorbing materials: cork flooring, wood-fiber silent flooring, and thick carpet

Nowadays, home flooring options typically include marble, tiles, or wood. To reduce sound reflections from the floor, it’s still recommended to place a thick, movable carpet between the speakers and your listening position. Why a thick carpet? Because only a robust, high-density carpet can effectively absorb sound—simply using a small, thin rug would serve more as decoration than provide any meaningful acoustic benefit. You can easily find these types of thick, woolen carpets at textile wholesale markets; in fact, cheaper machine-made versions work just fine, so there’s no need to splurge on handcrafted, handmade rugs, which tend to be significantly more expensive.

When it comes to engineered flooring, cork silent flooring offers sound-absorbing and noise-reducing features that other types of flooring simply can’t match. Thanks to cork’s exceptional sound transmission properties and damping performance, this flooring not only absorbs the noise generated by footsteps but also effectively insulates against sound traveling between floors. So go ahead—feel free to dance wildly and express yourself fully without worrying about disturbing your downstairs neighbors! Plus, ultra-solid wood flooring delivers a brand-new, richly authentic wood sound experience, thanks to its innovative internal wood-fiber silent system, which can cut indoor noise levels in half.

3. Leave the peace for the neighbor next door

Soundproofing components: walls; soundproofing materials: acoustic blankets, thick curtains, sound-absorbing cotton, wallpaper

Currently, buildings generally fail to incorporate "soundproofing design," with adjacent units separated by just a single wall—allowing residents to easily hear each other’s voices. This severely compromises the privacy of household life and negatively impacts overall quality of living. In high-rise tower blocks today, lightweight partition walls are commonly used, which unfortunately leads to a noticeable decline in sound insulation performance. People have tried various remedies, such as adding an extra layer of sound-absorbing cotton or gypsum board between walls, but these solutions haven’t been very effective. That’s because they still rely on sound absorption rather than true soundproofing—after all, materials that excel at absorbing sound often do little to block it, while those designed for excellent sound blocking tend to let sound pass right through.

The fundamental solution remains the use of professional soundproofing materials, such as the recently introduced Shinko series of soundproofing blankets. The single-layer N80 model achieves an impressive 20dB of sound insulation. This material boasts exceptional wide-frequency soundproofing properties and high damping performance, effectively blocking various airborne noises. When combined with gypsum boards and acoustic cotton to create a soundproof wall, the results are truly outstanding. When it comes to wall decoration, it’s best to incorporate some texture—like using wallpaper or fabric wall coverings—as they deliver excellent noise-reducing effects.

Doors often become a major source of noise in the home—sometimes, even gently closing them can still produce a heavy thud. This happens because most door materials aren’t designed to be soundproof, leading to these unwanted noises. "Bridge-Drum Mechanical Board," a cutting-edge, high-tech door core panel manufactured in Germany, features a unique tubular structure that effectively blocks sound. The air trapped within these tubes works similarly to the principles behind thermos flasks and soundproof glass, delivering an impressive隔音 effect equivalent to 30–44 dB.

4. Make the door silent

Soundproofing main component: doors; Soundproofing material: bridge-cavity mechanical board

Doors often become a major source of noise in the home—sometimes, even gently closing them can still produce a heavy thud. This happens because most door materials aren’t designed to be soundproof, leading to these unwanted noises. "Bridge-Drum Mechanical Board," a cutting-edge, high-tech door core panel manufactured in Germany, features a unique tubular structure that effectively blocks sound. The air trapped within these tubes works similarly to the principles behind thermos flasks and soundproof glass, delivering an impressive隔音效果 equivalent to 30–44 dB.

5. Completely eliminate noise from indoor pipes

Soundproofing component: piping; Soundproofing material: acoustic blanket

As PVC drainage pipes are used, they produce remarkably loud drainage noise—levels can reach 60 to 70 dB. A common solution is to wrap the pipes and stuff the space in between with sound-absorbing material. However, this approach yields very poor results and hardly makes any noticeable difference.

To address this type of problem, you can use a soundproofing blanket. The process involves cutting the blanket into narrow strips about 100mm wide, applying adhesive to one side, and then spirally wrapping it around the drainage pipe—this forms the first layer. Next, wrap the pipe with an additional layer of sound-absorbing material, and finally, spiral another layer of the soundproofing blanket over the sound-absorbing material. This method effectively eliminates pipe noise.