LouLife

Quiet, they say, is what a home would be without children.

Although I readily admit that kids cause a rise in the bedlam barometer, I far prefer the pitter-patter of little feet to much of the common, everyday clamor in our ever-more-crowded world. Ask an Anchorage or Pewee Valley resident about train whistles and you’ll get an earful. Those who dwell near the Watterson or Gene Snyder wax profane about downshifting semis. Living in the flight path of UPS jets is definitely not conducive to a good night’s sleep.

In the still of the day: peaceful snoozing in a "quiet" home.

Ron Czapala takes great umbrage at drivers who crank up the volume knobs on their moving sound systems. Through his website, www.noboomers.com, he’s waging war against cars equipped with powerful amps and subwoofers and loud after-market mufflers. Boom cars pass through his Four Seasons subdivision "20 or 30 times each and every day" and often late at night. "Up until a few years ago it was a nice quiet neighborhood," he laments.

Among my personal peeves is the gas-powered leaf blower. It imbues Clement Moore’s line, "When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter," with new meaning. And although Rosanne Barr once quipped that she’ll clean house when Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner, I — as well as my quivering dog, Maggie — would be ecstatic if they’d just produce a silent model.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) estimates that 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous sound levels on a regular basis. While much of this exposure is work-related, there are plenty of opportunities to damage your hearing — and raise your blood pressure — at home. Motorcycles, firecrackers, hair dryers, lawn mowers — and yes, vacuums and leaf blowers — are some of the biggest offenders. In the quest for peace and quiet, many manufacturers of home-related products are taking advantage of a new market. Quiet has become a selling point for everything from dishwashers to toilet seats. Here’s a look at some products that could make even the crankiest librarian crack a smile.

Kitchens and Laundry Rooms

A suspension two-pump motor system makes this Bosch dishwasher inaudible.

When my college-student daughter graces me with a visit, her primary objective is eating me out of house and home. Unfortunately, given her vampiric hours, she and her posse do much of their noisy kitchen foraging during the witching hours. One helpful remedy is Blumotion drawer and cabinet hardware, manufactured by a company named Blum Inc. and designed to make your cupboard doors and drawers move smoothly and, best of all, silently. It puts an /files/storyimages/to slamming.

Does the clang of silverware in the sink set your teeth on edge? According to Dale Jauquet, senior product manager for Kohler stainless-steel kitchen sinks, the company’s SilentShield technology eliminates annoying ringing with sound-absorbing pads applied to the sink’s underside. Introduced in 2003, the technology is now standard on nearly all Kohler and Sterling stainless sinks.

Garbage disposers are annoyingly loud — unless you’re trying to drown out the even more annoying whines of a six-year-old. Introduced this past May, In-Sink-Erator’s Evolution PRO Series disposers are so quiet you can talk on the phone while the disposer is running, says Chuck Young of local distributor JEBCO Marketing. "The difference in the noise level is incredible," he says.

With family rooms open to the kitchen, many appliance manufacturers are offering quiet refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines that are next to soundless. "Everything is quieter than it was a decade ago," says the Tr/files/storyimages/Company’s Sheila Depp. "Part of the reason is energy efficiency. Refrigerators have foam-injected insulation in the doors and sides and smaller compressors that make less noise. Some high-/files/storyimages/models even insulate the compressors." Comparing refrigerator decibel (dB) ratings is difficult, however, because most manufacturers don’t include them in their literature. The best thing to do: Shop models that market their quiet operation.

With dishwashers, dB ratings are more prominent, says Jack Wright of Bonnycastle Appliance and TV. Standard dishwashers produce anywhere from 58 to 62 dB, while top-of-the-line models by such manufacturers as Bosch, Asko, Kitchen Aid and Miele run in the 40s. The quietest dishwasher made, says Wright, is the Bosch SHV99 at 44 dB. "It’s so quiet," he says, "that the company was getting calls from customers complaining it wasn’t running. You can stand right beside it and not know it’s on. They had to add a light that shoots a red beam on the floor to let owners know it’s working."

Another innovation expected from Bosch next month: a front-loading washer that operates at just 40 dB. "Most front-loaders are already quieter than top-loaders with agitators," Wright observes. "The only time they’re loud is when they get to that last spin cycle."

Bathrooms

A hydraulically slam-proof toilet seat from Kohler.

Don’t slam the toilet seat! According to Shane Allis, product manager for Kohler toilet seats, lid-slamming was the impetus behind the company’s development of the Cachet Quiet-Close seat in 2004. "The seat features a hydraulic damper that has a small, two-chambered cartridge. When you close it, fluid slowly moves from one chamber to the other, making the seat slam-proof," he explains. Other manufacturers, such as Bemis, are now offering similar products.

If your bathroom exhaust fan sounds like a revving street rod, replace it with an Ultra Silent model from Broan or a Whisper model from Panasonic. Both offer "almost silent" operation, at 0.3-1.5 sones — somewhere between the sound level of rustling shrubs and a calm office.

Garages

Chris Cunningham of Cunningham Overhead Door often fields complaints about loud garage doors. "I had one woman who said every time her husband went to work at 6 a.m., the garage door woke the baby," he says. Unless that rumbling helps you keep tabs on a teenage driver, Cunningham has several suggestions to dampen the sound:

• Buy a belt-driven, rather than a chain-driven, operator with a DC-powered motor.

• The door itself amplifies sound, so go with insulated doors.

• Mount vibration isolaters between the opener chassis and the supporting angle iron.

• Replace steel rollers with nylon.

• Get your door serviced regularly, especially if it’s your primary entrance. Tightening fasteners and periodic lubrication can make a big difference.

Air Conditioners

When you think about the sounds of summer, what comes to mind first — bird calls or the bothersome buzz of your air conditioner? If you mentioned the air conditioner, you’re not alone, says Greg Nickels, owner of Automatic Air Corp. "Quietness is second only to energy efficiency when people are shopping for air conditioners."

Fortunately, high energy efficiency and quiet operation go hand in hand. For central air conditioners, the quietest — and most energy-efficient — models have scroll compressors, insulated compressor covers and variable or two-speed operation, says Nickels. "Variable-speed technology is the best thing that’s happened in this industry in the past 15 years. It eliminates ramping up and down of the equipment, and at the 50 percent blower speed, you can’t hear it operate."

Other points to keep in mind:

• Right-size your unit. A too-large unit will cycle on and off frequently. A too-small unit will stay on all the time.

• Locate the compressor away from your bedroom, deck or anyplace where you don’t want to hear that annoying buzz. "For every four feet the condenser is away from the house, the noise drops six decibels," says Steve Sheldon, marketing specialist for Trane.

• Too-small registers restrict airflow and make noise. And don’t paint register covers. They’re smooth-faced to let air pass freely.

• Where super-quiet is important, have register boxes made of fiberglass duct board or cover the box’s interior with vinyl duct liner.

Windows and Doors

Double-glazed laminated windows in this sunroom block out airplane noise from nearby Bowman Field.

If exterior noise — trains, planes, traffic or the wannabe rap group next door — has you tossing and turning, consider new windows, says Mike Schindler of the Window and Door Center. "The right glass can make all the difference in the world."

With a 35 STC (sound transmission class; the higher the better) rating, laminated glass is best at blocking sound. "It’s made by sandwiching polyvinyl butyral between two layers of clear glass, like a car windshield," Schindler explains. "For energy efficiency, we recomm/files/storyimages/double-glazed windows (two panes separated by an air space), with the laminated glass on the outside."

While laminated glass can be used in any window frame — wood, fiberglass or vinyl — he recommends wood because it’s denser. "If you go with vinyl, make sure the core, frame and sash are foam-filled," he says. Tight weather stripping is essential, too, because "anywhere there’s air leakage, there’s sound leakage."

For entry doors, choose solid-core construction and tight weather stripping. Laminated glass is also available for sidelights, transoms and doors with windows. Inside, solid-core doors can add privacy to bedrooms and baths. And if you work nights and need to sleep during the day, your best bet — other than sending the kids to boarding school — is putting a weather-stripped exterior door on your room, says Cunningham.

Construction materials

Building a new house or remodeling your old one? You can make your home much quieter with special products and construction techniques, says Rocky Pusateri of Elite Homes. For instance, two-by-six instead of two-by-four framing allows the use of thicker insulation, which makes the home much quieter and more energy efficient.

That same style construction also helps eliminate plumbing noise from drain pipes, says Bill Stout, a plumber with Maeser Master Services. "We also recomm/files/storyimages/insulating around the pipes, putting expansion loops in potable water lines and using recirculating water pumps to help maintain the water lines at a constant temperature," he says, "thus eliminating the sounds of expansion and contraction."

Research showing that 78 percent of Americans are disturbed at home by booming stereos, blaring TVs and boisterous children inspired the development of Owens Corning’s QuietZone products, says Portia Ash, company business manager for residential noise control. Included in the line: batts, floor mats, a fabric ceiling system and wall framing, as well as sealant to keep sound from seeping through cracks and gaps in walls.

Made of light-density fiberglass, acoustic batts "take the edge off" sound between rooms. "Some consumers only put them in master-bedroom and home-office walls, then wish they’d used them in the family room, children’s bedrooms or powder room," Ash observes. Acoustic floor mat, laid between the subfloor and finished flooring, eliminates the problem described in Longfellow’s poem "The Children’s Hour": "I hear in the chamber above me the patter of little feet." Owens Corning recommends it not only for children’s second-floor bedrooms but also on any floor above a home theater.

Echoing ceilings in two-story great rooms instigated development of the QuietZone Solserene Fabric Ceiling System, says Ash. An easy retrofit, the system consists of inch-thick acoustic core fiberglass board screwed into the ceiling and covered by stretchable polyester fabric held in place by a narrow track around the ceiling’s perimeter. The fabric comes in white, beige or black and makes the ceiling "look painted," Ash says. "It also improves the acoustics in home theaters.

Owens Corning isn’t the only company in the biz to smush together "quiet" and another word. Introduced in January by Quiet Solution Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., QuietRock 525 reduces sound transmission 70 percent over standard drywall, says sales consultant Harry Symonds. Made of gypsum embedded with polymer layers, QuietRock 525 has a minimum STC rating of 50, compared to 34 for regular drywall. "It would take eight layers of standard drywall to have the sound-reducing capabilities of one sheet of QuietRock," says Symonds. QuietRock 525 scores, snaps and finishes like regular drywall and can also be screwed over existing walls, making it an easy "one-shot solution" to noise control, he says.

So there you have it: floors, walls, windows, ceilings, garages, appliances. May peace be with you.