Gabion walls for sound-proofing garden
garjobo
Posts: 85
Garden sound barriers.
Effective method to prevent me spending all Summer listening to bloated conversations from the annoying neighbours next door.
Suggestions please.
Move house or anything involving a lot of money is not a goer. Was thinking more along lines of a Gabion Wall, wire baskets filled with rubble/faced off with stone or pebbles. Agree? Apparently according to my sources ( Heinz, Branston and google ) Gabion walls eat up more noise than breezeblock,brick etc
8ft wall high x 2.5ft width x 8 ft length. Anyone with a little knowledge or experiance please share. Assuming safe/easy enough to construct. Just pile baskets onto of one another, tied, shouldnt fall over? should they?
In for a penny...it is a concrete side area, so nowhere for plants/trees to grow but any thoughts on thin, high, dense, evergreen shrubs or trees which can be grown up a brick wall / in pots again your knowledge is very welcome.
Appreciated your time.
Posts
I don t know how wide your garden is, but gabion walls would take up a lot of room.
You can get fencing panels, double width with soundproofing, like they use at the side of motorways in urban areas.
Failing that, Bose make excellent sound cancelling headphones.
would 8ft high require planning permission?
I've always found that the sound of a running water feature masks the sound of voices.
Place it close enough to the neighbour's sitting area and with any luck they'll spend most of their time going indoors to use the loo.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Any fence over two metres needs planning permission. Neighbours will object...lack of light etc.
Google Gramm acoustic barriers. There should be something there to suit.
A cheaper and wildlife friendly alternative to gabions seen recently on a walk with the dogs - erect two vertical screens of the finer meshed builders' wire panels used for reinforcing concrete and fill with large grade chipped bark. Attach the mesh either side of a row of 4" wooden posts buried in concrete boots.
Light to erect, indestructible if you get the fence posts right. Good windbreak. I suspect a good sound absorber too and lovely home for all sorts of beneficial insects.
Add a water feature and a wind chime and you're sorted.
You can't build a wall that high, but what I have found works quite well is a very high brow classical music cd with the speaker facing their way.
I did this with some next door neighbours years ago, they played their music way to loud, so I put the speaker facing and almost touching the wall, they did turn there's down when they realised how sound travels, failing that, you can remember their conversations then discuss it with them , like , so, so and so's doing that now is he, or fancy her going to the hospital for that, they won't like to think of you listening in on their conversations, and may tone it down a bit.
ah Lyn, the joys of now having no neighbours eh?
Thank you for your replies, particularly like Obelixx suggestion and will dig deeper into that perhaps. Sounded interesting..cant really picture it though..finer mesh filled with chipbark...i like it..not sure if it would retain sound as well as brick.
Aware of the 6ft no higher rule! but there is an existing fence reaching approx 8ft, hence was thinking of simply placing wire baskets in front of that, they would be none the wiser and could aways reduce a basket or two if anything kicked off.
Assuming a wall that high requires a few posts cemented in the cages. Just asking, anyone on this site done this before - any thoughts welcome.
Yes - had thought of the ole' let them hear you discussing them type scenerio...or a polite letter to their door perhaps.
Thanks again for suggestions, any plants / trees which can grow high and dense in a largeish pot ( as mentioned it is on cement ).
Am getting a fountain ( looking on Amazon etc..any suggestions there? want one which is loud enough, plug and/or solar - £150 )
See the pics on this site - http://www.concrete-mesh.com/
We use the large grade mesh for fencing so we can grow blackberries and tayberries up it on our potager boundary and protect a holly hedge form the cows on the pasture boundary. We use offcuts as gates to restrict the dogs to the back and side garden.
We buy it at the local builders' merchants who store it outside so it's already rusty when we get it and quickly becomes almost invisible. The bark filler will absorb rather than bounce sound.