The loudness of sound is subjective, so what you may perceive to be a perfectly acceptable music volume could be a nuisance to your neighbours. Your nightly woodworking projects in your garage could be keeping your neighbours awake.
A better way to check if you are being an annoying neighbour is to use an objective measure of sound like decibels. Decibels (dB) is a measure of the intensity of sound. The higher the sound intensity, the louder most people will perceive that sound to be.
With that in mind, let’s look at how many decibels is too loud for neighbours and how to measure how many decibels are coming from your house.
How The Decibel Scale Works
Before we go any further, it’s important to understand how the decibel scale works. The decibel scale is logarithmic, meaning that for each 10dB increase, the intensity of sound increases 10 times. So 20dB is 10 times as intense as 10dB, and 30dB is 100 times as intense as 10dB. But we perceive the same increase to be only twice as loud.
So an increase from 30dB (a whisper) to 60dB (normal conversation) feels like it’s 6 times as loud, but it is 1000 times more intensive. It’s the intensity that can damage our hearing. Prolonged exposure to high intensity sounds, even if they don’t sound very loud, is bad for our hearing and health. For example, regularly listening to music at a high volume or living close to a busy highway.
How Many Decibels is Too Loud for Neighbours
If there is too much noise coming from your home, it might be deemed a statutory nuisance and you could be served an abatement notice by your local council. But how loud would the noise have to be to become a nuisance to neighbours?
It depends on a number of factors like how close the neighbors are, how prolonged the sound is, and the thickness of the walls separating you from your neighbours.
But the biggest factor is the amount of background noise. Because it’s generally noisier during the day, you can go as high as 60-70 decibels without irritating your neighbours. This is about as loud as a normal conversation, a washing machine, or quiet music.
You can also get away with short-lived 70-80dB sounds, such as a vacuum cleaner or a blender. However, things like power tools or a non-electric leaf blower would be too loud if you have close neighbours.
At night, it’s a lot quieter, so even normal daytime sounds, such as music set at a moderate volume or a loud conversation, can be too loud for your neighbours. Generally, anything above 50dB will likely be too loud for your neighbors. This includes a vacuum cleaner, blender, a sewing machine, or a washing machine.
Keep in mind, however, there are other factors that determine how much sound reaches your neighbours. If you are in an apartment with only walls between homes, you need to be a lot more careful than if you are in a house with neighbours further away on the other side of a fence.
Whatever your situation, it’s best to play it safe and keep noises as low as possible, especially late into the night when a majority of people are asleep.
How to Measure Decibels
If you want to check how loud the noise coming from your home is, get a sound level meter. Sound measuring apps can provide a rough estimate, but they are usually not accurate. Here’s a video of a sound level meter in action.
Measure the sound level in your home, making sure you stand close to the loudest source of sound. During the day, try not to exceed 60-70 decibels. At night, keep noise levels below 50dB, and even lower (under 35dB) past 11pm.
A sound level meter can be helpful for people who often play music in their home, have musical instruments like drums, use power tools in their garage, or have any other potentially loud sources of noise.
If you find that you are too loud, there are several options to consider. If you can’t turn down the volume, you can soundproof the room the sound is coming from. Acoustic foam panels can lower the noise level by 5-10 decibels.
