Carpet and Health
Carpet and Noise Reduction
Carpeted Rooms Dampen Down Noises From Within And Without
Anyone who has ever lived in an apartment knows what it's like to have noisy neighbours. You have the thump, thump, thump of footsteps overhead and the revelry or arguments in the next apartment reaching your ears through paper-thin walls. Didn't you wish the people upstairs would be considerate enough to at least put carpeting on their floors to lessen the noise?
Or perhaps you have active young children upstairs. Carpeted bedrooms make them seem much quieter. Linda Borman, a Toronto residential interior designer, says her younger clients, especially those with children, are choosing carpeting because of its ability to absorb noise.
Jean Claude Carisse, Executive Director of the Canadian Carpet Institute, notes that for institutions such as schools and hospitals, carpeting's sound deadening capacity is particularly advantageous. "Experiments show that not only is carpeting safer but also better for sound deadening," Carisse says. "I heard this at a pollution seminar I attended in Halifax.” He relates a story about a complaint he heard from a school. At first, he thought they were going to complain about a particular carpet. However, the complainants were upset that there was no carpeting in the school. They missed its sound-deadening qualities!
More and more condo associations are making carpet mandatory in their condo complexes, for acoustic reasons. Acoustics was also the reason Colin and Margaret Yakashiro chose carpeting in two of the rooms in their new home in Abbotsford, B.C. They didn't want the noises of the home interfering with Colin's work - he works out of his home and has clients worldwide, and Margaret didn't want to feel as though she had to keep everything quiet, especially with three children and a dog, every time Colin was on the phone.
Finally, many residential interior designers and home theatre technicians are strongly recommending that carpet be installed in those special rooms in order to maximize the “sound experience” when watching movies.
Incidentally, architect and interior designer Ed Calnitsky notes that for those readers with noisy neighbours, you might consider putting carpets on your walls. They will look good and help sound proof the walls!