Noise reduction: acoustic vents

[Evergreen]

After a huge leak made it necessary, we did up the rooms I live in. I found “acoustic vents” and thought others with noise intolerance and ventilation holes in their external walls might be interested.

Noise intolerance is a big issue for me, has been since day 1, and remained so even when mild and able to work a bit. (So completely out of keeping with the theories I sometimes see, along the lines of “They withdraw from society and retreat to bed so of course over time they become sensitive to the tiniest little thing.”)

We’re lucky that we’re now living in a quiet area, but there’s still plenty of noise at times – hedge-cutting, strimming, mowing, construction, dogs, fireworks, parties, storms. One of the main entry points was the wall vents, which were just holes in the wall covered by white plastic hit-and-miss covers.

I realised that there must be a product for houses by airports or on main roads to reduce noise but allow ventilation. After extensive googling, I found this:

https://rts.vents.co.uk/blog/produc...-super-acoustic-controllable-lookryt-aircore/

We got those ones but we didn’t use the external vent cover. Instead, the builder doing our job retrofitted them into the existing hole from the inside, so there was no external work involved.

They look different on the wall compared to usual vent covers I’m used to (a grill or hit-and-miss in plastic or metal flush with the wall). Instead, the acoustic vent sticks out from the wall in a little square, and the air comes through around the sides of that square, via insect mesh. And you paint/wallpaper the square to match the wall of that room. (Or leave as is - a perfectly unobjectionable cream.) If you look at the attached image, or flick through the images on the link above to the picture with tree wallpaper, you’ll see what I mean.

There are lots of other options depending on the shape of the hole in your wall https://rts.vents.co.uk/blog/products/acoustic-aircore-and-airliner-sets-background/

Note that only the first two, that say "LookRyt", have the little square that you paint/wallpaper. The others come with normal white plastic hit and miss covers for the internal wall.

We were sceptical that they would do anything and suspected it might be a waste of money, but given how big of a problem noise is for me, we decided it was worth a gamble.

Totally worth it. They actually work. And that’s in the open position. For example, wind used to howl really loudly through one of the vents. There was a big storm a few days ago and…nothing. Could only hear the wind through the windows, not through the vent at all. The big noises still reach me through the windows, but what I don’t have is that completely raw unfiltered noise coming straight through the hole in the wall.

Aesthetically, I really like them, because we were able to paint/wallpaper the covers the same as the walls they’re on.

They’re available in the UK, Northern Ireland and (the Republic of) Ireland. For Irish forum members: Rytons gave us three suppliers in Ireland, and we used Greentherm:

Clearys Topline Hardware : 01 628 7381
Southern Ventilation Products Ltd : 0212 011 668
Greentherm Ltd : 01 531 4781

We did it when in the middle of a big job when the interior walls were being completely redone anyway (because of a deluge from a bathroom that wasn’t in use above that destroyed the rooms below it). But it could be done as a small job – just depends on what size hole you have in your wall.

Hope this might help someone.

 

[JemPD]

Thats amazing thank you for sharing,

vents are a total misery in my lounge. Can you give me a rough idea of how much they cost please? they only deal with trade so wont deal with members of the public. I dont want to go through the energy drain & anxiety of speaking to a tradesperson who always have to come & 'look at the job' before they will even discuss it with you, & then you have to have a long conversation with them about it, all of which is 3 wks worth of activity for me.... if the product itself is financially prohibitive (for me).

If it seems roughly doable then its worth speaking to a tradesman & getting them to get a quote from the company & then giving me a full quote for the job.

 

[Evergreen]

I’m sorry you’re being tormented by your vents. Yes, I understand the energy drain involved. I would not be able for any of that – it would never happen without someone else doing all the calls for me. Here’s the process we went through:

1. I emailed Rytons and an Account Manager wrote back with the 3 suppliers

2. Mr Evergreen rang one of the suppliers, caught a really nice guy, who said yes, they would supply it and give us the discount for builders/tradesmen which was 20% I think. They also talked about how to support the pipe in the wall with, as I recall, expansion foam. (Because the existing hole in the brick-and-air part of our wall was large and rectangular, but we were now going to have a smaller circular hole in the plaster-and-paint part visible from the inside.)

3. Builder (who was already there) had the proverbial look and agreed to do it.

4. Mr Evergreen ordered them. (I think just because he had already had a big chat with the supplier.)

So price. I didn’t put it in the original post because it likely costs less in the UK. I believe we paid €150 per vent (or it may have been 130, am not 100% sure), but I’m not sure whether that was before or after the builders discount. I also don’t know if some of that 150 would be VAT +/- duty that applies to imports from the UK post-Brexit, and would not apply to you if you’re in the UK or Northern Ireland. Often UK products are less expensive in the UK compared to Ireland, sometimes considerably less.

My way of justifying it was to compare it to a pair of Bose headphones! Not that it negates the need for them, but I felt that if they worked as well as they do it would be well worth it. And then my fallback position was that if they didn’t work at all, at least they would look better than the vent cover that had been there.

It seemed like an expense that would be worth it for say, a very severe person's bedroom aka only room.

I know, getting a tradesperson just for a small job can end up costing a lot. Maybe you could wait until there’s something else you need done? Or maybe if someone in your neighbourhood is having a big job done, you might be able to get their builder to do it? Our guys were hard to get to our home, but they were delighted to help our next-door neighbours out with a small plastering job they hadn’t been able to get someone to do, after they mentioned it in conversation to my husband in the front garden, and he said Huh, we actually have a plasterer in there right now, I’ll ask him. Our plasterer literally went in and did it a half hour later.

I really hope it might end up being financially feasible for you and that the inevitable PEM might end up being worth it.

I deliberately didn't post for a few months because I wanted to wait and see did they really work as well as they seemed to or were there any unforeseen issues, but so far so good. Mr Evergreen says that the pipe part which has all the noise-reducing foams looks very sturdy but that if you were opening and closing the vent a lot, he's not sure how well the plastic part would fare. Since we've been able to leave them in the open position, because they work well there, we haven't had to find out.

 

[JemPD]

Hi Evergreen thanks so much for that. That sounds like a fair price for them & i have someone who wouldnt gouge me who does stuff for me. Part of the reason i've deteriorated over the last 5yrs is because i had to have essential repairs done to my property & i am on my own so it all has to be organised pretty much, by me.

I had to block (with expandable foam as it happens) the vent in my bedroom as it was completely untenable, but i mitigate with other things -opening the window a little while i exit the room for the bathroom for instance, & as i live alone i can leave the door open.
I had a surveyor out to look at some damp & he explained all the details of damp/condensation/humidity/ventilation etc. A lot of mould is caused by condensation & i had a bad problem.

So the lounge & spare bedroom vents must remain open & i now have a very fancy extractor in the kitchen which extracts continuously & senses humidity levels & goes onto high setting when humidity gets too high. its super sensisitive (switches up to high when the kettle boils) & its super quiet (cant hear it unless i directly next to it) which is amazing, BUT... it cost £500!

Which is why i was asking about the vent price as i couldnt afford to do that again, but at that price they sound like a good investment.

But ugh it'll be ages before i manage it. I do have a friend who helps me but shes currently helping me with care needs so i cant ask her to do any more. TBH the worst of it is letting them in having the endless conversations and then clearing everything out of the way so they can get at the wall & cleaning all up afterwards. I cant do any of that so its difficult. But i will for sure put it on the list of things to do. 50db reduction is good & will make a difference. ANC on headphones is less than that so for things like idiots on dirt bikes using my cul de sac like a race track... it will be very helpful!