Making life in NYC less noisy: How to quiet your home

For some New Yorkers, the symphony of city living sounds like honking car horns, passing trains, construction work, ambulance sirens, music from bars and footsteps from upstairs neighbors.

But just because the city never sleeps doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

Noise isn’t just a nuisance, experts say it’s harmful. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, problems related to noise include stress-related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption and lost productivity.

Arline Bronzaft, a noise expert and board member of the environmental organization GrowNYC, has been studying and battling the city’s noise for four decades. She said New Yorkers can do small, but simple things to make their lives a little quieter, and the effort is well worth it.

“People will say, ‘Oh, I’m used to it. I’m dealing with it.’ Dealing means working to try to shut out the impact … the body is using extra energy in the long run,” Bronzaft said. “People think that by getting used to things, it’s not harming them. It is using extra energy, and that’s greater stress on the body.”

Making your home quieter

Completely soundproofing an apartment can cost thousands of dollars, and isn’t an option for those who rent or can’t afford gut renovations. The city Department of Environmental Protection’s residential noise control guidance sheet offers New Yorkers a place to start when seeking relief from city noise.

Here are some things you can do to make city life less noisy.

Carpeting – Hardwood floors reflect and amplify reverberant noise in a room, so covering the floors with carpeting combined with thick padding can reduce residential noise, like footsteps.

Terry Geier, an acoustical consultant with Cerami, said this is mostly helpful in reducing the sound of heavy footsteps for downstairs neighbors.

“Carpeting can definitely, really help and carpet padding, as well, with reducing that kind of noise transfer to your surrounding…