Soundproofing a room
March 12, 2005 | 12:00am
Dear Home 911,
We have a neighbor who runs a videoke bar and it goes on till past midnight. We have talked to the owner to turn it down coz my kids can’t concentrate on their homework, but it’s still the same. What can I do about it? Can you give me ideas on how to stop the noise from getting inside the house even if only in the bedrooms?
JANE
Your neighbor is probably violating a number of zoning codes if he’s running a videoke bar in a residential area. But since nobody pays attention to these laws, the best you can do is to soundproof your children’s room. The alternative, of course, is to pursue the problem with your neighbor and I’m sure this will result in a fight because you just can’t reason with some people. Your right to a quiet environment versus their right to earn a living – who do you think will be vilified?
Neighbors are the trickiest to deal with because if you have a disagreement with them, you just can’t up and leave. Take my neighbors, for instance. They haven’t violated any laws except those regarding bad taste. They painted their house peach, pink and blue, like those godawful MMDA urinals. It looks so bad every time I see it I want to grab a can of paint and paint it myself. There is an upside, though. When friends ask for directions, I just tell them we’re beside the house that looks like it was painted by a blind man.
When I began researching for your problem, I thought there would be an easy answer. After all, I have seen rooms with egg crates stuck to the walls and ceilings. It turns out that that’s DIY for acoustical conditioning and not soundproofing.
I checked several websites and they all say you can’t soundproof a room a hundred percent, but you can muffle the noise to tolerable levels and even that can be very expensive. The best time and less expensive way to do it is when your house is still under construction. If it’s already built, you will have to tear up walls and build another wall within to create a vacuum.
Unless you’ve had some very good DIY experience, I suggest you talk to a contractor about it because it’s not just a matter of caulking gaps or putting in insulation to keep sound from traveling.
To better understand how sound travels and familiarize yourself with soundproofing techniques (too long and complicated to print here), check out UHF Magazine’s website; in its archives is a very good and somewhat technical article by Paul Bergman on soundproofing. There are also similar articles on halife.com, drumdojo.com and bobvila.com.
I have plastic transparent bra straps that I bought from Marks & Spencer, but after wearing them for a month or so, they started to turn yellow even if I washed them regularly with soap and water. Would you know of any way to keep them from turning yellow?
MINDY
A friend of mine who wears plastic bra straps says you’re not supposed to wash them with soap. What she does is remove the straps from the bra right after wearing, wash them in water without soap and hang them to dry. Her transparent straps have remained clear so far. As for your yellowed straps, I don’t think they can ever become clear again.
How do I maintain the whiteness of my white pants? I bought a nice pair last year and used it three times, then I noticed that it wasn’t that white anymore. Any solutions?
VAL
Do what our grandmothers (or their maids) did: Soak your pants in detergent, wash it, and then lay it on a plastic sheet directly under the sun – that’s good old-fashioned kula or sun bleaching. Don’t let it dry out with the soap, just drizzle it once in a while with what’s left of the soapy water and turn it on the other side. You can also use bleach, but as colleague Ching Alano said, "The sun is the cure-all for a lot of problems."
I love wearing white coz it’s very neat. But my problem is that my shirt got stained by deodorant and this part is as hard as cement now. I don’t know how to get rid of it.
WHITE LADY
Sweetheart, deodorant is applied on the underarm, not on the shirt, okay? Just wanted to make sure you got that right. And don’t apply too much!
Tipking.com has these tips: Let your underarms dry before getting dressed, and look for deodorant that dries clear. To remove the stain, rub the area with white vinegar, then wash with detergent in the hottest water safe for the fabric. If the stain is still there, soak the area in denatured alcohol, then launder in hot water.
How do you remove cooking oil stains on blouses?
SLICK
Tide.com has this solution for white cotton: Pretreat the soiled area with Tide Liquid and let sit for five minutes, wash with Tide according to the garment’s care label. Before placing it in the dryer, check to see if stain has been removed. If not, proceed to next step, which is to place the garment with stain face down on paper towels. Apply a specialty grease remover, such as Carbona (check out True Value for spot removers) to the back side of the stain. Replace paper towels frequently. Let the garment air dry and repeat if necessary.
Can you give me tips on how to remove menudo stains from my stretchable white pants?
MARINA OF BULACAN
Still from Tide.com on removing tomato-based stains: Use a spot remover, pretreat using Liquid Tide, wash in warm water with Tide. Air dry and repeat the procedure. Or use a cup of vinegar instead of bleach.
On Baguio Guy looking for a wife: A reader texted, "Give me the cell phone number of the Baguio businessman looking for a wife." Didn’t you read the last column? What if either of you are a stalker/psychopath preying on unsuspecting singles?
From Chachu: "I find Mr. Baguio very maselan; he has high standards towards women. Pogi kaya siya? No wonder at his age he’s still unattached. Don’t be maselan, Mr. Baguio, or else you’ll be single for the rest of your life."
I think for a lot of people being alone is better than settling for a loser. Just ask my single officemates.
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