So sorry to hear about the sound problem, florantha. I hope you manage to fix it; noises like these can be so annoying! Many thanks for posting the very helpful info about sound dampening materials. It will prove very useful in our kitchen remodel--and maybe I'll be able to find something to address a noise issue that emerged after they replaced our furnaces (those new high efficiency models save a lot of energy, but they're a lot noisier!).

I so totally identify.

Did you remove a cast iron drain line and replace it with plastic? I rue the day we did that 11 years ago.

We addressed it with foam, insulation, thick drywall covered with veneer plaster, caulking all joints and filling holes in the framing members around wires and such. Caulking the base of the wall seam before adding molding and I don't know what all else - plus sound deadening stuff from the auto store that was more costly than your recommendation.

Every time I turned around during construction, I could hear the flush or the shower,but now they are just a vague noise. And yet, I'm thinking of getting the edead and wrapping the drain line in the basement. Just in case.

Good luck with it!

Carol, Thanks for the sympathy.

Just thought this topic needed to be posted. It should probably go into one of those threads about "if I had only known." For aging Boomers with hearing issues, I believe that kitchen audio sensitivity is going to become as big an issue as air venting for smoke and steam, esp. in the world of modern equipment--refrig noises, plumbing, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, small equipment with fans and grinder blades, even some ovens and stoves, let alone all the listening devices that we want to listen to--t.v. & radio & etc. This new kitchen will have doors to all the corridors that meet it, in part so that we can close them when we need to corral sound. When the house was built, a young family lived here with a single ceiling vent fan (had a good, low setting as well as blast mode) and even during our previous redo of the kitchen in 1970s, we didn't care very much about ears. But when we bought our most recent refrigerator two years ago, we looked hard at the sound ratings to guide us in purchase. DH is getting quite deaf and I'm only able to determine consonant sounds if there is no background sound.

I find it very interesting that many appliance showrooms do not hook up appliances--including range hoods and refrigerators--to electricity. People must be buying on looks and reviews; there is no chance to listen to the noise.

I forgot to mention that the man at the company I listed above says that people buy his products to dampen the sound of metal sinks also.

I totally agree, florantha. As far as I'm concerned, noise is a huge quality of life issue. And it can be so hard to predict the impact of some of the improvements we make to our home. I can't stand the fact that one can rarely listen to things like range hoods before buying. But at least with kitchen appliances, people are aware that noise might be a problem. When it comes to things like plumbing within walls, I don't think most people know what an issue it can becomeÂand some contractors are very insensitive to the issue. (E.g., when updating a bathroom a few years ago, I had a contractor who wanted to rip out a thick, plastered, tiled wall that contained cast iron pipes, and replace it with drywall and plastic pipes. I objected [I donÂt know much about construction, but it just sounded noisy to me]. After reading bmorepanicÂs post, IÂm sure glad I did!)

Of course, maybe some of us are more sensitive to noise than others. Growing up, I lived in an old house with plaster walls and hardwood floors. My parents complained that it was like living inside a drum. They covered all of the hardwood with carpet and the walls with heavy wallpaper, just to manage the sound (no doubt lowering the resale value of the house in the process). And although I love the looks of open floorplans, I've donÂt want an open kitchen. I want to be able to shut the door--to shut noises out (e.g., the TV in the other room) when I'm working there, and shut in the kitchen noise (e.g., the dishwasher) when I'm somewhere else in the house. I've also put my washer and dryer in a remote corner of the basement where I don't have to listen them, though the previous owners had moved theirs upstairs.

Sometimes I've assumed that others don't care about the noise because they've already lost much of their hearing but, as you pointed out, florantha, age-related hearing loss can actually make noisy background noise even more problematic.

Good luck finding a fix to your problem and thanks again for pointing it out to the rest of us.

I am really sensitive to noise, so I feel for you, Florantha. I hope that the solutions you're exploring end up being straightforward and affordable.

Noise is a big issue in our entire downstairs, not because of plumbing, but because the main air conditioning panel is in our living room, halfway up the wall where the stairs lead to the second floor. When the blower turns on, we have to turn the tv up 2 or 3 "clicks" in order to continue to hear dialogue. Plus, the washer and dryer are just behind the stairwell, in the hallway between the garage and the living room. DH and DD are constantly forgetting to close the door that insulates the living room from the washer and dryer noise, even when both machines are running.

At cooking time, sometimes my DH and my DD get into a "sound war" without being conscious of it. She turns the tv up because he's turned the vent hood on, and then he turns up his radio in the kitchen... rinse, repeat, till he calls her to set the table and she shouts "WHAT?"

Meanwhile, I drive them both crazy by turning the tv off, the radio off, and the vent hood down. That's me, the sound-sensitive one!

Oh, and they feel slighted when I retreat upstairs or outside with the cordless phone, because I cannot concentrate with the tv or the radio going in the background.

One really nice thing about our new kitchen is that our vent hood has four speeds instead of two, so it's not necessary to go to airplane-turbine levels of sound just to boil some water.

Another odd thing -- we have an undercabinet radio (with a CD player and an audio in thingy for the iPod). We had a mixup with the undercabinet lights, and at first there were fluorescents installed. They caused tremendous interference with the radio! We had them swapped out for Xenon lights -- no interference.

Of course, we got better sound quality, but worse energy efficiency, by making that swap. (The Xenon throw off a lot of heat onto the counters, like halogens.)

I'm hoping that since we love the kitchen so much, we'll spend more time in the family room together, and less time in different rooms with noisemakers going!

The product you linked goes around the pipes? I vividly remember the sound of rushing water (from top floor to the basement) at our house in Maine. The plastic pipes are killer--sound wise. It was one of my few regrets when we built that house--not insulating those pipes.
Now we are in Florida and they used metal studs in the wall. Things seem to echo through our walls. We definitely should have put some insulation in between our room and the great room.
On another note...Xenon throws off a lot of heat? The electrician suggested using them under the cabinets. I get hot flashes, and I live in Fl--don't need any more heat!
Eastbay--enjoy those sounds-I know it sounds old, but it is just me and hubby with too much time on his hands now, I miss those days.

twosit, sorry if I didn't say that the product has one side of adhesive and one of the reflective backing with the dense material between them. Watch out, though--the adhesive is very strong. There's one piece--a scrap--that somehow ended up in my laundry area on the floor that's been there for 9 months. Haven't figured out how I'm going to remove it yet.

I assume it could go around anything, including pipes and on the irreg. inside of a stud wall. Not only that, but it doesn't have to be methodically applied--you could slap chunks of it on any surface to cut down on the vibration of the surface, esp. tin ductwork. Our scraps were never thrown away. Also, we have also used up all the scraps of spun fiberglass insulation from our addition's outside wall work in trying to dampen the vibration in duct areas.

As for radio, if you know the level of sound that a deaf guy needs to hear "Car Talk" on NPR on Saturday mornings you know why I believe that there is no more dire a need anywhere else for audio insulation in the home, bar none. I can hear and understand most of what Click and Clack are saying from two rooms away unless a certain door is shut.

bmorepanic, yes, we've installed new copper and pvc pipes and removed clogged cast iron. It went to the scrap yard this week.

Our house is large and we are building it with the assumption that there will be renter, guests, etc on an almost constant bases.

In addition to the exterior insulation we are using a cellulose hard pack insulation in every interior wall of the house as well as between floors. We have completed the section that is the bedrooms and the difference is amazing.

It's taken forever (because a cellulose hard pack is done by hand) but it is SO completely worth it. One of my best decisions.

Florantha, I hope you can take care of the water/pipe noise. Yikes!

What product did you use on your dishwasher? I'm sitting here trying to figure out how I could use the E45 on it and coming up blank! I'd like to knock the noise of ours down. Though I expressed concern, my husband was not (and is not) concerned with the dishwasher noise so we didn't get one with a great quiet pak, just the white fiberglass sheet.

I just learned of a good sound-deadening insulation yesterday. It's a stone wool insulation called Roxul and is made in Canada. It can be special ordered at HD and 84 Lumber tends to carry also here in the states. The few threads I've read on it indicated that it cost less than pink fiberglass insulation and the company lists it as mildew/moisture resistant and fire-resistant. According to them it does not burn! It might be a good thing to put in your walls. It does not come with a vapor barrier, so you'd have to use your own.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roxul safe n sound

I used rockwool. It deadens conversational sound, but not the sound of water in the pipes in the wall.