Expert: Joan Miller - 1/21/2009

Question
Hi

Just wanted to know the acoustic properties of glass bricks. Just in front of my house, there is a busy road that is used by Trucks. Whenever a truck passes, there is huge booming sort of sound created in the front room. It is in this room we watch TV, have our home theatre. Obviously i want to prevent the sound from entering into the house. I wanted to know whether i can use glass brick for sealing off the front windows? If not, can you suggest me any other material that conducts Light, Air but prevents sounds?

Regards,
chandan

Answer
Thank you for your question Chandan. Glass bricks are usually ideal to let in the daylight and grant some discretion, due to its different designs. As any brick or stone, glass blocks do insulate better that other "lighter" (i.e. clapboard, vinyl, stucco) materials, but are not totally sound proof. Glass blocks are usually used for decorative purposes such as in a bathroom or a main entrance to name a few ideas.

What I would recommend is that you get in touch with a remodeler that could suggest an economical way to sound proof your home theater area. I have an uncle that recently installed a home theater system in his home and he redid that room with sound proof walls. These particular walls are often used for recording studios as well.

Hope this helps.

Joan