legoman44

Hi all, I am replying to the original post however my comments may be applicable to many other posts. I recently moved into a new 400K home in a new development. Everything was fine until my next door neighbour installed a used older model hot tub (brand unknown) into his back yard. Initially there was little noise penetrating my house until the neighbour built a PT wood deck around the tub. This combination created a unbearable motor hum that penetrated my house. It was like living inside an acoustic guitar while someone was strumming a string. Two rooms in my two story house were affected the most (the ones adjacent to the neighbours property). The outdoor noise is not offensively loud but you definitely hear it. In fact the motor noise is louder in my house than outside sometimes. The hot tub was set on a crushed limestone base and set back about 12 feet from my property line and about 18 feet from my house. The neighbours are reasonable people (as am I) and they have invested money and time into this leisure activity. I asked them to come over to my house to hear the noise on several occasions, which they did and agreed the noise was heard. They moved at a snails pace to try and suppress the noise while I suffered. I called the noise bylaw officer to visit and have a listen. He agreed the noise was there but there are no bylaws to address the hot tub pump noise...seriously? I offered to my neighbours on several occasions that I would pay in full for a service technician to come and help fix the problem. They eventually said they got a service guy (not sure if this person was a certified technician or just some guy my neighbours new who said he could help) to check the pump. I was told that the service guy said the pump wasn't noisy however my neighbours said they would rebuild the pump anyway. This did not reduce the noise. After much consideration of my options (surprisingly there are few acceptable ones) I decided I would have to deal with suppression of the noise in my house. This turns out to be the most cost effective and neighbourly option. I used a noise suppression product called "green glue" and added a second 5/8 inch drywall layer on the outer walls in both noise effected rooms. I did the work and saved money. This was the most cost effective way. Fast forwarding to the end. This product help in suppressing the noise by over half. The noise still penetrates but there is no more motor humming focused in the centre of each room. Most noise is getting in through windows and adjacent walls not "sound proofed". The noise has gone from intolerable to tolerable and with any amount of noise in the house (tv, radio, furnace fan running etc.) the hot tub motor noise is not inherently noticeable. I blame two thing for this noise problem. The first is of course my neighbours hot tub/deck combo, the source of the noise. The second is the construction of my house. The walls of my house have no mass to them. Modern houses in my development have only wood studs, that's it for mass. Vinyl siding, tar paper, Styrofoam, insulation, vapour barrier and drywall make up the rest. There is nothing to suppress outdoor noise. the walls are great for preventing heat loss in winter and thats it. It seems that the walls of my house actually capture and amplify the motor noise into my house. If I had foreseen this I would have bought a brick home. My next one will be. hope this helps