Your Home Improvement

When an individual needs to reduce noise or improve sound in a space, the first spots that receive acoustic treatment are typically the walls. However, for cavernous rooms, open-space offices and multi-story residences, much more can be done if you also address the space above you and consider acoustical treatment for your ceilings.

A ceiling is often a neglected area when it comes to sound reduction and acoustical treatment. But within multiple-story structures, sound can be transmitted upward just as easily as outward. Ceilings are also noise lids, trapping sound, echoes and reverberation. In spaces like offices, where multiple departments can be sectioned by dividers or cubicles while the entire office shares a ceiling, an entire office’s noise can be trapped and cause distractions and difficulty hearing. In an expansive classroom or auditorium, just a few people talking can generate sound reflections distracting enough to make hearing lessons or information difficult for others. For these reasons, insulating sound in a ceiling is vital in the acoustical treatment of a room. Fortunately, products exist for this very task, with foam mat sound barriers being some of the most affordable and easiest to implement.

Foam comes in many forms and styles that can be used to treat sound. Acoustical drop ceiling tiles are a great solution in basements for clarifying sound and reducing noise entering the floor above. Drop ceiling tiles are also beneficial in offices or classrooms to cut down on the buildup of noise, resulting in increased productivity and focus. The noise of phone calls will be reduced in offices, while in schools, teachers and professors can be heard more clearly. Acoustical drop ceiling tiles are great additions to home studios as well.

Foam can be factored into the sound acoustic construction of rooms as well. Thicker closed-cell foam sound barrier sheets added between floors act as a deadening agent. Some varieties can also provide the added benefit of insulation to a home, keeping a space quieter and more efficient.

If you have sound problems at home or at work and have looked all around for a solution, perhaps you only need to look up to find your answer.

Insulating a house is one of the most important factors in keeping an energy efficient home. Whether it’s fiberglass, polystyrene or expanding foam between the joists and studs of a building, practically everybody has seen house insulation. However, there is another area of the home that can also benefit from insulation, and this area is the basement. Insulating water pipes in the basement is a simple and effective method to increase home efficiency and will pay you back in energy savings.

Insulating pipes with flexible sheet foam, like neoprene rolls or polyethylene for example, minimizes how much energy is conducted away from treated water by the metal pipes. Adding cushion rubber around pipes works for both hot water pipes that lose heat as well as cold water pipes for avoiding condensation. It’s particularly important when wrapping cold water pipes to not use fiberglass as it can absorb moisture. The aforementioned closed-cell foams are best for cold water pipes. Even something like a yoga mat cut into pieces can be an effective wrap material.

By reducing lost energy through pipes, heating and cooling systems require less energy to keep water at their specified temperatures. And the less home systems have to work, the less energy they need, while making the most out of the energy they do use.

The other reason insulating pipes is important is to protect against freezing in cold-weather climates. This is particularly important if pipes are located close to exterior walls and even more so if the exterior basement walls are unfinished. Insulating against the colder air can reduce the chance of freezing pipes. When a pipe freezes, it isn’t actually the ice that forms the break, but the pressurized buildup of water behind the blockage that causes a rupture. Protecting your pipes can prevent this from happening.

Considering the benefits of adding pipe insulation and the relative ease of installing it, it is one of the smartest DIY improvements you can make to your home.

It seems every time we take on a job, we spend just as much time looking for the right tool as we do actually working on the project. Whether it’s the search for the right size wrench or a Phillips head screwdriver among a sea of slot head drivers, there isn’t much worse than spending 10 minutes looking for a tool that you only need for 10 seconds of work. Because we all want to get jobs done quickly, putting tools away during a project is often a secondary issue and leads to the messy tool chests and boxes that cause us so much stress. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to keep your tools organized once and for all.

With custom tooling inserts, cut to size foam that fits your tools is layered over durable colored foam sheets that organize your tool collection in a cabinet or drawer and gives each piece its own permanent home. Using materials like neoprene and Minicel foam, it’s very easy to buy raw sheets, plot your tool layout and trim out the shapes. A foam rubber cut is very easy to make with a sharp tool and will leave a smooth edge for a sleek, professional-looking case. You can orient your tool collection any way you desire by doing this yourself, putting as many tools as you want in each drawer.

The other benefit to this level of organization is that you won’t lose tools or leave them behind at job sites. There is a reason these custom inserts are dual-layered with colored bases, and it is to draw the attention of the owner to the fact a tool is missing. With a black or gray top layer and every tool in its place, the inserts have a clean, subdued appearance. But with a bright base of yellow, red or blue, when a tool isn’t in its spot, it’s quickly noticed. It’s practically an alarm system that lets you know something is missing.

Closed-cell foam like polyethylene, neoprene and Minicel are durable products that can be wiped down and cleaned as necessary, so you don’t need to treat the casing any more gently than you’d treat your tools.