As a subdivision beyond our suburb has steadily filled in, the traffic on the road past our house has increased to the point where it intrudes on my well-being. It's not State Highway busy, but the increased traffic combined with A-holes who think everybody likes listening to their petrol powered wet dreams is driving me nuts.
We have ducted air-conditioning and so have been able to have the windows closed most of the summer.
I am now considering double glazing as the next step in our house improvements. As far as I can tell, double glazing is done for thermal insulation primarily, with secondary benefits of UV filtering and acoustic insulation.
In my case, I would like for the acoustic insulation to have a marked effect on the road noise. We have two large ranch sliders and a couple of picture windows that all face the road and are single glazed. The house is 1980s weatherboard with an iron roof (fully insulated with Batts). Am I hoping for too much to expect that double glazing will noticably reduce the transmission of noise into the house? Or will it just find another pathway? My internal walls are wooden sarking so it is not a simple option to add acoustic insulation to the walls.
The next step is to get an acoustic engineer out for a consultation.
Any comments from GZers who have retrofitted double glazing, on the acoustic benefits achieved would be appreciated.