Double or triple glazing

[kitchencurios]

I have recently moved into our lively new home, big Victorian job with large bay windows.... looking at the main road! No dramas in living room as the tv is often on or kids creating some kind of mayhem, but I'm finding my bedroom (and DS's) noisy at night. It's an A road and not so busy, but buses do go by and there's a bit of a rumble from heavy vehicles.

I've got a quote for double glazing but suspect I might need to look at triple. Has anyone done this? Was the difference in price/noise worth it?

TIA

Double glazing with glass of 2 different thicknesses with atleast one pane being laminated. Thicker the better and larger air gap the better. Mass + Air gap is what stops the noise.

Triple is sometimes better than regular double glazing but sometimes resonates the sound like a drum and can make certain frequencies worse.

Laminated double glazing is proven and it’s what is speced in noisy areas. Triple is more for heat retention.

But if you’ve got a character house I would consider secondary on feature windows as you may devalue your house if you don’t get like for like wooden replacements.

Also casement windows are usually better than sashes as sashes by nature need a slim gap to run up and down.

Standard double glazing is around 25db reduction
Laminated glass is around 35db reduction
Proper speced windows for main roads or correctly installed secondary can get 50db reduction.

10db is like halving a sounds power. Adds up to a significant difference between all 3

But none of this matters if it’s installed badly. Or if you interior air bricks.

This is so helpful, thank you. So the windows have already been double glazed and are casement but a long time ago. The sales guys thought new double glazed windows would help but I'm not convinced!

The house did have tremendously ugly secondary glazing (over the double glazing) but we ripped it out and they didn't even open!

Interesting about triple.... there's a definite rumble/vibration from traffic so certainly don't want to make this worse.

Are there companies that specialise in fitting high spec sound proof windows? Or even attractive secondary glazing that would work with plantation shutters?

We got triple glazed where the outer pane is 50% thicker and the two gaps are slightly different sizes. Makes a big difference. The side window we just got normal triple and there is a funny resonation, but that's the kitchen anyway so no problem.

Best bet is download a freebie app decibel meter. Not accurate but gives a good guide on your current levels and what your current windows provide. And see what you’d be happy with.

Not sure on specific window firms. But they all use about 5 different manufacture profiles. Best looking around your current area with reviews but I’d avoid the big firms and go local.

As you already have upvc dbl windows you could try changing the glass on one window as a test.

If you have modern standard 4mm 20mm (gap) 4mm and changed it out for 10mm (laminated) 12mm )gap) 6.4 laminated acoustic you should see a very good difference if the frames are decent. Few YouTube videos showing results just search airport spec glazing.

May save you a lot of money getting frames replaced etc or it could be a waste of £300 as the frames are crap..... I’d consider it a worthwhile experiment if it has potential to save lots of money.

In regards to secondary I’ve seen frameless secondary glazing which looks great! But it’s 3 times the cost of standard and I’ve not heard any evidence of its results..

I lived on a semi busy road (30mph 14 cars -a min peak) before and standard double glazing was enough for me. But I now live on a busier road (40mph 30 cars a min peak) with single 3mm glazing! so I’m going secondary at front and acoustic double glazing at back.
I’ll know the results of one room in February... then it’s credit card time

Great idea Squirrel- I can test in DS room as it's a small window in there (and was bodged in by builders so suspect the frame is duff too).

Thanks so much for advice - and good luck with yours!

I can’t add to the excellent advice you’ve been given above but having lived under a flight path and very close to railway lines, bear in mind that within a few months you will have become very accustomed to the noise and will notice it much less.