secondary glazing

[jess marley]

VERY dull this one, but if we get it rigthit might make an enormous difference to our quality of life....
I am looking for the most effective secondary glazing with re' to noise reduction, I'd also like it to be openable...it's to go over very classic Georgan sash windows.
ANY IDEAS? E-Mail personally if you're worried about advertising.
Thanks, j.

 

[biffvernon]

Laminated glass gives better sound insulation than plain float or toughened. And make sure everything is well sealed round the edges - sound leaks through thin gaps quite well.

The tricky part is finding a framing system that is strong enough yet not too intrusive.

 

[jess marley]

Absolutely, no small part of buying the house was it's beautiful windows, and now we've found the shutters for them, I'm keen that I can still operate them when the secondary glazing is in place, but have not yet seen a system where this would be possible.

 

[Gervase]

Unless you can get someone to make sliding secondary glazing, I don't see how you can keep it in situ and operate the windows. it's qyuite common, however, to have the stuff in place in the colder months and just put it into store once the spring arrives.
If you look at the English Heritage advisory document on historic buildings and Part L of building regs (downloadable as a pdf from their website), you'll see some very unobtrusive secondary glazing fitted to some leaded windows at an old pub. In place it's almost invisible.

 

[jess marley]

The sliding sort is what I'm after, and have seen a pretty good example of it in a local historic house, the only problem is that even that stuff covers enough of the internal face of the inner lining to prevent the shutters being used, whereas I would like the unit to project no farther (further?)than the stop bead so I can still use the shutters.
Taking the secondary glazing off in summer is not, sadly, an option. The cars outside are just as loud at that time of year.

 

[lordmulberry]

We have secondary glazing at the front of our property primarily to reduce road noise. It's very effective in that we don't hear any traffic unless is is a particulary large lorry and then it is very well muffled.

Our secondary glazing was made by Everest in the early 1980's. The glazing cannot be seen from outside as the components were sized to match the existing casements.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lime]

From memory of several decades ago the optimum gap for sound proofing is 11 inches.

 

[biffvernon]

Yes, but there not a lot of difference between two inches and eleven inches in sound reduction - laws of diminishing returns. Remember about the laminated.

 

[jess marley]

Roger, wilco, etc. Glad to hear it too, as was frantically trying to work out a way I could get my shutters to make it around a unit which projected a foot into the room, they're warped I know, but not that warped.