Neighborhood Home & Property Services is launched due to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Louisiana

I started Neighborhood Home Services, now called Neighborhood Home & Property Services under the original URL http://www.GeoCities.com/Neighborhood_Home_Services back in 2003 but I put the business on the back burner since I was still so busy with my Legal and Medical business.

After I rode out Hurricane Katrina, I was standing on my second floor balcony in Metairie (Jefferson Parish, Louisiana), overlooking the 15" flood waters still standing in the courtyard and 24" in the parking lot. I knew that my previous business in the New Orleans area was DONE! The Legal and Medical industries in the New Orleans area were going to be severely affected by the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Levee's had just breached and flooded most of the City of New Orleans with up to 10 feet of flood waters.

I looked down at the water and knew that there would be phenomenal opportunity in the home repair business so I started planning on how Neighborhood Home & Property Services would be able to take advantage of this disaster. When life deals you lemons, make lemonade!!!!

I started working for the Condominium Complex doing the cleanup that was needed and started lining up jobs to start gutting the flooded first floor Condo's. It has been 10 weeks since Hurricane Katrina caused so much devastation in the area and I am still gutting Condo's in my "Neighborhood" and I also have several other Condo's, Homes and even a Tomb to go and gut and repair in the coming weeks and months. I have also hired two full time sub-contractors to start repairing some of the now-gutted Condo's.

The papers report that there are over 400,000 homes and businesses that suffered moderate to severe flood or storm damage so I suspect that I will be busy for many months and years to come.... just gutting and rebuilding homes and businesses.

The New Orleans area is still suffering a severe shortage of "employees" so I am constantly looking for help. I have even called in some favors with some old friends from Honduras to see if any of their relatives want to come "visit" New Orleans and live and work with me. The last time I was down there on a scuba vacation, there were many young men and women wanting to come to America for all of the opportunities that exist here. I sure hope that things are doing GREAT economically down in Honduras but I also hope there are a couple of skilled men and/or women that want to come work in the construction industry in the New Orleans area. I am also going to put out some feelers with some friends that I have down in Mexico. There is still a severe shortage of living space in the area and I only have a one bedroom condo so I will only be able to have one or two people living with me. It could be a win-win situation for the people who take advantage of this opportunity to fly to New Orleans, live rent free and make some good money in the coming months. I need the help and they'll make lots of money and live for free.

If any of my fellow neighbors and hurricane victims need help with gutting their homes or businesses or with the follow-up repairs, please feel free to call or email me.

Well, signing off of the Blog for now.

Lenny Vasbinder
Neighborhood Home & Property Services
504-677-5111
eFax-413-318-0742
NHAPServices@Gmail.com

How To Soundproof Bass Music From A Noisy Neighbor

After trying to help someone in one of my Yahoo! Groups deal with this problem and Googling this subject and reviewing dozens of pages, here is my final analysis of how to deal with this very common problem... at least according to the hundreds of thousands of hits on Google.

It starts with the original request for help and some of the other replies with my research and conclusions at the end.

ORIGINAL Message:
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 03:14:50 -0000
From: hello314314
Subject: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

Hello everyone -

We're hoping for some advice on how to soundproof approx. 100' along the north side of our home in order to block out the 'base' level of music from a noisy neighbor. The problem is not the volume, but the traveling sound waves of the base (bass).

We're interested in utilizing materials such as wood fencing or plants.

Our home is a single level 60 yr.+ rambler with the bedroom, living room and office parallel to this neighbors driveway. This north side of our house has an overhanging eve with vinyl siding, two large corner picture windows and three sash windows -- all facing the neighbors driveway, which is approx. 25' away.

We're considering installing a fence along this north side of our home, and beyond (the perimeter, if possible). Fencing can be installed approx. 6-8 feet high (need to double check w/ the county on the height restrictions). We're wondering if storage cabinetry built in to this same fencing along the most egregious area would be any help. The neighborhood is otherwise a generally quiet residential.

We're also wondering if there are any special types of glass for windows that are to be recommended for muffling these sound waves. Fully soundproofing glass does not seem preferable.

Thank you for any and all advice on how to dampen the 'base' (bass) noise.

Also, any advised fence building companies in the Northern Virginia area would also be greatly appreciated.

Note: FYI, Our requests to the neighbor to turn off the music has only managed the volume be turned down, but the base, even at a low volume, is still jolting. The neighbor has car music cranked up as he pulls into the driveway. The damage is then already done (waking us up, or baby) even for those few minutes. Also, music is played with friends that hang around outside. Our complaints to the police say that they have to hear the noise as it is going on. No other neighbors seem to complain -- but none other have their bedroom 20' away from car music.

Thanks for your help.


REPLY Message: 1
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 07:49:18 -0400
From: Eldred P
Subject: Re: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

From my past reading about music studio design(soundproofing to keepexternal sound OUT), the only thing that will really stoplow-frequency waves is mass. Mass would be something like a concrete wall or heavy insulation. Unfortunately, that's not real practical ina residential setting. You might check with some builders in your area - maybe someone has experience in studio design who can offersuggestions. Good luck.

Eldred


REPLY Message: 2
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 12:25:24 -0000
From: "twestbrook_77530"
Subject: Re: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

One cost effective measure used locally is to build a fence employing Hardiplank as the field material with the posts on 4' centers. Some local communities use this as a sound barrier next to a freeway.


REPLY Message: 3
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 06:43:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tim R
Subject: Re: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

Hello "Hello":

Simple answer: No, you cannot effectively stop this low frequency noise. The offending frequencies (100-500 Hz, or cycles per second) have such a long wavelength that your fence/walls would have to be several feet thick, made of a dense material such as concrete, and extend upwards for meters, to begin to attenuate them. Not practical or feasible. Your only remedy is likely legal, a civil action against the neighbor as a Private Nuisance. Sorry for your situation. If you can afford it, I'd think of moving...OTOH, if the cause is the high school kid of the neighbor, perhaps you can weather it out for the next couple years until he/she moves out.

TIM


REPLY Message: 4
Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 01:59:59 -0000
From: "bluestardaddy"
Subject: Re: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

I don't know the size of your land, but if you can manage to raise at least a portion of the land, as in a thin burm, and plant trees and shrubs of varying heights , it tends to break up noise better than a heqdge row of single height. I used to manage a landscape crew and we installed raised burms frequently. If you can plant plants in front of each other to increase the thickness it helps, as in double rows, better than a single row of plants. Of course ytou must chose the right plant/trees for such a project. Consult your nursery or a landscape company first.


REPLY Message: 5
Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 15:09:33 -0000
From: "joeyfun2003"
Subject: Re: Soundproofing noisy neighbor's base music with fencing

There is an article on this very subject in April 2005 THIS OLD HOUSE magazine.


AND NOW.... MY RESEARCH AND REPLY:

I did a http://www.google.com/ search on: This Old House April 2005 Soundproofing

You might want to do the same search and look over the information.

This link was near the top. This page also contains many other links.

http://www.americanmicroinc.com/ami_newsfeed.html

(These people also make a Memory Foam Mattress similar to Tempur-Pedic but at a fraction of the cost, according to one of the articles I looked at.)

Here is their solution to Soundproofing A Wall. They do have an "Econobarrier" that you might be able to put up on your proposed fence or on the inside or outside of your bedroom wall. Read down this link and look it over. It might be a solution but it seems like it would be better on the outside and/or inside of your wall rather than the entire fence as 135 sq ft is $283.00 but that seems like it would cover the wall of your bedroom facing the noisy neighbor with extra for a double dose to make a removable covering for your window. 90 sq ft is $189.00.

This site also has many other possibly helpful links.

http://www.acousticalsource.com/how-to-soundproof-a-wall.html

I did a second Google search on: Soundproofing Bass Music from Noisy Neighbor

I got 534 hits on that search.

Here's a series of posts about your topic from 2002. It seems this problem has many people caught up in the "boom" of hip-hop and other bass heavy music.

http://www.lowertheboom.org/links/w05_drown_bass.html

This page has questions and answers for virtually every type of "noise" so maybe this page will help other people with "noise" problems.

http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/feedback.cfm?topic=Noise%20Cancellation

And if you look over their suggestions, it does not look good for people with Bass Music problems because it's not just something you "hear" but you "feel" it as well.

Here is another site and they also make the soundproofing fences that are put up next to Interstates, etc. so maybe they have a residential fence product that is affordable and might work in your situation.

http://www.acoustiblok.com/residential.html

Here is another site called SoundProofingAmerica and it has a page for soundproofing a room appropriately titled Soundproofing Your Teenager's Bedroom so maybe this will work in reverse for you.

http://www.soundproofingamerica.com/teen.asp

Here is an organization (possibly non-profit) that might help also.

http://www.noisefree.org/index.html

They even have a page called "Boom Cars" with links concerning your exact problem and a downloadable PDF book that may offer you some more help.

http://www.noisefree.org/boomcars/boombooklet.html

IN CONCLUSION: The high density foam or other high density solutions seem to be the only thing that will stop Bass Music waves.

Hope this helps.

Lenny Vasbinder
http://la.local.yahoo.biz/LennyVasbinderSalesAndMarketing
http://www.VemmaBuilder.com/115110105
Home/Office - 504-888-3391
Cell - 504-621-1870
eFax - 413-318-0742
mailto:413-318-0742LNVTM1@gmail.com