All Quiet on the Homefront

The old-fashioned home has built-in sonic barriers: walk-in closets, pantries, corridors, separate floors, thick walls.

But in today's one-story, "open-plan" efficiency home, bedrooms abut on "family rooms," kitchens spill over into dining areas, and walls are wafer 'thin -- affording, altogether, about as much privacy as a day on Candid Camera.

To prove that all can be made quiet on the homefront again, a group of Texas builders have opened 20 model homes in San Antonio that claim to be the quintessence of tranquillity.

Staggered Studs. Instead of placing sleeping and living areas wall to wall, the builders separate them with rows of closets in which the clothes themselves act as insulation. The studs in the Fiberglas-insulated walls are staggered, so that no single stud touches both sides of the wall, therefore cannot conduct noise. On the ceiling, sound is absorbed by 2 in. of glass wool surfaced with vinyl. To reduce the clatter of heels, vinyl is laid over an asbestos-and-foam cushion on the floor. Other floors have wall-to-wall carpeting with extra-thick underpadding

Heaters and air-conditioning units are segregated from the rest of the house in acoustically sealed closets, and all air ducts are lined with Fiberglas or board. Dishwashers and disposals are housed in rubber and glass-wool casings to cushion vibrations. Even the underbellies of sinks are swathed in felt to soften the clatter of silver and glassware clanging against the stainless steel.

Closing the Critical Gap. The showpiece of the sound-conditioned home is the bathroom. Not only is its door

3/4-in. solid-core wood, but it has a panel at the bottom that slides flush with the floor upon closing, eliminating that critical acoustical gap found at the bottom of most bathroom doors. To ensure further privacy, most builders added extra insulation to bathroom walls wrapped pipes in rubber, and installed toilets that flush almost without a sound.

The builders claim that for $1,000 extra, they can build this kind of soundproofing into a new $20,000 house. For that kind of money, the public's response to low-decibel domiciles is likely to be a loud hurrah.

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