Being a practical people, we want to know how much it will cost to make things that will operate with less noise. Though the impression has been created that quieter design and excessive costs go hand in hand, there is no universal law that says this is so. A metal garbage can without clang might cost $1.50 more than standard cans, but given volume and improved design the price differential would become meaningless. The quieter, less polluting chassis for the first 400 garbage trucks ordered by the City of New York cost less than $100 extra. The ten dramatically quiet garbage trucks subsequently ordered by New York cost $17,000 each, as against $15,000 for the noisy models. But these are experimental units, and should go down in price as they are produced in volume.
An 85-pound silenced jackhammer imported into the United States for public demonstration by CQC cost $175 less than its unmuffled American counterpart. Comparing unmuffled and muffled imports showed an increase of but $60, or 11.6 per cent. The first large-size (900 cfm) silenced air compressor cost 25 per cent more, but this increase of $9,300 must be placed in perspective: a portable air compressor may operate for five years before requiring extensive repairs. The projects on which these machines are used may cost in the millions of dollars. Any marginal addition to the cost for silencing is not significant.
As for appliances, engineering professor Howard Kingsbury smeared all panel surfaces of an automatic washer and under-counter diswasher with a fibered automotive undercoat and glued to this a glass fiber blanket. Resilient pads were placed around the dishwasher to separate it from the floor and counter structure. The result was a much quieter appliance; the isolating cost pennies on a do-it-yourself basis, and if done commercially by the manufacturer it might add not more than between $2 and $5 to the cost.
The Federal Council for Science and Technology supports the conclusion implicit in Professor Kingsbury's experience: "It is possible that quiet devices and appliances could be built at the same and perhaps even less cost than their noisy counterparts by the use of appropriate design."
Quieter dishwashers and other appliances, because of improved design and less vibration, last longer and require less maintenance expense. Quieter appliances built into dwellings add little to construction costs. A quiet siphon-jet toilet may cost only $5 more than an ordinary noisy one. Canvas connecting sleeves to prevent furnace rattle and rumble from being transmitted through the house via the ductwork may add but $12. Noiseless nylon rollers in the overhead garage doors may cost only $5 more than the noisy metal ones.
Adequate statistics on the cost of sound-conditioning dwellings are not readily available. One reads of additional costs ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent. Care must be taken to ask, per cent of what? The basic construction cost? Or, the much greater total cost which includes financing and other non-construction costs?
Some builders and the FHA regard improved design as a plus factor. Referring to the problems of noisy dwellings, the magazine Buildings stated: "Fortunately there are solutions which can be obtained with a small investment in vibration and noise control and which will result in a high degree of occupancy and tenant satisfaction."
The FHA reports that noise control, if considered early in the planning stages, not only can be surprisingly inexpensive, but can be designed to yield other benefits as well, such as thermal insulation.