No, inner walls are typically not insulated. Neither are the spaces between floor joists.

In our current house, my office is above the family room. Within a year of moving in, I ripped the carpet out of that room and replaced it with laminate. It drove DH nuts that I could drop my pen and he'd hear it. So a couple of years later, when we were adding lights to the family room, we added noise insulation in the ceiling, too. And now we're adding insulation to the ceiling of our first floor. DH has also requested it in the wall between the ensuite shower and the master bedroom.

We also replaced all our interior doors a few years ago, and that also made the house feel more solid. As you've pointed out, that's probably part of your problem.

And as we've discovered, carpet also helps reduce noise. But hardwood is much trendier. So I assume you've got mostly hardwood. I would look into getting lots of area rugs to help reduce echoing.

Another trend in new houses that can make them noisier is the high ceilings, with smooth finishes. I don't know what you can do to mitigate that now that would be budget friendly. A lot of big commercial spaces hang fabrics from the ceiling to absorb sound. But your ceilings probably aren't THAT high. :)

We have some hardwood, but only one room (16X12) more than the previous house. (Previous had it in the kitchen area, we now have kitchen plus dining room) Great room ceiling is higher, but I can't believe that's causing all the issues. (Could be wrong) Yes, it's driving me nuts. My evening routine is reading in quiet, so that's gone to heck. Overall doesn't feel solid at all.

Not sure if there was insulation added to the ceilings, I'm going to assume not. A thought later down the road if/when funds are available.

If it's most affecting you during evening reading, I would set up the reading area with lots of cushions and thick curtains on the walls. Probably the cheapest option to give you some peace in the short term.

I had a similar experience when we finally moved into our custom 'dream' home. Living room is 19' x 23' and has 16' ceilings and hardwood, in fact only the bedrooms are carpeted. All other rooms have solid surfaces. Our master bedroom is 18' x 23' and has a 14' ceiling. Before we put in area rugs, more furniture, wall hangings and drapes I thought I was going bananas. I couldn't hear the television if there was any other noise going on in the house (have 6 yo twins, it's rarely quiet), even if I turned it up it would just sound like more noise. Trying to have a conversation across the room was pretty much useless, when multiple people were talking it was hard to make out words, just noise bouncing all over the place. Now we have area rugs, curtains, wall hangings and more soft stuff laying around. Once in a while it's still annoying but it's waaay better now than at first. However we don't have any issue w/noise migrating out of closed rooms, when the kids get loud we send them to another room. The basement is like a tomb though, super quiet, nice place to just kick it w/a good book.

I am def. to the "going bananas" part. Doesn't help the road noise affects sleep (which is yet another noise issue)

I really want to get back to the "can't hear outside of the room" when the doors are closed, or guess we're not watching tv anytime soon when the kids are in bed (Hey, five year old twins here!!) Our living room has carpet (19x20) and I don't want to even think how worse it'd be with hardwood.

No budget right now to finish the basement, but soundproofing will be well researched when that happens.

The doors are probably a big issue, but not just solid vs hollow core. If the gap on the bottom is large then that can transmit a lot of sound.

Also if you just moved in, you're missing all the knick-knacks that absorb sound, like photos, decoratives trinkets, stuff that hangs on the walls, area rugs, etc. Window treatments also absorb sound. Over time as you unpack and settle in you might find that the noise level eases up.

It's is the floor joist. My old house was 16 years old and solid. No noise. Never heard kids. This house has 24 oc joist and OMG. I can't stand it. House shakes. I can hear everything. I've gotten used to it. We are about to do our first custom build. I can't wait to get away from these floor joist. We will be on a slab in the next house

Be careful about insulating preexisting ceilings that have recessed lighting. The light fixtures are probably Not IC rated for insulation to come in contact with them if the ceiling was not spec'd to be insulated--because rated fixtures are more expensive (only by a few dollars). This is a potential fire hazard.

Our new house is noisy. It's just my dh and me, so it isn't *too* bad, but when he uses the bathroom, I always turn the radio on - loud! Or I go outside for a few minutes. He does use the fan as "white noise", but unfortunately, we got the high quality bathroom fans which are very quiet! Boo!

I agree that adding "stuff" to the inside of the house helps deaden the sound. We might consider adding insulation to the interior walls, but since we also have an open floor plan and high ceilings, we don't have a whole lot of options there. Another option might be a layer of paneling on some of the walls - that would be easier than another layer of drywall, as some recommended to me.

Thanks for reminding me.
There are acoustical barriers you can use behind drywall (while building) and Structural Insulating sheathing between floors. Other alternatives are using Quietrock (don't like it particularly) but no matter what, it will add considerable cost to the build. What one needs to realize and understand about noise control is, effective use of not only soundproofing material but also sound absorbing material. Additionally, architecture and wall placement, placement of furniture, wall photo frames, other items in the home, in fact everything controls or impacts sound transmission in a home, office or any environment. My new home build will use an incredible amount of sound insulation, absorbing and sound proofing material. I listen to home theater, movies and music extremely loud (even in my current home basement with hardwood floors) and don't disturb the neighbors; even this home I designed to grant piece and serenity in every room; crazy as it sounds, we often end up calling each other on the intercom or cell phone, especially when either of my kids is visiting in the house, because sound does not travel in this home. Sound proofing will be an extreme neccessity in my larger new home build, complete with two full size bowling lanes in the 7500sf basement; imagine the noise. Basement is planned with 11'-12' ceilings, rest of the house 10'-22'. Apart from the master, where my wife insists she wants carpet, remaining bedrooms, formal dining and living with hardwood floors, rest all stone; noisy material but I'll make sure nobody hears it.

We paid for double insulation in our master bedroom, but I don't think we got it installed. We had a 1 1/2 story CBS home. We couldn't hear much of anything outside noise wise. I really miss it! We are in a single wide mobile home now. It's alot to adjust to.

In our house sound is also transmitted through the ductwork. If anyone knows a fix for that, I'm all ears.

Our HVAC guy told us that the ducting should be bent - not in a straight line (not a very technical explanation - sorry). He gave us a very graphic description of what happened in a home where this special ducting was not installed (noises). If you don't have it now, could you rip out the current ducting and install the better kind?

Your HVAC guy is correct for the most part; a straight duct is a perfect conduit to transmit sound; a bend (depending on distance) will attenuate noise. More bends will attenuate more sound.

Neither of you describe the type of noise in question; is it clunking sound or noise of rushing air. Internal clunking noise, creaks and groans may be reduced by using rubber pads to islolate ducts from woodwork; also make sure physical ducts structure is sturdy and not flimsy especially at joints; secure ducts and cover/isolate with Ductwrap if possible. Check your returns for blockage If it is air rushing noise or ask your HVAC guy to check air pressure. Ideally all HVACs ducts should be padded in sound deadening material. I have mine simply covered in ductwrap insulation; does three things; prevents loss of heat/cold, keeps them quiet and prevents condensation.

Err. The noises that my hvac guy described were "bathroom sounds". Delivered directly to the dining area. While they had guests for dinner.

Adding sound insulation to stud walls will have little effect on sound transmission. The primary purpose of that kind of insulation is to slow down sound that enters a wall from a crack and travels to a crack on the other side.

The more likely travel paths for sound are over the top of the walls, through ducts, back to back receptacle boxes, and light weight doors with excessive undercuts.

Sound takes the path of least resistance. For instance, there is little reason to add sound insulation or drywall to a wall that contains a door.

To improve the condition you should start with what is accessible like the doors. There is nothing that can be done about a hollow core door but a heavy solid core door can be greatly improved by adding a perimeter sound seal including a drop seal at the bottom.

If you have access to the ceiling space from an attic you can fill the ceiling space above important walls with drywall and sealant or dense rock wool fire-safing.

Neither of you describe the type of noise in question; is it clunking sound or noise of rushing air.

Neither. We can hear conversations through the ducts, even from one end of the house to the other end. I would have to look at our photos to see how many bends there are in the ducts.

Is your floor plan more open than your previous house? Ie fewer walls in between the areas where you hear more sound?

More & larger windows, granite countertops, floor to ceiling stone or hard surface fireplace finish--lots of larger harder surfaces to bounce noise off of than in previous houses.

Anne

A sound-proofing "insulation" between walls and floors makes a huge difference. We used Roxul Safe N Sound on most of our walls and between all of our joists. It's AMAZING. We also were conscious to not have vents directly connected as that can carry sound.

The few walls that don't have Roxul are SOOOO noisey. It's horrible. We have hollow-core doors, and you can actually tell that's where what sound that does come thru, comes through.

For your basement, use a sound proofing product, upgrade doors to solid as you can, and use rugs to reduce floor noise and increase sound absorption.

Next house? Safe n sound ;)