My house I am building is right on a main road and sees a lot of traffic. This will cause a lot of  inside noise that I don't want to hear. I'm almost to the stage of insulating and need a recomendation for a good sound proofing insulation. Is regular ole pink fiberglass insulation good enough, or do you recommend something better?

Thanks,
Kris

Quoted: My house I am building is right on a main road and sees a lot of traffic. This will cause a lot of  inside noise that I don't want to hear. I'm almost to the stage of insulating and need a recomendation for a good sound proofing insulation. Is regular ole pink fiberglass insulation good enough, or do you recommend something better? Thanks, Kris

Are you going to tear out your inside walls to install it, or is this new construction?

I would vote for foam insulation in the walls, double windows and screening bushes in the front.

If at all possible, plant some tall bushes of cypress trees between the house and street. They won't reduce the noise all that much but they break it up into more of a white noise which is much less annoying.
As for the house, it all depends how fancy you want to go, a concrete block wall is one of the better options, if that won't work build a floating interior wall to stop the noise from being conducted into the house, check the internet for audiophile sites. They have good information on soundproofing.

The new method of spraying foam into cavities is really quite good. It would probably be the best single application method of acheiving good sound deadening.

The drawbacks are cost, and the ability to come back two years later and pull wires through the walls. If the walls are foamed and then sheetrocked, you will never pull another wire through there. You get an excellent R-rating though, and drafts are non-existant.

Check out the sprayed cellulose.  Its the same as the blown cellulose used in attics, but has a tackifier to hold it together.  Unlike fiberglass batts, it fills all the voids and gives a full 3.5".  It cost less installed than we could buy fiberglass.

Sprayed foam can cause a moisture problem due to condensation.

I would recomend sound proofing interior walls as well. I used regular old R11/13 bat insulation in my new home. Really quieted things down.  

I would also recommend extremely energy efficient windows.

I bought new vinyl windows for the house with extra thick glass - it did make a difference.

Use 2X6 studs on that6 wall.  It will allow you to use R19 insulation.  Double glazed vinyl windows. Put a solid "visqueen" vapor barrier on the wall.

Be absolutely anal about calking and sealing the windows and door flanges during install.

Be absolutely anal about sealing and taping your vapor barrier.  Also, overlap and staple the paper backing from the fiberglass insulation OVER the studs, not just tucked in as the insulation subs like to do.(of course, this is under your poly vapor barrier mentioned above).

If you want even more protection against noise, put a double layer of sheetrock on that wall.  

If you do the above, you will be amazed how quiet it will be.

The above proceedures are from how contractors seal out noise from aircraft in communities close to airports.

 

the double pane windows my grandmother had installed at her place really seem to make a difference.

I'm in an apartment right by a loud road.  Can't really modify the place.  White noise does wonders.  Fiancee bought this goofball air purifier that sounds like a wind tunnel.  Can't hear the harleys goin up the hill, can't hear the jake brakes going down.  All I can hear is the  comforting whir of pointless homeopathic crap.  It's actually done wonders for my sleep.  Christ knows how much electricity it's burning though.

The two best ways to reduce sound is by making your walls air tight, adding mass and by isolation.  Several guys touched on the first method with plastic sheeting and caulking.  To add mass adding a second sheet of sheetrock on the inside is a easy method.  You can buy lead-lined sheetrock for not more than regular sheetrock.  The owner of the company I work for used two 5/8" sheets on the outside walls of his house.  It is very quiet.  The third method is isolation.  The easiest way to do that is to put in staggered studs.  You connect the outside wall to one set of studs and the inside wall to another set.  That only adds about one inch of extra depth to your walls.  Vibrations from the outside are not directly transmitted to the inside.z