I own a small two story building with a ground floor unit facing a fairly busy street

[soumitss]

Hey everyone. I own a small two story building with a ground floor unit facing a fairly busy street, and the tenants have complained about noise for years. The windows are aluminum sliders from the seventies, thin glass, and you can hear conversations on the sidewalk. I want to fix this properly rather than sticking foam around the frames again. Do new windows genuinely help with street noise, or is that mostly a sales pitch and the real problem is elsewhere in the wall? Twelve windows in total if it matters.

[hydrogenn]

New windows help a lot with street noise, but the gain comes from glass thickness and the air gap rather than from the word efficient on a brochure. Ask specifically about laminated glass on the street facing units, that is what makes the difference with traffic and voices. Frames matter too, since an old aluminum slider leaks sound around the sash as much as through the glass. We did twelve on a rental through Window Replacement Center https://windowreplacementcontractor.com/ and the tenants noticed immediately. Do the street side first if the budget is tight. The back of the building is rarely where the complaints come from. Do not expect silence though, you are aiming for background rather than gone.