The initial decent rainfall following your installation of a glass room is a shock to you. You are sitting there having your morning coffee when the rain falls and the next thing you know, you are surrounded by the most amazing natural sound installation that you have ever heard. It is like being on the front row to weather itself.
That is what those who possess glass rooms keep talking about but somehow they never fully explain it until you enter one. In showrooms, you see the beautiful pictures that are dipped in the sunshine, sales representatives discuss the expansion of your living space and the light introduction. What they fail to inform you is that rain also makes your glass room to look like it is almost magic and it generates an acoustic experience that you will be eagerly wishing to experience.
This is determined by the kind of glazing you are experiencing and the way the rain is hitting it, but even the light drizzle will produce this subtle percussion that makes everything seem more alive. Heavy rain though? That is when you find that you have installed something much more interesting, than another room.
The Symphony You Didn’t Think You Wanted?
Rain is enhanced through glass roofs in the best way possible. Every drop of rain falls, and makes its little note. Multiply that by thousands of drops per second in a normal rain and you will have endless natural white noise which can be heard over all the other distractions of your life. Car alarms, neighbours, traffic, concerns about work tomorrow, everything, all of it is gone under the drumming.
It is most satisfying to be dry and safe in the storm as the wind and rain beat and tear only centimetres above your head. The music is hypnotic in the most desirable manner, the sort of music that makes you actually calm down during the first time of the week. Individuals spend good money on white noise applications and meditation tapes that attempt to mimic this very noise and you have the free version that occurs naturally overhead.
The sound varies across the day as well and this makes it interesting instead of being monotonous. It is soft and pensive when the rain falls in the morning as you head into the weekend. Afternoon rain generates energy and atmosphere. Dinner in the rain in the evening, makes a meal something special, it creates a sense of drama and scenes and you do not need to do anything except sit there and enjoy the meal.
Why Different Rain Makes It Better?
The British weather is truly amazing in the diversity of the types of rain, and your glass room becomes this device that performs all of them in different ways. It is weirdly gratifying to be able to determine what type of rain is beginning within a month just by the pattern of the sound.
Drizzle is the sound of this kind of soft hissing, it is the sound of the hissing of a static that is a perfect complement to anything. Reading, labour, silent talking, everything comes as naturally as drizzle that patters all over. You might even forget that it is even raining except that the ambient sound is pleasant to alert you that you are linked to what is being done outside.
The constant rain of moderate intensity forms that typical patter that all people envision when they hear of a cosy rainy day. In time, regular, but loud enough to be perceivable and yet not to be too attention-seeking. After approximately five minutes, your brain has taken it as the most relaxing thing in the world, and it stores it in the same category as the exact sound that safety and comfort make when they choose to express themselves physically.
Down pours are literally exciting. The drumming is so strong that you put whatever you are doing on hold and just live in the present where you feel the weather as this mighty power occurring all around you even when you are in a completely safe position. They do not, however, long endure, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes ere they subside, although whilst they last you have no better bench in the house than your glass room to enjoy the show of nature.
Hail is so wild, so brilliantly so. Every hailstone strikes with sharp crack that is quite shocking and thrilling. The sound cannot be missed and that is precisely the idea. You are not reading or watching anything in the time of hail anyway you are simply sitting there and smiling at the entire percussion section of nature playing to you alone.
Discussions are brought closer
This is where the glass room acoustics become interesting in a way that you would not have expected. In moderate to heavy rain, this bubble effect of the noise level makes conversations more intimate and close in some way, such as the rain is enveloping you and your friend in your own little world.
You sit up a little, you can speak rather nearer, you can keep eye contact in a more natural manner. Neither screaming nor yelling it’s a close-up talk at slightly higher tone, which, ironically, is more involved than regular living room communications when you may be half-watching a TV or looking at your phone.
It is in the rainy season that family dinners are made so lively and energetic. All just talk to be heard, so you are all more there and more involved instead of that damp evening meal when no one is thinking of anything. Children enjoy the adventure of having a meal when it is raining as it beats the roof and will make a boring Tuesday dinner feel special and memorable.
Rain is well matched with background music. This is a rich acoustic environment, which is formed by the two layers of sound, and even casual evenings become atmospheric. The rain and the music are combined in the general atmosphere by your brain and conversations and activities seem more cinematic somehow, you are not in a room but you live in a scene.
The Sleep Experience is Unbelievable
Individuals that instal glass rooms that are connected to bedrooms with the express purpose of sleeping under glass on rainy nights are not misguided at all. It is a lovely idea in theory and reality is way beyond expectations.
The sound of rain turns into the best sleeping aid that you have ever had. White noise that is natural and covers all other sound so that people are in this sort of cocoon where nothing can break the shield. Your brain perceives the rain as a message that you are safe, under cover and can completely relax without watching the surrounding thus you fall asleep quicker.
Both deep and light sleepers explain that their quality of sleep is better in glass rooms during rainy nights. The rain also gives the background sound that does not wake you up abruptly due to a sudden sound. Car doors, foxes, neighbours going home late, none of that comes through the drumming and gets after you. You get up feeling fresher since you have actually slept well during the night.
The difference between drizzle and heavier rain or vice versa will be incorporated into your sleep rhythm instead of something that disrupts it. The change is processed in the subconscious as an assuring variation and not disruption. Individuals state that their dreams are very vivid, tranquil when they sleep under the glass when it is raining.
The role of Glazing in improving the experience
The kind of glass on your roof determines the acoustic experience you have and there is no wrong or right answer to this question but it is more a matter of preferences. Single glazing provides you with the entire raw experience of all the raindrops, as much as possible contact with the weather occurring above. Others desire precisely this, the purest experience.
The sound is so softened by double glazing that, perhaps, it is 30 or 40 per cent softer, and this makes a more pleasant sound, which is fine to talk with, and to do any thing where you wish it to rain, but not to dominate. The sound is full, and gratifying but is on a plane that it is enriching instead of authoritative.
Triple glazing is the lightest rain experience, ideal in individuals who desire the visual splendour of rain on glass, but with a lesser acoustical impact. Rain is also beautiful in down pour but the conversation is at almost ordinary volumes. You have air without passion.
The acoustic character is another dimension that is contributed by the roof angle. Raised roofs cause the rain to fall in more gratifying streams that produce the sounds of rushing water. The roofs with a shallow pitch pool up, which are struck by new raindrops, further giving more depth and variation to the sound. The design decisions generate their unique acoustic character.
The Implication of this in Everyday Life
You get used to the noise of rain straight away, not in the meaning of being able to tolerate it. More of a discovery that you have been lacking this specific experience in your whole life without even knowing it. The initial couple of rainfalls are spectacular as you are so enthralled by the noise that you cannot continue what you are doing and just listen to the spectacle that is taking place. In a month it will be this permanent element of your house and not a new thing.
Even the morning routines are something you even look forward to on rainy days. Sipping breakfast in the glass room as rain beats the roof makes the beginning of your day this serene ritual and not an urgent necessity. You sit around the coffee listening to the rain and you start the day in a state of peace and satisfaction rather than stress.
Evening nightlife is recreated in an elegant way. Board games, intense talks, games that the rain is a part of the scene and not just a sound in the background are best played on rainy evenings. You begin to watch the weather forecast and even wish that it could rain, you know how beautiful the evening is going to be in your glass room.
It is a rainy day when reading surges. The reason most people tend to read more in their glass room is because rain makes them more focused, and mental chatter is blocked out, allowing them to understand the concept being read in a pleasant manner, not intrusive. You read more books and remember more since the environment facilitates concentration.
The Connexion between Weather and Everything
Having a glass room completely alters your perception towards British weather. Rain ceases to be the thing that spoils your day and becomes something you are looking forward to. You look at the forecasts and wish that you can see the rain symbols because you are aware of what you are going to experience acoustically. Seasonal trends are more evident and valued.
The rain in the autumn is not the same as in the summer storms, it is less violent and more constant. The rain in winter combined with wind results in extreme changes in intensity. spring showers pass, pass, pass, and give you these explosions of sound so bracing instead of depressing.
The rain sound becomes a part of the identity of the space. You give up considering whether it is loud, and start valuing it as the hallmark that gives your glass room its special quality. The visitors note that it sounds wonderful when it rains when they visit. On sunny days, you are somehow disappointed since you are not getting the experience of the rain.
Majority of glass room owners testify that rain days are now their favourite days to spend at home within few months after installations. The sound experience turns weather that would have kept you indoors into that which you really love and which you would love to go out and enjoy. You have made a place where British rain, which is the most consistent weather element, is an asset and not something to be tolerated. The change of mindset by itself justifies the entire installation process even before you think of the additional advantages of having the additional space.
