Check the sound around an address before you rent or buy

Updated 24 October 2026

Modeled estimates for general information only — not measurements, not a guarantee, and not for legal, medical or real-estate decisions.

To check the sound around one address, look it up on the Quiet LA map and read its modeled Day, Evening, Night and 24-hour levels, then visit in person at the hours that matter to you. The map is one input alongside your own visit. It is a modeled estimate, typically about 6 dB off, not a measurement or a guarantee.

Quiet LA is not for real-estate decisions and cannot tell you whether to rent or buy anything. It gives general information about the sound sources near an address, so you know what to listen for when you go there.

Look up an address on the map

How do I look up the sound at one address?

1. Open the noise map and type the street address in the search box. Any address in Los Angeles County works.
2. Choose the matching suggestion. With a house number the map selects that building.
3. Read the modeled levels in the place panel. For a building the panel shows the loudest wall and the least exposed wall; these are outdoor levels at the walls, not indoor levels.
4. Switch between Day, Evening, Night and 24 h, and note which sources the map shows near the address: a freeway, a busy street, a rail line or an airport.

The search runs in your browser against the County’s public GIS service; Quiet LA does not receive or store the address. See Privacy and, for more steps, how to look up the noise level at an address.

What do Day, Evening, Night and 24 h mean at an address?

• Day is the average sound level from 7 am to 7 pm, Evening from 7 to 10 pm and Night from 10 pm to 7 am, each in decibels (LAeq), outdoors at the wall.
• 24 h is CNEL, an average over the whole day with evening counted 5 dB higher and night 10 dB higher than day. It is not a sound you hear all day. See what CNEL means.
• Aircraft are in the 24 h view only, as an estimate derived from official airport contours, and only when the Aircraft switch is on.

A difference of a few dB between two addresses is within the model’s error. A change of 3 dB is barely noticeable, 5 dB is readily noticeable and 10 dB is heard as about twice or half as loud (Caltrans). To read a level, see what 45, 55 and 65 dB mean.

What does the map not tell me about an address?

• What the inside sounds like. Windows, floors and insulation change it.
• Construction, events, nightlife, neighbors, helicopters, individual overflights, car horns and wildlife. None is modeled.
• What a particular night will be like. Evening and Night views show typical weather, not a forecast.
• Land with no computed value. Land with no freeway or major road within 3 km shows the lowest color; that is an assumption, not a computed value. Other blank areas are not modeled yet, and blank never means quiet.

What should I check in person?

Treat the map as a list of questions to answer on site. Your own visit tells you what a model cannot.

• Visit at the hours you would be there. Go on a weeknight and at the busiest hour of the day, and again late in the evening, not only at the showing time.
• Listen where you would sleep. Stand on the side where the bedroom is, with the windows closed and then open. The side facing the street and the side facing away can differ a lot; the panel shows both walls.
• Check the sources the map pointed to. If it shows a freeway or a rail line, listen for it. If it shows an airport, look at the airport’s own pages for flight paths and the noise line: see airport noise in Los Angeles County.
• Look for what the map cannot show. Nearby construction, businesses that open late, pickup and delivery hours, helicopter routes and events. Ask neighbors what they hear.
• Know the rules and who to call. Noise rules differ by city: see the noise ordinance and construction hours and noise complaints by city.

For how professionals measure sound at a site, and when a survey is used, see noise surveys and noise assessments.

How do I look at more than one address?

Look up each address on its own and note which sources matter at each. Quiet LA describes noise sources and modeled levels at specific places. It does not rate, rank or compare areas, and it does not score addresses.

What are the limits?

The numbers are modeled estimates of outdoor sound, not measurements, and are not an appraisal, a disclosure or a guarantee of what a place will sound like. See Limits for what they can and cannot be used for, How it’s made for the method and Sources & methods for every data source.

Need a noise report for a property or a project? Quiet LA does not offer one today. If you would use one, email hello@quietlamap.com and tell us what you need.