Classroom Noise Levels and acoustic insulation
Managing classroom noise levels depends on more than just students’ willingness to keep quiet and the amount of control their teacher exerts. The Department of Education set strict acoustic standards for all educational building facilities. These standards consider both the reverberation of noise inside the classrooms and how much external noise penetrates the building. Two educational projects Soprema was involved in recently demonstrate different acoustic insulation and soundproofing requirements. Both projects were in Cork, one an eight-room primary school and the other a much larger community college upgrade.
Many factors contribute to the amount of acoustic insulation required – a school on a quiet country road will not need the same level as one on a major road. However, no matter where a school is located it will have to cope with the sound of the weather – heavy rain and winter storms can be surprisingly noisy. New builds will have reports from acousticians and engineers who measure the noise levels using sensors.
Using the acoustician’s reports the architects, contractors and manufacturers design the appropriate soundproofing, selecting acoustic solutions for walls, ceilings and roofing which will ensure that there is no noise interruption to learning. For educational builds value for money, maintenance costs and quality will all be considered in choosing the most appropriate products.
Upgrades to existing buildings do not always have the same detailed level of reporting but will need to meet base acoustic standards provided by the Department of Education.
St Colman’s Community College
St Colman’s Community College in Middleton underwent a major transformation with the addition of three new buildings with 35 classrooms and a total addition of 5,642sqm. This will allow the school to increase the number of pupils from 800 to 1,000 to meet future demands. This building project had an acoustic report which Healy Architects and contractors, Seafield Construction, used when designing the soundproofing and building enveloping requirements with Soprema. For this build a PVC waterproofing roofing membrane was used with a perforated metal deck and acoustic infills. Soprema acted as ancillary assigned certifiers for the architects on this project.
A Rural Primary School
There was no acoustic report on the Clondrohid National School project. Without an acoustic report, the architects and contractors used base data values from the Department of Education when deciding which sound insulating materials to use. This rural eight-room primary school is based outside Macroom. Bertie Pope & Associates were the architects, Connacht Construction the main contractors and Kilkenny Asphalt providing the roofing contracting. Unlike St Colman’s, the PVC membrane enveloping on this build didn’t require acoustic infills.
In projects like school building designs, cost-reduction without sacrificing quality may be driving forces in deciding on materials. Soprema’s new Tecsound range is an ideal design choice to meet the parameters set by the Department of Education on acoustic insulation as well as providing quality. We have experience in designing to meet a wide range of acoustic performance specifications as well as other considerations like sustainability, maintenance costs, and challenging installation conditions.
Contact Us for more details on our range.