Meticulous preparation prior to sound insulation install at property in Finchley. The airborne noise being the issue in this instance.
The job was carried out in one day with no mess whatsoever and the client was happy.
20
Apr
2016
Construction
Most barns will have wall made of brick or stone without the cavity you get in a conventional house.
08
Mar
2016
How To Avoid Buying A Noisy Home
One of the best ways to reduce the cost of insulating against noise is not to buy a noisy home in the first place. This might sound obvious but many of the signs of a noisy house or flat can be missed, particularly if you are distracted by how nice it looks.
If it’s an apartment you are looking for, try and go for the top floor in a development because living at the top means you don’t have any noisy neighbours above you. The problem is the top floor is usually a penthouse and this will probably be double the price of those apartments on lower floors.
If it’s a house you are looking for, avoid living next to schools, universities and colleges. Not only will you have noisy children on the playground to contend with in the case of the former, but also the twice daily rush of parents in 4x4s desperately trying to park as close to the school gates as possible. You should also avoid buying a house on a flight path, next to a bus depot or a busy railway line.
It might also be a good idea to visit the area of the home you intend to buy at different times of the day and on weekends. The noise levels could be very different depending on when you see the most activity in a given area.
25
Jan
2016
Why Soundproofing Your Loft Conversion Is Important
Spending on how much space you have in the loft you may be considering a conversion this year. Soundproofing it may not be the foremost thing on your mind but there are several reasons why you should consider it.
One of the main things to consider before you carry out your loft conversion is the amount of privacy you will have. This is particularly true if your loft is large enough to be used as an entertainment or music studio.
If you happen to have neighbours close by they may not be happy with the noise leading to problems. You might also need to soundproof your loft to reduce noise from your neighbours too so in this case it is wise to start considering what type of insulation you will need to make your loft conversion a success.
Soundproofing your loft requires stud walls that are placed on top of existing walls with insulating material such as mineral wool being placed in between. If you are using timber batons to support the walls in your loft it is important to ensure they are fixed to the floor and ceiling rather than the walls to get the maximum benefit of soundproofing.
If you are unsure about anything to do with soundproofing your loft, contact us for help and advice.
20
Sep
2015
Top Tips to Prepare Your Property for Autumn
Autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness as the Romantic Poet John Keats wrote. It is also the season to review your insulation to make sure it is ready for the onset of winter with its shorter days and frosty nights.
One of the first things to look at when you are preparing your home for the winter is the level of loft insulation you have. Having good insulation in your roof space can of course save pounds on energy bills making it worthwhile getting the ladder out to carry out an inspection or calling out an insulation professional to come and have a look for you.
Having less than 10cm of insulation could cost you an extra £150 a year which would buy a few extra presents at Christmas time. Other measures which won’t cost the earth include draft proofing. You can insert rubber draft excluders in the windows of each room and thicker curtains which can really make a difference.
You should also be thinking about getting your boiler serviced to avoid any breakdowns just when you don’t need them. The temperature of a house can soon drop when the heating is off so it’s worth spending a bit to make sure everything is in working order.
30
Jun
2015
Orange Tree Waste Could Be Acoustic Insulation Of the Future
Oranges are a popular citrus fruit and we consume millions of them every year. This creates quite a lot of waste products that researchers in Spain have found to be particularly useful in sound insulation.
Orange tree waste may soon be routinely used in sound insulation as a greener alternative to conventional laminated gypsum boards. In tests, boards produced using orange tree waste actually performed better than the conventional materials, which is unusual for environmentally friendly products where compromises are often made on cost and performance.
Production of the orange-tree-based insulation boards starts when trimmings are gathered and processed before being combined with polypropylene, which admittedly isn’t so environmentally friendly as tree waste, but still a significant step towards sustainability in the sound insulation industry.
In tests the insulation boards produced from orange tree waste had the potential to rate as high as 29dBA. This was a 50% improvement on the performance of conventional laminated gypsum boards.
Oranges may not be the only fruit when it comes to greener sound insulation either. Olive tree waste is also being tested and preliminary results are just as promising.
Sound insulation companies are currently considering the costs involved in using the new greener boards in the future.
23
May
2015
Traffic Noise Can Increase Your Waistline Says Study
The last thing you might expect to have an effect on your weight is noise. Yet this is what one Swedish study has discovered and this could force many people who work in offices near busy roads to consider installing better sound insulation.
Weight gain has traditionally been associated with inactivity and eating too much, but the Swedish study on the effects of noise found that noise from traffic had the potential to increase fat deposits around the waste due to the effects of cortisol production.
Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the body in reaction to stress. Having too much cortisol in the body often leads to weight gain and the Swedish study of more than 5,000 people found that noise triggered an increase which led to weight gain in the majority of participants.
Road traffic noise contributed to a 0.21 cm increase in waist size for women compared to 0.16 cm for men which means the former is more likely to suffer the waist expanding effects of noise. The study also found a direct relationship between an increase in the sources of noise and the amount of fat carried around the waste.
10
May
2015
The Importance Of Acoustic Design In The Offices Of Today
Noise pollution was once accepted as part of working in a busy office, however much has changed in recent years as business owners see the value of acoustic design in the office.
If you happen to be sitting in an open plan office where phones are constantly ringing, this can place a considerable amount of stress on your shoulders. Noise can be distracting and often an interruption to your train of thought.
If you happen to be sitting near someone with a loud voice the situation can often become intolerable. This is the reality for many people everyday who have no power to change their office acoustics for the better as they would do at home.
Thankfully employers are waking up to the fact that environments can have a direct effect on productivity and profits in some cases. So the important thing is to raise these benefits if you happen to be a staff member suffering from the effects of office noise pollution.
Changes to office acoustics can often be quite straightforward to implement and not necessarily expensive. Interior materials for example should absorb sound. In an office the idea is to prevent sound from travelling too far where people may be having frequent conversations on the phone.
Cubicles can be contained where possible behind lightweight drywall systems which generally consist of two framed plasterboards with an air gap in between. This acts to insulate sound in that area, helping to reduce noise significantly.
This is just one of a number of sound insulation measures you can take to keep the office a pleasant place to be. Contact our experts if you would like to find out more about insulation solutions for your office.
28
Sep
2012
The cost of construction disputes is rising
Construction disputes in the UK are costing more and taking more time to resolve, a communication by EC Harris has found.
The average price of a disagreement in England jumped 35% in 2011 to £6.5m up from £4.8m the year before.
The Worldwide Construction Disputes report also found the time brought to resolve UK disputes had increased, from 6.75 months in 2010 to 8.7 months in 2011.