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Noise & Vibration Consultancy
In December 2002 major changes to Approved Document E of the building regulations were published. These amendments were introduced to improve the sound insulation between and within dwellings and replace the 1992 edition.
The 2002 requirements now include rooms for residential purposes as well as dwelling houses and flats. Rooms for residential purposes means a room which is used by one or more persons to live and sleep in, including rooms in hotels, hostels, boarding houses, halls of residence and residential homes.
Performance standards are given for walls, floors and stairs having a separating function, in new buildings and in buildings formed by change of use. Site testing of sound insulation is performed on a sampling basis whereby every single partition does not need to be tested if the partitions are constructed in the same way.
Within a dwelling the internal walls and floors need to provide reasonable resistance to sound. There are laboratory sound insulation performance standards but site testing is not intended.
The new regulations also recognise the need for the control of reverberation noise in public areas of flats, hotels, etc. and give specification on the amount of absorption required.
Acoustic requirements for schools are now mandatory. The regulations reference Building Bulletin 93 'The Acoustic Design of Schools' as the method for assessing sound insulation, reverberation time and internal ambient noise for schools.
Part E calls for sample pre-completion testing of separating walls and floors prior to handover. The testing is required to ensure that the level of performance specified in Part E is being achieved. These tests are to be performed to the ISO-140 series of standards and the number of tests required will depend on the number of dwellings in each development. Part E states that a minimum of one set of tests is required for every ten dwellings of each construction type on a development.
Tests should be conducted in completed but unfurnished rooms or available spaces in the case of properties sold before fitting out.
How Can AVT Help?
We have considerable experience in conducting airborne and impact sound insulation tests in accordance with the ISO-140 series of standards having completed many projects under the 1992 edition of Part E. We have the ability to conduct all the Sound Insulation Testing that is required in Approved Document E and can advise in all other requirements.
We pride ourselves on our quality of service and are fully ISO 9001:2000 accredited. We are able to mobilise on very short notice in an attempt to cause as little delay and inconvenience to the development as possible.
For further information call +44(0)161 486 3737 or email us via the contacts page