Acoustical Surfaces – Soundproofing Blog

“I have a particular sound issue that I hope you can help me with. I need to dampen the noise in a bar in New York City. The ceilings are 18′ high, but the floors are wood and tile, the ceilings are tin, and the walls are mostly brick.” Eliminating the echo and reverberation is going to be really quite easy, but blocking the sound is always a lot more involved and will require altering the floor/ceiling assembly [...]

Dog Kennels. In these types of rooms one will find a handful of similarities, the three most important of which are large rooms, hard surfaces and loud noise sources. Whenever these three things are combined, occupants are going to experience painful headaches and significant discomfort. Treatment is a must [...]

I do get quite a few inquiries about noisy AC units. As far as the distance between the AC unit and the wall that you are going to need to build, I would contact the manufacturer of the unit as well as possibly a local contractor who would service the unit if it were needed. It is extremely important to leave enough room around the condenser to allow it to breather and function properly. That is one question that I will not be able to help with and is definitely site specific [...]

I can’t remember the last time that I have been around an MRI so can not recall the exact noise that the machines made, but I assume that it is a very low mechanical “drone”. If this is the case, it is a fairly challenging acoustical situation [...]

Boiler or mechanical rooms are generally pretty noisy places. Not only are you going to have multiple noise sources but one will almost always find that these are rooms made up of all hard surfaces. The sound from the machines has no where to go, and the sound waves will just bounce from surface to surface. Believe it or not, the sound pressure in the room can actually be greater than the sum of all of the sound being made by the machines because of these reflections. So, I would suggest a product that will not only help the existing wall block the sound from leaving the room, but also absorbing the reverberation inside of the room itself [...]

The problem of the sound transmission issue is unfortunately a very common problem. I get calls all the time from people in similar situations who are looking for products to help stop sound traveling from one office or exam room to the other. Confidentiality and patient privacy is extremely important. Many people call me looking for a product to put on the wall, and because I have helped so many people, I start the conversation by asking three main questions [...]