Building Acoustics

Building Acoustics, or Architectural Acoustics, design and testing is a key specialism of Dragonfly Acoustics.

From our offices in York, in the north of England, our acoustic consultancy team offers a construction review service and can assist in the design of the acoustics of any building from the initial concept stage.

Our team have worked on projects as diverse as medical facilities, hotels, residential houses and flats, band practice rooms and interview suites, always ensuring the acoustic separation between rooms meets both the regulatory requirements and the standards of the client.

For residential dwellings in particular, the acoustic performance of walls and floors between dwellings and the internal partitions within a dwelling is regulated by Approved Document E of the Building Regulations 2000. By streamlining the process we can help minimise build costs and ensure that the internal structures comply with the requirements of these Regulations.

Environmental and sustainability issues are increasingly important and we strive to ensure our clients gain every advantage for their developments. We specialise in meeting the requirements of the Department for Communities and Local Government Codes for Sustainable Homes (EcoHomes) or The Building Research Establishment's Ecohomes scheme (BREEAM).

For a completed project we can carry out the required sound insulation tests to ensure compliance with all client and building regulations.

More information about Sound Insulation Testing (also referred to as Sound Testing or Noise Testing) is available on our Sound Insulation Testing page.

Approved Document E

Approved Document E refers to the Requirements of Part E of Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 2000 (as amended by SI 2002/2871), and specifically to the following requirements:

Protection against sound from other parts of the building and adjoining buildings.

E1 Dwelling-houses, flats and rooms for residential purposes shall be designed and constructed in such a way that they provide reasonable resistance to sound from other parts of the same building and from adjoining buildings.

For the purposes of Approved Document E, adjoining is taken to mean dwelling-houses, flats, rooms for residential purposes and buildings in direct physical contact with another dwelling-house, flat, room for residential purpose or building.

Performance Standards

The normal way of satisfying Requirement E1 for dwelling-houses and flats is to build walls, separating floors and stairs that have a separating function, together with their associated flanking constructions, in such a way that they achieve the sound insulation values shown in Table 1 of the document.

The required performance standards differ between new build developments and developments which are effected by a material change of use to an existing building. The performance requirements are available to downloaded below.

If you would like more information about our residential noise assessment services please contact us to discuss your requirements.

All the information contained on this page is available to download as a PDF file below.

Related Links:

• BREEAM: The Environmental Assessment Method
  BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance.
• The Website of Robust Details Ltd.
  The website for Robust Details Ltd, the company responsible for the administration of the Robust Details scheme.