 |
 |
||||||
[August 2005]
CERAM Builds First Acoustic Test Wall
The clay brick industry has, through the Brick Development Association commissioned CERAM to carry out acoustic tests on a party wall construction, that could form the basis of a clay brick Robust Standard Detail to comply with Part E of the Building Regulations.Trends in construction towards increased use of lightweight construction and reduced use of wet plastering have coincided with increased complaints about acoustic problems between dwellings. This has no doubt been compounded by the increased used of noisy stereo equipment. The government has responded by changes to the Building Regulations (Part E) to increase the requirements for acoustic isolation and to introduce pre-completion acoustic tests between dwellings.
The housebuilding industry has responded by developing what is known as Robust Standard Details, essentially forms of construction that have been tested more than thirty times on site and which consistently perform better than the threshold levels in the Regulations.
The construction developed by CERAM is essentially a cavity wall with both exposed faces in facing brickwork to form a feature in both dwellings. The wall contains no wall ties as they encourage sound transmission. Instead, the cavity is filled with masonry mortar as the wall is built.
Essentially the wall relies on its mass to provide the acoustic isolation; a concept used for years in sound studios. The wall has been built in the large aperture between the emitting and receiving rooms of the new acoustic facility at CERAM.
Professor Geoff Edgell from CERAM explained: “This is a fairly simple idea which utilises one of the basic properties of clay brickwork, its density. This will give good acoustic isolation and at the same time an attractive appearance and excellent fire resistance. There should also be benefits from the thermal mass in reducing fluctuations in internal temperature and hence improving personal comfort”.
The acoustic facility is available for commercial use from CERAM Building Technology, part of CERAM, the internationally renowned centre for materials and technology, based in Stoke on Trent. CERAM Building Technology also offers on site pre-completion testing to meet the requirements of Part E of the Building Regulations.
ENDS