Think about acoustics before building your dream home

Acoustics, something to think about
On this page you can read about acoustic solutions that can be applied during the construction phase of your new home. It's important to think about acoustics during the developing and designing stages of your new home so you won't be caught by surprise later on and confronted with poor acoustics.  Even during a renovation of your home you really need to think about the implications acoustic wise. Because the acoustics of your home will defenandly change, and not for the better. Did you know that painting a bricks wall for instance, with a thick layer of paint, will result in bad acoustics....?

In the text below, you will read a short report written by Adrienne. Togehter with her husband, she had the home of her dreams built, not only in terms of a dream design, but also in terms of acoustic comfort! A beautiful solution with an overwhelming result, Adrienne wrote:    

In 2018 we started the designing process of our dream home, together with an architect. We wanted to have high rooms, implement a lot of glass, and install a concrete floor. As the owner of Merford, I knew that this design would result in a lot of acoustic issues. Hard materials in combination with high rooms quickly lead to reverberation at home. Very annoying when you are having a nice chat and you have a hard time understanding the other person. Luckily, we had already taken this into account prior to construction.

In the end we chose a perforated wooden ceiling, which simultaneously added a warm colour to the house. Behind this perforation we had Akotherm plates installed. A relatively easy solution with a big impact. Funnily enough, personally I was surprised by the result as well. Even during the construction phase the reverberation was gone, even though there were no objects in the house yet that could diminish the reverberation. Even the construction workers were surprised.

Since many designs don't take the acoustic aspect into account and almost no ideas how to solve this problem, I really wanted to share this. Maybe you can implement this idea in the design of your dream home. Or maybe your dream home is already built, but you need a solution in order to solve an accoustic issue. In both cases we would like to think along! I believe that nice acoustics, allow you to enjoy your home more.

The perforated wooden ceiling with Akotherm filling 

What actually causes bad acoustics?
Reverberation is caused, when the interior of a room consists of too many hard surfaces, such as concrete and glass. Especially surfaces that run parallel to each other cause reverb. By finding a balance between hard and soft surfaces, you can create a comfortable acoustic climate. By 'soft surfaces' we mean things like curtains, carpet, furniture and of course acoustic panels.

How does this solution function?
You might think that wood is a hard material as well, and thus will also cause sound reflections. But because of the perforated surface and the acoustic Akotherm filling, the sound is absorbed through the holes. The absorbing property of this material minimises the disturbing reflections of middle and high frequency sounds (speaking and living noise). Even with an Akotherm filling with a thickness of only 25 mm, the result can be called excellent!  

In this situation, almost the whole ceiling became sound absorbing, which led to an optimal result. In situations where the ceiling can only be equipped this sound absorbing panels, we advise to cover about 60% of the whole surface.

Wall solution
On the picture below, you can see a similar solution: a wall that is equipped with vertical laths, covering Akotherm filling. This solution is also very efficient, because often the whole wall will be furnished like this.

Vertical laths filled with Akotherm Basic

Questions?
Do you have any questions concerning this topic? Please feel free to contact us!