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Improving Acoustic and Thermal Performance of an Interior Wall
In a block of apartments or where houses are built as a continuous terrace,
it is important to minimise the sound that is transmitted from one home to another.
In this example, in a development of apartments in Rome,
a rubber membrane is laid under a block wall to reduce vibration.
One side of the wall is formed with 8 centimeter lightweight blocks.
Mortar is used generously, both to provide mass and
to seal any gaps through which sound could pass.
NDA rigid natural insulation panels are placed in the cavity.
These are a sandwich of wood fibre and glass fibre.
The joints are taped, again to prevent sound transmission.
The other skin is formed with heavier 12 centimeter blocks,
again with a generous use of mortar.
Once finished and plastered, this interior wall will achieve a noise reduction
of approximately 52 decibels, as well as reducing heat transmission between the apartments.
The acoustic insulation regulations between two apartments, is very strict because they
require a sound reduction index of 50dB (decibels), which is very difficult to achieve.
We have managed this after many tests with this wall, which comprises
a skin of 8cm standard bricks, standard grade, and another skin of
12cm heavy grade bricks. That optimises two things. The fact that the wall has
two different layers, which is effective from the point of view of sound insulation,
and it has a certain mass. In addition to that, in the cavity we have a panel with
two properties. It gives acoustic insulation primarily, but also thermal insulation.
The regulations don’t just cover acoustic insulation but also thermal insulation.
If one apartment is heated and another unheated, perhaps because the person
living there is away, the heated apartment should not be losing heat to the one
that’s unheated. In the buildings that we have already constructed, we have used
instrumentation to see if we have achieved these results. This type of wall achieves
around 52dB of sound insulation.