What Makes Your Acoustics So Terrible?

Environmental Blog

If you have noticed problem in sound carrying and lots of echoing in your building, you may need to take steps to better the acoustics. Here are checkpoints and problem areas that you may need to fix including doors, windows, and walls.

Doors and Windows

Doors are often not built to adequately block sound. Make sure that the doors and the windows seal well. If the door does not seal tightly over the floor, you can consider adding a sweep-seal along the bottom to keep sound from escaping. Gaps between your door and the frame may also let sound escape. Try to slide a paper through the door while closed. If you can, then you will need to seal the gaps to improve the building acoustics. If there are a large number of doors and windows in the room, you may consider walling over some of them. This will improve the overall architectural acoustics as there are fewer areas from which the sound can escape. Last of all, if your windows are only one pane of glass, consider adding a second to help insulate the sound.

Walls

Walls that have more mass are more effective at stopping sound. The interior walls tend to be thinner and should be the walls that you check when you are working toward better acoustics. First check for any visual problems with the walls. You may right away be able to identify some trouble points that you can address. Look for any air movement between the wall and the floor. If you feel something, you may need to fix the caulking between the walls and the floor. Look for ways to block any holes that have been cut into your walls including sockets, electrical boxes, or internet/phone ports.

If your problem is between the wall and the ceiling, you may need a professional to correctly extend the wall and connect the two. If your problem is electrical outlets that have been placed throughout the room, connecting you with another room, you can choose to move the outlets so that they do not directly pair with an outlet on the other side of the wall. You can also choose to reinforce the padding by adding fibrous insulation. If your problem is that your wall is simply too thin, you may need to add another small wall in front of it. Giving the two walls a small gap of space between will help trap the sound within. Contract a professional to help you make these changes to improve your building's acoustics.

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15 August 2016

Energy efficiency in our school

It is important to let people know how much energy they are using with normal tasks around the school so they can make some sensible decisions about how they use appliances. We want to make sure that everyone at the school understands the focus on our usage and the effect that we can have on the environment, as well as the larger decision that the school is making such as motion-sensitive lights and replacing our energy-hogging older devices with new lower power using appliances. This blog talks about how to improve the energy efficiency of schools and will be useful for school administrators.