Soundproofing Floors #2

Our last article was an introduction into noise through floors and ceilings and how to reduce the noise nuisance.  This article follows on from that and will now talk about flanking noise that is noise that skirts around the floors and ceilings and can reduce the effectiveness of any noise control measures that may have been taken or about to be started.

Flanking noise is noise that can travel through other parts of the building and is usually through lightweight walls such as breeze or Thernalite type walls that form the inner skin of structural cavity walls.  These walls are more common post war and more recently, breeze block walls have been superseded by the even lighter Thermalite type blocks.  Although breeze or clinker blocks allow flanking noise through them, the Thermalite type blocks are even lighter and will allow flanking noise an easier route through.  Installing blown mineral wool into the cavity will help reduce this noise problem otherwise, the cavity walls will have to be treated from inside the room and the best way to treat these is to apply either our 50mm Thin Wall soundproofing solution or the even thinner QuietPanel system at only 27.5mm thick.

So if the property is of pre-war construction, it is likely that you will achieve a greater degree of soundproofing due to flanking noise being less likely to be an issue.

Our next article will concentrate on bringing a separating floor up to the minimum requirements for noise control.