For projects in Abu Dhabi
Office acoustics and soundproofing in Abu Dhabi
Three separate problems get called one problem: speech carrying across an open floor, meeting rooms that leak, and hard rooms that ring. Each has a different answer and mixing them up is how budgets get wasted. District cooling and large AHU plant run continuously. Duct attenuation, plant room lining and riser treatment do the work.
- Open plan
- Distraction distance, not reverberation time. Ceiling absorption plus screens at the desk.
- Meeting rooms
- Privacy between rooms. That is partition and door work, not panels.
- Cabins and calls
- Short RT so a call sounds clean. A small amount of well placed absorber.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / What it is
The material, and what it actually does on a Abu Dhabi job
Three separate problems get called one problem: speech carrying across an open floor, meeting rooms that leak, and hard rooms that ring. Each has a different answer and mixing them up is how budgets get wasted.
District cooling and large AHU plant run continuously. Duct attenuation, plant room lining and riser treatment do the work.
Work reaching us from Abu Dhabi is mostly hotels, cultural and institutional buildings, villas, offices, clinics, schools, studios.
- Concrete and glass, sealed all year Blockwork and full glazing with the building closed up against the heat gives a hard, live interior and a lot of mechanical noise with nowhere to go.
- Short sea leg from India Western Indian ports to the UAE is a short run. That is the practical reason a factory in India can hold an Abu Dhabi programme date, and it is why we quote sea rather than air for most orders.
- Submittals and samples Most work here goes through a consultant. Send us the specification and we will tell you where our material sits against it and where it does not, in writing.
- Open plan Distraction distance, not reverberation time. Ceiling absorption plus screens at the desk.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for office acoustics are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Abu Dhabi.
Office and conference room acoustics Acoustic office screens
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
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Layer 1
Ceiling baffles and clouds
PET felt suspended from the soffit, vertically as baffles or horizontally as clouds. In Abu Dhabi, district cooling and large AHU plant run continuously. Duct attenuation, plant room lining and riser treatment do the work.
Horizontal clouds. Flat rafts over the occupied zone, which also reflect early speech energy back down where it helps.
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Layer 2
PET felt acoustic panels
A rigid non-woven panel pressed from 100% polyester fibre, a large part of it recycled. In Abu Dhabi, hotel ballrooms, mosques and conference centres are tall hard volumes where a long tail defeats the speech system before anyone hears a word.
Direct to wall. Panel bonded or mechanically fixed flat to the substrate. Simplest, and the weakest at low frequency.
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Layer 3
Acoustic carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In Abu Dhabi, international school campuses are new, highly glazed and built to a tight programme. Sports halls, atria and lecture spaces are the rooms that need treating.
Over a resilient underlay. Where impact noise to the floor below is the actual complaint, the underlay does that work, not the carpet.
Architects working in Abu Dhabi usually need the build-up before the product. We will draw the section and mark what does the work. See how we support architects.
03 / On the ground
What decides the build-up in Abu Dhabi
- Concrete and glass, sealed all year
Blockwork and full glazing with the building closed up against the heat gives a hard, live interior and a lot of mechanical noise with nowhere to go.
- Short sea leg from India
Western Indian ports to the UAE is a short run. That is the practical reason a factory in India can hold an Abu Dhabi programme date, and it is why we quote sea rather than air for most orders.
- Submittals and samples
Most work here goes through a consultant. Send us the specification and we will tell you where our material sits against it and where it does not, in writing.
- MEP noise is the quiet problem
Heavy cooling loads mean large plant close to occupied space. Ducts, risers and plant rooms cause more complaints than anything in the room itself.
- Plant and HVAC
District cooling and large AHU plant run continuously. Duct attenuation, plant room lining and riser treatment do the work.
04 / Room by room
What each space in a Abu Dhabi project needs
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Open plan
Distraction distance, not reverberation time. Ceiling absorption plus screens at the desk. Blockwork and full glazing with the building closed up against the heat gives a hard, live interior and a lot of mechanical noise with nowhere to go.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 100% PET non-woven, the panel family
- Acoustic panels, 1800 x 900 mm, image printed into the felt rather than onto a facing
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 34, 8.4 kg per sq m
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Meeting rooms
Privacy between rooms. That is partition and door work, not panels. Western Indian ports to the UAE is a short run. That is the practical reason a factory in India can hold an Abu Dhabi programme date, and it is why we quote sea rather than air for most orders.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 9 to 24 mm
- Acoustic panels, Cut pattern in PET felt, adds visual rhythm without changing the absorber
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 12.6 kg per sq m, STC on request
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Cabins and calls
Short RT so a call sounds clean. A small amount of well placed absorber. Most work here goes through a consultant. Send us the specification and we will tell you where our material sits against it and where it does not, in writing.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Made to the drawing, standard and custom
- Acoustic panels, ASTM C423
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 5 x 1.2 m, 6 sq m per roll
For a Abu Dhabi interior where the finish leads, we will say plainly what each option costs you acoustically. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Conditions
Why the climate in Abu Dhabi changes the material, not the target
Abu Dhabi is hot and dry for most of the year, with dust and high daytime surface temperatures, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Dust is the enemy of open-cell products. PET felt does not shed, does not hold dust in the way fabric-wrapped glass wool does, and wipes down. Timber needs a stable indoor RH or it moves.
The failure we design against here is dust ingress and thermal movement in long runs.
If a consultant has set the target, we will quote against their figures rather than ours, and stay out of the scope they own. More on working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Before you buy
Six mistakes that turn into a second fit-out
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Lining every wall while leaving the ceiling bare
A treated wall under a bare hard ceiling gives you a fraction of the reduction you paid for, and the room still sounds wrong.
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Treating a privacy problem with absorption
Privacy is a transmission problem. Absorption makes the room sound nicer and does not stop anyone hearing through the wall.
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Glass cabins specified without a door and head detail
A gap undoes the partition it sits in. Sealing is the cheapest line on the quote and the first one to get cut.
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Treating it as a generic Abu Dhabi job
Blockwork and full glazing with the building closed up against the heat gives a hard, live interior and a lot of mechanical noise with nowhere to go.
05 / Logistics
Supply into Abu Dhabi, start to site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Khalifa Port or Jebel Ali, then road to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Khalifa Port |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order.
Sea freight into Khalifa Port or Jebel Ali, then road to site. The short transit means sea works for most programmes. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Abu Dhabi projects
What makes office acoustics and soundproofing different in Abu Dhabi?
District cooling and large AHU plant run continuously. Duct attenuation, plant room lining and riser treatment do the work. Western Indian ports to the UAE is a short run. That is the practical reason a factory in India can hold an Abu Dhabi programme date, and it is why we quote sea rather than air for most orders.
Where should the budget go first on a Abu Dhabi project?
Open plan. Distraction distance, not reverberation time. Ceiling absorption plus screens at the desk. Meeting rooms. Privacy between rooms. That is partition and door work, not panels.
Do you have an office or installation team in Abu Dhabi?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Abu Dhabi. We give you drawings, build-ups, a BOQ and material that arrives complete, and we will tell you plainly when a job needs a local contractor we cannot be.
How does material get to a Abu Dhabi site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Khalifa Port or Jebel Ali, then road to site, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order.
What goes wrong most often on this kind of project?
Lining every wall while leaving the ceiling bare. Treating a privacy problem with absorption.
What do you need from us to quote?
A plan, a section through the critical partition or ceiling, and what the room is for. From that we can give a build-up and a BOQ rather than a price per square foot.
Next step
Tell us the room, we will tell you the build-up
One drawing gets you a proper answer. Build-up, quantities, a delivered date, and an honest note on anything we think is the wrong approach.