For projects in Al Khobar
HVAC, plant and machine noise control in Al Khobar
Noise with a source. Almost every honest fix is at the machine, the duct or the plant room, and almost nothing useful happens by lining the far wall of the occupied space. Cooling runs year round at high load, so chillers, AHUs and large duct runs are constant sources. Plant room lining and duct attenuation carry most of the result.
- At source
- Enclosure, barrier or anti vibration mounts at the machine.
- In the path
- Duct lining, attenuators and lagging on the first run out of the plant.
- At the receiver
- Only after the first two, and only for what is left.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / What it is
The material, and what it actually does on a Al Khobar job
Noise with a source. Almost every honest fix is at the machine, the duct or the plant room, and almost nothing useful happens by lining the far wall of the occupied space.
Cooling runs year round at high load, so chillers, AHUs and large duct runs are constant sources. Plant room lining and duct attenuation carry most of the result.
Work reaching us from Al Khobar is mostly control rooms and plant, corporate offices, compound housing, hotels, clinics, schools.
- Heat, dust and sealed buildings Buildings stay closed with heavy cooling running year round. Plant noise has nowhere to escape, and rooms get hard and live inside.
- Industrial noise is a different problem Compressors, generators and process plant are low frequency and structure-borne. Panels on a wall will not touch that. Mass, isolation and sealing will.
- Control rooms and operations centres People sit in these rooms for twelve hours listening to alarms and radios. Intelligibility matters more than a reverberation figure on a sheet.
- At source Enclosure, barrier or anti vibration mounts at the machine.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for HVAC and plant noise control are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Al Khobar.
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
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Layer 1
Soundproofing materials
The blocking side of the range taken together: mass loaded vinyl, resilient layers, cavity absorption and the build-ups they belong in. In Al Khobar, cooling runs year round at high load, so chillers, AHUs and large duct runs are constant sources. Plant room lining and duct attenuation carry most of the result.
Floating floor. Resilient layer and deck, to break impact energy before it reaches the structure.
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Layer 2
Acoustic foam and BassBloc
Open cell foam shapes for high frequency control, and BassBloc, a high density absorber built for the low mid range where ordinary foam does nothing. In Al Khobar, mosques, conference halls and hotel ballrooms are tall hard volumes where intelligibility over a long reverberation tail is the whole brief.
Corner loading. Low frequency energy collects in corners, so absorber in the corners does more than the same area spread across a wall.
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Layer 3
Ceiling baffles and clouds
PET felt suspended from the soffit, vertically as baffles or horizontally as clouds. In Al Khobar, new school and university buildings are large, hard and highly glazed. Lecture theatres and sports halls are the spaces that fail first, and ceiling absorption is the practical fix.
Horizontal clouds. Flat rafts over the occupied zone, which also reflect early speech energy back down where it helps.
We would rather argue about the build-up at design stage than on site. See how we support architects.
03 / Local conditions
What decides the build-up in Al Khobar
- Heat, dust and sealed buildings
Buildings stay closed with heavy cooling running year round. Plant noise has nowhere to escape, and rooms get hard and live inside.
- Industrial noise is a different problem
Compressors, generators and process plant are low frequency and structure-borne. Panels on a wall will not touch that. Mass, isolation and sealing will.
- Control rooms and operations centres
People sit in these rooms for twelve hours listening to alarms and radios. Intelligibility matters more than a reverberation figure on a sheet.
- Port on the doorstep
Dammam is close, so the road leg is short and the landed cost is predictable. That is the practical reason a factory in India can serve this market on schedule.
- Plant and HVAC
Cooling runs year round at high load, so chillers, AHUs and large duct runs are constant sources. Plant room lining and duct attenuation carry most of the result.
04 / Room by room
Space by space, for Al Khobar briefs
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At source
Enclosure, barrier or anti vibration mounts at the machine. Buildings stay closed with heavy cooling running year round. Plant noise has nowhere to escape, and rooms get hard and live inside.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 2100 kg per cubic metre
- Soundproofing materials, 1800 x 900 x 20 mm, 100 kg per cubic metre, NRC 0.85
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 400 kg per cubic metre
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In the path
Duct lining, attenuators and lagging on the first run out of the plant. Compressors, generators and process plant are low frequency and structure-borne. Panels on a wall will not touch that. Mass, isolation and sealing will.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 30, 5.25 kg per sq m
- Soundproofing materials, Mass, then decoupling, then cavity absorption, then sealing
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 0.30
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At the receiver
Only after the first two, and only for what is left. People sit in these rooms for twelve hours listening to alarms and radios. Intelligibility matters more than a reverberation figure on a sheet.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 34, 8.4 kg per sq m
- Soundproofing materials, ASTM E90 for the barrier, ASTM C423 for the absorber
- Wood wool acoustic panels, ASTM C-423 and EN ISO 354
Designers get colour, pattern and CNC options with the absorption figure attached to each. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Durability
Why the climate in Al Khobar changes the material, not the target
Al Khobar 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.
Where a consultant is already engaged on a Al Khobar project, we supply to their specification and send the test reports rather than describing them. More on working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Straight talk
The six errors that cost the most
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Absorption on the office wall for a plant room problem
Enclose the machine, break the vibration path, then deal with what is left. Doing it in the other order costs more and achieves less.
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Lagging a duct that is carrying the noise as breakout from the fan
Enclose the machine, break the vibration path, then deal with what is left. Doing it in the other order costs more and achieves less.
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Ignoring structure borne vibration through the mounts
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Treating it as a generic Al Khobar job
Buildings stay closed with heavy cooling running year round. Plant noise has nowhere to escape, and rooms get hard and live inside.
05 / Route to site
Supply into Al Khobar, start to site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Dammam, then a short road run across the Eastern Province |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Dammam |
| 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 Dammam, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Al Khobar projects
What makes HVAC, plant and machine noise control different in Al Khobar?
Cooling runs year round at high load, so chillers, AHUs and large duct runs are constant sources. Plant room lining and duct attenuation carry most of the result. Compressors, generators and process plant are low frequency and structure-borne. Panels on a wall will not touch that. Mass, isolation and sealing will.
Where should the budget go first on a Al Khobar project?
At source. Enclosure, barrier or anti vibration mounts at the machine. In the path. Duct lining, attenuators and lagging on the first run out of the plant.
Do you have an office or installation team in Al Khobar?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Al Khobar. 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 Al Khobar site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Dammam, then a short road run across the Eastern Province, 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?
Absorption on the office wall for a plant room problem. Lagging a duct that is carrying the noise as breakout from the fan.
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
Drawings in, BOQ and a delivered date out
We quote from drawings, not from a square foot rate. Send a plan and the section through the critical wall or ceiling and you will get something you can actually build from.