For projects in London
Office acoustics and soundproofing in London
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. Older stock has radiators and open windows, newer stock has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, so duct-borne noise is a newer problem than the buildings suggest.
- 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 / The product
What you are buying, and what it fixes in London
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.
Older stock has radiators and open windows, newer stock has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, so duct-borne noise is a newer problem than the buildings suggest.
Work reaching us from London is mostly flat conversions, offices, studios, bars and restaurants, schools, clinics.
- Rail and Underground rumble Structure borne, so surface panels do nothing. It needs mass and decoupling in the floor, wall or ceiling first.
- Single brick party walls A joist floor between two flats was never built for two households. Membrane plus an independent lining, then absorption.
- Night economy neighbours Soho, Shoreditch, Camden and Clapham venues sit under flats. Bass containment and table-level comfort are two different jobs.
- 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 London.
Office and conference room acoustics Acoustic office screens
02 / The build-up
The stack, in the order it is installed
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Layer 1
Ceiling baffles and clouds
PET felt suspended from the soffit, vertically as baffles or horizontally as clouds. In London, older stock has radiators and open windows, newer stock has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, so duct-borne noise is a newer problem than the buildings suggest.
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
Acoustic carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In London, church buildings, village and parish halls, and school halls carry speech, music and sport in one long-decay volume.
Over a resilient underlay. Where impact noise to the floor below is the actual complaint, the underlay does that work, not the carpet.
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Layer 3
SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl
A limp, high density sheet that adds mass to a partition, floor or duct without adding depth. In London, school buildings mix Victorian halls with post war system build and new academies, so hard floors, high ceilings and long corridors are the constant.
Floor, floating. Membrane under a resilient layer and a floating deck, so impact energy is broken before it reaches the slab.
For a London practice, the useful thing is a detail you can put in a drawing set, not a brochure. See how we support architects.
03 / On the ground
The London conditions that change the answer
- Rail and Underground rumble
Structure borne, so surface panels do nothing. It needs mass and decoupling in the floor, wall or ceiling first.
- Single brick party walls
A joist floor between two flats was never built for two households. Membrane plus an independent lining, then absorption.
- Night economy neighbours
Soho, Shoreditch, Camden and Clapham venues sit under flats. Bass containment and table-level comfort are two different jobs.
- Damp winters
PET felt does not absorb moisture, shed fibre or feed mould, which matters in older stock with cold wall build-ups.
- Plant and HVAC
Older stock has radiators and open windows, newer stock has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, so duct-borne noise is a newer problem than the buildings suggest.
04 / Room by room
Room by room, on a typical London job
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Open plan
Distraction distance, not reverberation time. Ceiling absorption plus screens at the desk. Structure borne, so surface panels do nothing. It needs mass and decoupling in the floor, wall or ceiling first.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 100% PET non-woven, no added binder
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, 4 mm
- Acoustic panels, Cut pattern in PET felt, adds visual rhythm without changing the absorber
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Meeting rooms
Privacy between rooms. That is partition and door work, not panels. A joist floor between two flats was never built for two households. Membrane plus an independent lining, then absorption.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 9, 12, 18 and 24 mm standard, tolerance plus or minus 5 percent
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, High density polyester
- Acoustic panels, ASTM C423
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Cabins and calls
Short RT so a call sounds clean. A small amount of well placed absorber. Soho, Shoreditch, Camden and Clapham venues sit under flats. Bass containment and table-level comfort are two different jobs.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 4 to 24 mm
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, Felt
- Acoustic panels, 9 to 24 mm, 1220 x 2440 mm standard, up to 2440 x 4270 mm, 1200 to 3600 GSM
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 London changes the material, not the target
London is cool and damp, with long heating seasons and cold external walls, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Cold wall build-ups and long heating seasons mean interstitial condensation is a real risk behind any lining. PET felt is unaffected by damp air and will not feed mould where a fabric-faced mineral product would.
The failure we design against here is condensation behind linings in older, poorly insulated stock.
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 / Read this first
The six errors that cost the most
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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
If the complaint is being overheard, no amount of absorption inside the room will fix it. That is a partition job and we will say so.
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Glass cabins specified without a door and head detail
Soundproofing fails at the gaps, not the materials. One unsealed service penetration can undo a correctly built wall.
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Treating it as a generic London job
Structure borne, so surface panels do nothing. It needs mass and decoupling in the floor, wall or ceiling first.
05 / Route to site
How material reaches a London site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Felixstowe, London Gateway or Southampton |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea and air |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
Sea freight to Felixstowe, London Gateway or Southampton. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities. Clearance through your agent or ours.
Questions from London projects
What makes office acoustics and soundproofing different in London?
Older stock has radiators and open windows, newer stock has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, so duct-borne noise is a newer problem than the buildings suggest. Structure borne, so surface panels do nothing. It needs mass and decoupling in the floor, wall or ceiling first.
Where should the budget go first on a London 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 London?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into London. 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 London site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Felixstowe, London Gateway or Southampton, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
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
Drawings in, BOQ and a delivered date out
Send what you have. We will give you a layer by layer build-up, a bill of quantities and a date material lands, and we will flag anything in the brief that will not achieve what you want.