For projects in Manila
Home theatre soundproofing and acoustics in Manila
Serious equipment in a room with no isolation plan. The complaint is almost never the speakers. It is bass leaving the room and an untreated box making the system sound worse than it is. Concrete and block construction with hard floors, in condominium towers and low rise housing that share walls and slabs.
- Containment
- Bass through the wall, floor and door. Mass and decoupling, with the door usually the weakest point.
- Low frequency inside
- Corner absorption with depth, before any surface treatment.
- Reflections
- Side wall and ceiling first reflection points at the seating position.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / The product
What you are buying, and what it fixes in Manila
Serious equipment in a room with no isolation plan. The complaint is almost never the speakers. It is bass leaving the room and an untreated box making the system sound worse than it is.
Concrete and block construction with hard floors, in condominium towers and low rise housing that share walls and slabs.
Work reaching us from Manila is mostly service and call centre floors, offices, condominium towers, hotels, hospitals, schools.
- Hundreds of simultaneous conversations A call floor is not an echo problem. Absorption alone will not deliver privacy or intelligibility, so ceiling, screens and layout have to work together.
- Concrete towers, hard interiors The structure blocks well. The problem is tile and glass making the room ring, and impact passing down through slabs.
- Typhoon season and humidity PET felt does not absorb moisture, rot or feed mould, which matters where mineral products sag within a season.
- Containment Bass through the wall, floor and door. Mass and decoupling, with the door usually the weakest point.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for home theatre soundproofing are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Manila.
02 / The build-up
The build-up, layer by layer
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Layer 1
SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl
A limp, high density sheet that adds mass to a partition, floor or duct without adding depth. In Manila, split units and VRF running at full load year round, with condensers close to occupied rooms.
Floor, floating. Membrane under a resilient layer and a floating deck, so impact energy is broken before it reaches the slab.
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Layer 2
Soundproof curtains
A layered curtain with a mass loaded vinyl core, used where an opening has to stay an opening. In Manila, church buildings, gymnasiums and function halls carry amplified speech and music in hard volumes.
Full height with return. Curtain taken floor to soffit with a side return and an overlap, because the gap is what leaks, not the fabric.
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Layer 3
Acoustic carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In Manila, classrooms are hard and naturally ventilated with very large class sizes and open corridors.
Zoned. Carpet in the circulation and meeting zones, hard floor elsewhere, so the treatment sits where the noise is made.
For a Manila practice, the useful thing is a detail you can put in a drawing set, not a brochure. See how we support architects.
03 / Local conditions
The Manila conditions that change the answer
- Hundreds of simultaneous conversations
A call floor is not an echo problem. Absorption alone will not deliver privacy or intelligibility, so ceiling, screens and layout have to work together.
- Concrete towers, hard interiors
The structure blocks well. The problem is tile and glass making the room ring, and impact passing down through slabs.
- Typhoon season and humidity
PET felt does not absorb moisture, rot or feed mould, which matters where mineral products sag within a season.
- Traffic outside, all day
Street noise reaches rooms through glazing rather than walls, so the facade is where the first money should go.
- The housing stock
Concrete and block construction with hard floors, in condominium towers and low rise housing that share walls and slabs.
04 / Room by room
Space by space, for Manila briefs
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Containment
Bass through the wall, floor and door. Mass and decoupling, with the door usually the weakest point. A call floor is not an echo problem. Absorption alone will not deliver privacy or intelligibility, so ceiling, screens and layout have to work together.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 2100 kg per cubic metre
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 20 mm
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, High density polyester
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Low frequency inside
Corner absorption with depth, before any surface treatment. The structure blocks well. The problem is tile and glass making the room ring, and impact passing down through slabs.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 30, 5.25 kg per sq m
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 100 kg per cubic metre
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, Felt
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Reflections
Side wall and ceiling first reflection points at the seating position. PET felt does not absorb moisture, rot or feed mould, which matters where mineral products sag within a season.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 34, 8.4 kg per sq m
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 100 to 500 Hz
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, 64 sq ft per pack
Interior designers tend to arrive with the look already decided. We will tell you which finish gets there without losing the acoustics. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Conditions
What the Manila climate rules in and rules out
Manila is warm and humid through most of the year, with a long wet season, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Humidity is the deciding factor. PET felt does not absorb moisture, shed fibre or feed mould, which is why it outlasts fabric-wrapped mineral wool in this climate. Wood wool and timber need a ventilated cavity behind them.
The failure we design against here is mould, sagging fabric finishes and swelling in timber.
On a Manila job with a consultant involved, our part is material that matches the submitted data. See working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Before you buy
What we watch go wrong on jobs like this
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Foam on the walls as a soundproofing measure
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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A standard door on a room built to hold bass
Soundproofing fails at the gaps, not the materials. One unsealed service penetration can undo a correctly built wall.
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Treating before the room is sealed
A 6 mm undercut under a door leaves a hole the size of a brick. The wall around it is then decorative.
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Treating it as a generic Manila job
A call floor is not an echo problem. Absorption alone will not deliver privacy or intelligibility, so ceiling, screens and layout have to work together.
05 / Route to site
Getting it to Manila, with real dates
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Manila, then a short road run to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Manila |
| 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, not after.
Sea freight into Manila, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Manila projects
What makes home theatre soundproofing and acoustics different in Manila?
Concrete and block construction with hard floors, in condominium towers and low rise housing that share walls and slabs. A call floor is not an echo problem. Absorption alone will not deliver privacy or intelligibility, so ceiling, screens and layout have to work together.
Where should the budget go first on a Manila project?
Containment. Bass through the wall, floor and door. Mass and decoupling, with the door usually the weakest point. Low frequency inside. Corner absorption with depth, before any surface treatment.
Do you have an office or installation team in Manila?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Manila. 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 Manila site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Manila, then a short road run 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, not after.
What goes wrong most often on this kind of project?
Foam on the walls as a soundproofing measure. A standard door on a room built to hold bass.
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
A plan and a section is enough. We will come back with a build-up, a BOQ and a delivered date, and we will say so if what you are asking for will not work.