For projects in Melbourne
School and classroom acoustics in Melbourne
Hard floors, bare walls and long corridors that amplify everything. Children with developing language, and anyone with a hearing difficulty, lose more from a live classroom than adults do, which is why intelligibility is the target rather than quiet. School buildings run hard floors and high ceilings, and open plan learning areas make speech intelligibility the central problem rather than echo.
- Classroom RT
- A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling.
- Corridor spill
- Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once.
- Halls and gyms
- Dual use rooms carrying speech, music and sport, where durability decides the product.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / Start here
What this material is and where it earns its place in Melbourne
Hard floors, bare walls and long corridors that amplify everything. Children with developing language, and anyone with a hearing difficulty, lose more from a live classroom than adults do, which is why intelligibility is the target rather than quiet.
School buildings run hard floors and high ceilings, and open plan learning areas make speech intelligibility the central problem rather than echo.
Work reaching us from Melbourne is mostly live music venues, Victorian terraces, apartments, offices, schools, studios, clinics.
- Venues that were there first Live rooms in old warehouses with new apartments built alongside. Containment of low frequency is what keeps them operating.
- Victorian terraces Single skin brick party walls and timber floors. Speech and footfall move between houses easily and mass is the only reliable answer.
- The port is in the city Direct sea into Melbourne keeps the road leg short, though the sea leg itself is long and we quote it fully.
- Classroom RT A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for school acoustics are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Melbourne.
02 / The build-up
The build-up, layer by layer
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Layer 1
PET felt acoustic panels
A rigid non-woven panel pressed from 100% polyester fibre, a large part of it recycled. In Melbourne, ducted systems and split units, with outdoor units close to boundaries where neighbour noise limits apply.
Direct to wall. Panel bonded or mechanically fixed flat to the substrate. Simplest, and the weakest at low frequency.
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Layer 2
Ceiling baffles and clouds
PET felt suspended from the soffit, vertically as baffles or horizontally as clouds. In Melbourne, school halls, community centres and church buildings carry assembly, performance and sport in one hard volume.
Vertical baffles. Hung on edge in rows. Both faces absorb, so coverage figures based on plan area understate them.
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Layer 3
Acoustic panels
The full absorber range rather than one product: plain PET felt, printed felt, grooved panels and fabric finishes, chosen by how the room is used and how it has to look. In Melbourne, school buildings run hard floors and high ceilings, and open plan learning areas make speech intelligibility the central problem rather than echo.
Ceiling first. In most rooms the ceiling is the largest untreated surface and the cheapest square metre of result.
If you are specifying for a Melbourne project, we can give you a section, a BOQ and the honest limits of each layer. See how we support architects.
03 / Local conditions
The Melbourne conditions that change the answer
- Venues that were there first
Live rooms in old warehouses with new apartments built alongside. Containment of low frequency is what keeps them operating.
- Victorian terraces
Single skin brick party walls and timber floors. Speech and footfall move between houses easily and mass is the only reliable answer.
- The port is in the city
Direct sea into Melbourne keeps the road leg short, though the sea leg itself is long and we quote it fully.
- Variable climate, sealed rooms
Heating and cooling run hard across the year, so rooms stay closed and sound accumulates inside.
- Assembly and performance rooms
School halls, community centres and church buildings carry assembly, performance and sport in one hard volume.
- School and campus buildings
School buildings run hard floors and high ceilings, and open plan learning areas make speech intelligibility the central problem rather than echo.
04 / Room by room
Space by space, for Melbourne briefs
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Classroom RT
A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling. Live rooms in old warehouses with new apartments built alongside. Containment of low frequency is what keeps them operating.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 100% PET non-woven, no added binder
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 9 to 24 mm
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, High density polyester
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Corridor spill
Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once. Single skin brick party walls and timber floors. Speech and footfall move between houses easily and mass is the only reliable answer.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 9, 12, 18 and 24 mm standard, tolerance plus or minus 5 percent
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Made to the drawing, standard and custom
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, Felt
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Halls and gyms
Dual use rooms carrying speech, music and sport, where durability decides the product. Direct sea into Melbourne keeps the road leg short, though the sea leg itself is long and we quote it fully.
- PET felt acoustic panels, 4 to 24 mm
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Both faces work, which is why suspended area outperforms the same area laid flat
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, 64 sq ft per pack
For a Melbourne 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 Melbourne changes the material, not the target
Melbourne is hot summers, mild winters and a distinct wet season, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
PET felt handles the wet months without absorbing moisture or feeding mould. Timber and wood wool want a ventilated cavity and a stable indoor RH.
The failure we design against here is wet-season humidity behind linings.
Consultants get the raw data, not a sales sheet. That is the whole of our side of the job, and it is set out under working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Before you buy
What we watch go wrong on jobs like this
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Panels at child height where they get damaged
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Treating one classroom and leaving the corridor
This is the one that comes back as a second fit-out rather than a snag.
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Choosing a product that cannot take a football
Noise with a source is fixed at the source. Treating the receiving room is the expensive way to get a small result.
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Treating it as a generic Melbourne job
Live rooms in old warehouses with new apartments built alongside. Containment of low frequency is what keeps them operating.
05 / Route to site
Supply into Melbourne, start to site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Port of Melbourne, then a short road run to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Port of Melbourne |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
Sea freight into the Port of Melbourne, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Melbourne projects
What makes school and classroom acoustics different in Melbourne?
School buildings run hard floors and high ceilings, and open plan learning areas make speech intelligibility the central problem rather than echo. Live rooms in old warehouses with new apartments built alongside. Containment of low frequency is what keeps them operating.
Where should the budget go first on a Melbourne project?
Classroom RT. A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling. Corridor spill. Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once.
Do you have an office or installation team in Melbourne?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Melbourne. 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 Melbourne site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Port of Melbourne, then a short road run to site, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
What goes wrong most often on this kind of project?
Panels at child height where they get damaged. Treating one classroom and leaving the corridor.
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
Send the drawings, get a straight answer
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.