For projects in Montreal
Auditorium acoustics and soundproofing in Montreal
A large hard volume where speech falls apart long before anyone calls the room echoey. The target is intelligibility at the back row, which is a reverberation and early reflection problem, not a loudspeaker problem. Community centres, school gymnasiums and church halls carry speech, music and sport in the same hard volume.
- Reverberation time
- Set against use. Speech and music want different numbers, and a dual use hall needs a decision.
- Early reflections
- Shaped surfaces that send energy to the rear seats rather than absorbing everything.
- Rear wall
- The single worst surface in most halls, and the first one to treat.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / The material
What you are buying, and what it fixes in Montreal
A large hard volume where speech falls apart long before anyone calls the room echoey. The target is intelligibility at the back row, which is a reverberation and early reflection problem, not a loudspeaker problem.
Community centres, school gymnasiums and church halls carry speech, music and sport in the same hard volume.
Work reaching us from Montreal is mostly plex and condo housing, studios and rehearsal rooms, offices, restaurants, schools, clinics.
- Plex floors pass everything Stacked flats with timber joists send footfall and speech straight down. A resilient layer under the new floor does more than any ceiling treatment below it.
- A city that makes a lot of noise on purpose Rehearsal rooms, studios and practice spaces in residential buildings are normal here. Isolation is what keeps them viable, not absorption.
- The port is in the city Containers come up the St Lawrence and land in Montreal itself, which keeps the road leg short and the landed cost predictable.
- Reverberation time Set against use. Speech and music want different numbers, and a dual use hall needs a decision.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for auditorium acoustics are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Montreal.
02 / The build-up
The build-up, layer by layer
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Layer 1
Wood wool acoustic panels
Wood fibre bound into a rigid board with an open texture. In Montreal, forced air heating runs most of the year, so duct-borne noise and return air paths carry sound between rooms as reliably as the walls do.
With a porous backing. Board over mineral backing where the room needs more than the board alone gives.
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Layer 2
Ceiling baffles and clouds
PET felt suspended from the soffit, vertically as baffles or horizontally as clouds. In Montreal, community centres, school gymnasiums and church halls carry speech, music and sport in the same 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 carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In Montreal, school buildings run hard floors and lay-in tile with long heating seasons and sealed envelopes, so rooms stay live and mechanical noise is always present.
Zoned. Carpet in the circulation and meeting zones, hard floor elsewhere, so the treatment sits where the noise is made.
For a Montreal practice, the useful thing is a detail you can put in a drawing set, not a brochure. See how we support architects.
03 / In this market
What decides the build-up in Montreal
- Plex floors pass everything
Stacked flats with timber joists send footfall and speech straight down. A resilient layer under the new floor does more than any ceiling treatment below it.
- A city that makes a lot of noise on purpose
Rehearsal rooms, studios and practice spaces in residential buildings are normal here. Isolation is what keeps them viable, not absorption.
- The port is in the city
Containers come up the St Lawrence and land in Montreal itself, which keeps the road leg short and the landed cost predictable.
- Long sealed winters
Buildings close up for months and mechanical systems run hard. Noise stops escaping and accumulates inside instead.
- Assembly and performance rooms
Community centres, school gymnasiums and church halls carry speech, music and sport in the same hard volume.
- School and campus buildings
School buildings run hard floors and lay-in tile with long heating seasons and sealed envelopes, so rooms stay live and mechanical noise is always present.
04 / Room by room
Where the money goes on a Montreal project
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Reverberation time
Set against use. Speech and music want different numbers, and a dual use hall needs a decision. Stacked flats with timber joists send footfall and speech straight down. A resilient layer under the new floor does more than any ceiling treatment below it.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 1200 x 600 mm
- Wooden slat acoustic panels, 13-3, 14-2, 28-4 and 59-5
- PET felt acoustic panels, 4 to 24 mm
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Early reflections
Shaped surfaces that send energy to the rear seats rather than absorbing everything. Rehearsal rooms, studios and practice spaces in residential buildings are normal here. Isolation is what keeps them viable, not absorption.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 20 mm
- Wooden slat acoustic panels, 2440 x 192 mm and 2440 x 128 mm
- PET felt acoustic panels, 1220 x 2440 mm standard, 4 x 8 ft
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Rear wall
The single worst surface in most halls, and the first one to treat. Containers come up the St Lawrence and land in Montreal itself, which keeps the road leg short and the landed cost predictable.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 400 kg per cubic metre
- Wooden slat acoustic panels, 14, 16 and 18 mm
- PET felt acoustic panels, 2440 x 4270 mm, 2.44 x 4.27 m, 8 x 14 ft
For a Montreal interior where the finish leads, we will say plainly what each option costs you acoustically. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Conditions
The Montreal climate decides the material list
Montreal 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.
On a Montreal 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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Absorbing the whole room and losing the back rows
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Adding speakers to fix a reverberation problem
It sounds like a small detail until the room is finished and the complaint arrives.
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Ignoring the rear wall because it is behind the audience
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Treating it as a generic Montreal job
Stacked flats with timber joists send footfall and speech straight down. A resilient layer under the new floor does more than any ceiling treatment below it.
05 / Route to site
What the route into Montreal actually looks like
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Port of Montreal, then a short road run to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea into Port of Montreal |
| 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 Montreal, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Montreal projects
What makes auditorium acoustics and soundproofing different in Montreal?
Community centres, school gymnasiums and church halls carry speech, music and sport in the same hard volume. Stacked flats with timber joists send footfall and speech straight down. A resilient layer under the new floor does more than any ceiling treatment below it.
Where should the budget go first on a Montreal project?
Reverberation time. Set against use. Speech and music want different numbers, and a dual use hall needs a decision. Early reflections. Shaped surfaces that send energy to the rear seats rather than absorbing everything.
Do you have an office or installation team in Montreal?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Montreal. 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 Montreal site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Port of Montreal, 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?
Absorbing the whole room and losing the back rows. Adding speakers to fix a reverberation problem.
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
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.