For projects in Seattle
Hospital and healthcare acoustics in Seattle
Two duties at once: privacy where confidential conversations happen, and a lower noise floor where people are trying to rest. Hygiene and cleanability rule out a lot of products before acoustics is even discussed. Packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job.
- Consulting room privacy
- Speech privacy between rooms, which is partition, door and ceiling void work.
- Ward noise floor
- Alarms, trolleys and staff conversation in hard corridors. Absorption at the ceiling.
- Cleanability
- Non shedding, non absorbent surfaces that survive a cleaning regime.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / Start here
The material, and what it actually does on a Seattle job
Two duties at once: privacy where confidential conversations happen, and a lower noise floor where people are trying to rest. Hygiene and cleanability rule out a lot of products before acoustics is even discussed.
Packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job.
Work reaching us from Seattle is mostly mass timber offices, tech campuses, multifamily, studios, schools, clinics.
- Mass timber is still light Exposed timber looks solid and performs nothing like concrete at low frequency. It also cannot be covered, because the timber is the design, so the acoustic work has to happen where it will not be seen.
- Rain on the roof Metal and membrane roofs over open volumes turn heavy rain into a noise source. It is worth designing for rather than discovering in the first storm.
- Campus open plans Large tech floors with exposed structure and hard finishes carry speech a long way. The ceiling plane and screens have to do what the walls are not there to do.
- Consulting room privacy Speech privacy between rooms, which is partition, door and ceiling void work.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for healthcare acoustics are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Seattle.
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
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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 Seattle, packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job.
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
Acoustic carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In Seattle, churches, school gyms and multipurpose halls double as performance spaces, which means a room designed for neither speech nor music has to carry both.
Zoned. Carpet in the circulation and meeting zones, hard floor elsewhere, so the treatment sits where the noise is made.
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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 Seattle, public school buildings run long corridors with hard floors and lay-in tile ceilings that were chosen for cost, not for speech. Classroom reverberation and corridor spill are the two complaints, and both respond to ceiling area rather than wall panels.
Floor, floating. Membrane under a resilient layer and a floating deck, so impact energy is broken before it reaches the slab.
Architects working in Seattle usually need the build-up before the product. We will draw the section and mark what does the work. See how we support architects.
03 / Local conditions
What the buildings in Seattle do to the specification
- Mass timber is still light
Exposed timber looks solid and performs nothing like concrete at low frequency. It also cannot be covered, because the timber is the design, so the acoustic work has to happen where it will not be seen.
- Rain on the roof
Metal and membrane roofs over open volumes turn heavy rain into a noise source. It is worth designing for rather than discovering in the first storm.
- Campus open plans
Large tech floors with exposed structure and hard finishes carry speech a long way. The ceiling plane and screens have to do what the walls are not there to do.
- The port is right here
Containers land at Seattle or Tacoma, so there is no cross-country leg. That keeps the landed cost and the date both predictable.
- Plant and HVAC
Packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job.
04 / Room by room
Room by room, on a typical Seattle job
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Consulting room privacy
Speech privacy between rooms, which is partition, door and ceiling void work. Exposed timber looks solid and performs nothing like concrete at low frequency. It also cannot be covered, because the timber is the design, so the acoustic work has to happen where it will not be seen.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 100% PET non-woven, the panel family
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, 4 mm
- Acoustic panels, Cut pattern in PET felt, adds visual rhythm without changing the absorber
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Ward noise floor
Alarms, trolleys and staff conversation in hard corridors. Absorption at the ceiling. Metal and membrane roofs over open volumes turn heavy rain into a noise source. It is worth designing for rather than discovering in the first storm.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 9 to 24 mm
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, High density polyester
- Acoustic panels, ASTM C423
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Cleanability
Non shedding, non absorbent surfaces that survive a cleaning regime. Large tech floors with exposed structure and hard finishes carry speech a long way. The ceiling plane and screens have to do what the walls are not there to do.
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Made to the drawing, standard and custom
- 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
For a Seattle interior where the finish leads, we will say plainly what each option costs you acoustically. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Conditions
What the Seattle climate rules in and rules out
Seattle is mild summers and cold, wet winters, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Cold external walls and long heating seasons make condensation behind a lining the thing to design out. PET felt is unaffected by damp air.
The failure we design against here is condensation and cold bridging behind new linings.
Where a consultant is already engaged on a Seattle project, we supply to their specification and send the test reports rather than describing them. More on working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Before you buy
Where this kind of project usually fails
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Fabric wrapped products in a clinical area
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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Absorption used where privacy was the requirement
Privacy is a transmission problem. Absorption makes the room sound nicer and does not stop anyone hearing through the wall.
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Ceiling void left open above a partition
Square metre for square metre the ceiling is the cheapest result in the room. Skipping it and buying wall panels instead is the most common way to overspend.
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Treating it as a generic Seattle job
Exposed timber looks solid and performs nothing like concrete at low frequency. It also cannot be covered, because the timber is the design, so the acoustic work has to happen where it will not be seen.
05 / Getting it there
What the route into Seattle actually looks like
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Seattle or Tacoma, then a short road run to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea into Seattle or Tacoma |
| 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 Seattle or Tacoma, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Seattle projects
What makes hospital and healthcare acoustics different in Seattle?
Packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job. Exposed timber looks solid and performs nothing like concrete at low frequency. It also cannot be covered, because the timber is the design, so the acoustic work has to happen where it will not be seen.
Where should the budget go first on a Seattle project?
Consulting room privacy. Speech privacy between rooms, which is partition, door and ceiling void work. Ward noise floor. Alarms, trolleys and staff conversation in hard corridors. Absorption at the ceiling.
Do you have an office or installation team in Seattle?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Seattle. 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 Seattle site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Seattle or Tacoma, 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?
Fabric wrapped products in a clinical area. Absorption used where privacy was the requirement.
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.