[Greenbuilding] NOISE

[Lawrence Lile]

>If noise transmission is a concern..... the folks upstairs
   will be walking on the drum head of the first floor....

Yeah, that's not going to work for a kid's bedroom upstairs, parent's
bedroom downstairs.  But if it's a kitchen and living room downstairs,
it might work OK.  


That brings us to Noise Control.  Many restaurants especially, and
houses, are not designed with acoustics in mind.  It's a fad here to
build restaurants with tin, tile, stained concrete, and exposed
structure.  These are all acoustically "bright" surfaces. They make
miserable spaces to hear conversations in. 

As we age, our hearing naturally gets worse, a condition which is
exacerbated by modern civilization, with it's jackhammers, rock and
roll, giant speakers in the back seat and ear phones at full volume.  We
have a harder time hearing conversations when there is interference.
Especially in "bright" spaces.  It is an accessibility issue.  

Usually this can be solved by creative interior decorating - soft wall
hangings for instance, drapes, carpet, furniture, cloth decorations
hanging from the ceiling.  Most restaurants these days go for a trendy
industrial look and skip any of this stuff that might make noise control
possible.  


 
 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP

-----Original Message-----
From: Clarke Olsen [mailto:colsen at taconic.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 6:42 AM
To: Lawrence Lile
Cc: Tom Wiprud; greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Detailed Green and Lumber saving
Techniques(Builder's Guide to Cold Climates)

   If noise transmission is a concern..... the folks upstairs
   will be walking on the drum head of the first floor....

On Mar 5, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Lawrence Lile wrote:
> 5.  Have a second floor?  Skip the sheetrock on the first floor 
> ceiling.
> Use joists on 48" centers with toungue and groove 1-1/2" flooring.  
> It's
> the ceiling below, the floor above.  It costs more than plywood to put
> in, but the whole system is way cheaper than sheetrock, subfloor,
> carpet, and so forth...........