SOUND INSULATION IN THE OFFICE

Finally work quietly and productively

Nothing is more disruptive in the office than acoustic unrest, as this has a significant impact on the health, concentration and performance of your employees. Noise in the office increases the error rate and stress levels. That's why soundproofing in the office is so important. Noise in the office can be reduced with sound absorbers and soundproof walls, thereby optimising sound insulation in the office.

The Gerriets OFFICE sound curtain, for example, achieves sound insulation of up to 26 decibels. A reduction of just 10 decibels halves the perceived noise level and therefore improves performance. In addition, soundproofing curtains help to improve the air in the room and at the same time offer an attractive aesthetic solution. The integrated OFFICE WINDOW can be used to create sunlit, acoustically optimised office spaces. Find out what is possible when it comes to noise protection at the office workplace with sound absorbers and how you can significantly improve health and productivity in offices.

What is noise and what effect does it have on us?

Noise is defined as unwanted sound:

• in the office, noise pollution is considered a major disruptive and stress factor
• impairs health and has a negative impact on subjective well-being
• reduces concentration and performance
• interferes with communication

Planning room acoustics is therefore essential for offices, private rooms and public buildings. A suitable room acoustic design

• reduces the noise level
• increases speech intelligibility
• improves the subjective impression of the room

Five types of sound events

"Sound" is the propagation of minute pressure fluctuations in an elastic medium. Our hearing converts these pressure differences into electrical signals that our brain processes so that we can hear something. There are five types of sound events:

• Tone: a periodic and sinusoidal oscillation (e.g. tuning fork)
• Tone: a non-sinusoidal periodic vibration (e.g. violin sound)
• Noise: an irregular vibration (e.g. speech)
• Bang: an irregular vibration with a large initial impulse (e.g. rifle shot)
• Noise: a disturbing, stressful or unhealthy sound due to its structure (usually volume)

If the vibration is transported through an elastic medium, sound can propagate. Media can be air, water or iron, for example. The pressure fluctuation is called a sound wave when it propagates. In air at 20 degrees Celsius, it reaches a speed of sound of 343 m/s.

The volume of a sound event depends on the respective sound pressure and is expressed in decibels.

How health is related to noise

Unlike in machine shops or workshops, noise in the office is generally not harmful to hearing. Nevertheless, disturbing sound and poor acoustics are distracting, hinder creative processes and can have a lasting effect on the body and mind. There is evidence that stress hormone levels, blood pressure and heart rate increase. For this reason, the German Workplace Ordinance also stipulates that noise levels at VDU workstations should be kept low so as not to impair concentration and speech intelligibility too much¹.

1). Workplace Ordinance of 12 August 2004 (BGBl. I p. 2179), last amended by Art. 1 V of 30.11.2016 I 2681. 2). Schönpflug & Schulz, 1979. 3). Noise assessment - office workplaces, Dortmund 1996, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). Frequency of errors in clerical tasks as a function of noise level

An acoustic curtain can achieve up to 26 dB of sound attenuation. To help you estimate this value, here is an overview of different sound levels:

• Normal breathing: 10 dB
• Ticking alarm clock: 30 dB
• Quiet library: 40 dB
• Normal conversation: 50 dB
• Main road during the day: 70 dB
• Motorbike: 90 dB
• Pneumatic hammer, circular saw: 100 dB
• Rock concert, disco: 110 dB
• Test run of jet aeroplanes: 120 dB
• Rifle shot at a distance of 1 metre: 130 dB

Hearing damage can occur from 85 dB, from 120 after a short time. This is why 85 dB is the limit value above which hearing protection is recommended in the workplace. The risk of cardiovascular disease is increased from 65 dB, learning and concentration disorders can occur from 45 dB - that is the range between a quiet library and a normal conversation.

The 12-layer OFFICE sound curtain achieves sound insulation of up to 26 dB, depending on the installation situation. Where previously the noise in the office was more reminiscent of a main road, this creates an atmosphere similar to that of a library. This creates noticeable improvements in the workplace.

Our solutions for sound insulation in the office

Avoiding noise in an open-plan office is almost impossible. This is because there are inevitably a lot of sources of noise in large workspaces and the larger the office space, the further the sound can spread: Printers, photocopiers, scanners, telephones, air conditioning units, fans and, in particular, conversations between colleagues and meetings ensure that concentration suffers greatly due to noise at the office workstation.

This can be improved with sound absorbers for the office, such as curtains made of acoustic fabrics or acoustic pictures, by reducing the overall reverberation time to a recommended level. Room dividers, partitions or sound-absorbing curtains help by separating meeting areas and creating an island of calm. Not only the meeting participants are happy about this, but also the others who are no longer unwanted participants in the meeting. But thinking spaces, relaxation areas or intensive workspaces can also be created and supported with soundproof curtains. There are no limits to your imagination here.

You can combine our sound curtains in a variety of ways: different insulation values, with a single-colour or elaborately printed visible side, manual or automated operation - the variable and appealing alternative to a soundproof wall adapts perfectly to your requirements. You can also retrofit the curtains with additional inner layers at any time to further increase sound insulation in the office.

SOUND INSULATION SOLUTIONS FROM GERRIETS

We are there for you from planning to installation!

Reliable measured values and the possibility of accompanying measurements and advice during the construction process are crucial for acoustic office space planning. We are there for you: all textiles are tested for their effectiveness and to ensure that your office project is an acoustic success, we advise you throughout the entire process - from planning to installation. We supply and install the right office sound insulation solutions for you. Our portfolio of soundproofing solutions for offices is so diverse that we can customise a suitable solution for you. Just talk to us and together we will find the optimum combination for your office.