Restaurants, companies, communities or for any other structures with more or less high activity, acoustic comfort is at the heart of the concerns. Absorbing noise is one of the important issues for these types of spaces where the well-being of employees and customers is paramount.
Who has never had an unpleasant moment in a restaurant that is far too noisy? Or caught a migraine after a day in the open space?
For everyone’s comfort, there are workplace noise laws. Focus on possible actions to improve acoustic comfort.
The causes of acoustic discomfort
The acoustic discomfort felt in a room comes mainly from the effect of sound reverberation.
To understand the reverberation effect of sound, imagine a bouncing ball that you throw into a corner of the room. This ball will continue to bounce for many seconds on all the walls of the room, until it comes to a complete stop. The same is true for a sound produced (speech, machine noise, telephone ringtone, etc.). This sound, projected on the walls of the room, will rebound with each contact. This is called echo, or the reverb effect.
On this basis, 5 main elements are to be taken into account during an acoustic diagnosis.
- The nature of the soil
- The height and nature of the ceiling
- The wall covering
- The volume of the room
- Furnishings
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5 solutions to absorb noise in a room
#1. Lay an absorbent floor
Exit tiles and parquet floors, we opt for a nice carpet!
Indeed, smooth and hard floor coverings are second best when it comes to acoustics. To reduce noise in a room, nothing like carpeting. It significantly decreases the reverberation time of sound, retaining much of the noise before continuing on its way.
Cinema halls, concert halls, hotels… Have you noticed that these establishments were generally designed with carpet?
Unable to completely overhaul your floor? Think XXL rugs. Large, well-positioned rugs definitely reduce sound reverberation in your rooms.
#2. Choose an acoustic ceiling
Laying the right floor is not enough for effective acoustic correction.
Do you have a high ceiling?
You may get poor acoustics. Just like in large spaces, a high ceiling lengthens the reverberation time. This is for example the case in loft-type arrangements, or industrial buildings.
To absorb noise in this type of room, consider suspended acoustic products!
All you need is a few acoustic panels or objects suspended from the ceiling to literally change the acoustics of your room. Products or decorative solutions that will make the place unique, according to your desires.
See the achievements in suspended panel >
Do you have a grid ceiling?
Despite a low “tiled” ceiling, sound reverberation can be significant in an office (in an open space for example) and above all a little dull.
In this case, we advise you to add acoustic tiles which will correct the noise in the room while bringing a decorative and pep touch.
Sometimes you just need to replace just a few existing tiles to give your space a different look.
See the achievements in acoustic tiles >
Do you want to add acoustics to your ceilings?
#3. Dress the walls
Nothing better to reinforce the echo than a smooth and bare wall. We often forget to decorate offices or other open spaces, leaving a room conducive to reverberation. The sound wave then bounces off all the walls without any obstacle.
One of the most effective solutions is to dress the walls with paintings and/or acoustic panels. Wall panels provide effective acoustic treatment. Tested with an absorbing concept, the panel retains the sound wave to reject only part of it.
On the decorative side, many colors and shapes exist to create a unique atmosphere in the image of the company. Neutral or colored tones, printed pictures, rectangular or triangular shape, 3D finish, two-tone… everything is possible.
A solution that adapts to businesses as well as to the hotel and catering sector, administrations…
See the achievements in acoustic panels >
#4. Structure spaces
Large spaces are the most prone to acoustic problems. From a certain volume, the reverberation of the sound can quickly become uncontrollable. In order to keep these beautiful volumes without having to create smaller rooms, partitions and acoustic panels are your best allies. The right solution to structure your space, and in addition to absorb noise in a large room.
Flexible and modular, acoustic partitions structure and can correct the acoustics of spaces. They arise very quickly, joining one another and at any place, to compose a pleasant zone. Partitions and panels are also decorative elements that embellish your rooms. They are customizable, plain or printed, and offer many finishes.
We can thus create several zones in a company restaurant for more privacy, in a nursery to design spaces, or in open offices for the well-being of employees.
See the achievements in acoustic partitions >
Do you want to structure a large space?
#5. Furnish your room
Do you remember the day you visited that empty apartment? The slightest word echoed. Once furnished, there is no longer any resonance effect.
On the same principle, furnishing a noisy room will reduce some of the perceived echo. We can bring wardrobes, armchairs, curtains… Trendy furniture and textures so that each m² occupied is beneficial to the acoustic comfort of your room.
As you will have understood, many solutions can be put in place to deal with noise in a room. Floors, walls, ceilings… the important thing is to acoustically treat the walls, then the space, for an optimal result.