Noise Control Manual For Residential Buildings

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. More people are spending more time at home making more noise--yet they want quiet environments. This is the only book available that tells designers, planners, architects, and builders how to give homeowners and apartment-dwellers the quiet they crave. Simple enough to be used by the average do-it-yourselfer (it avoids complex mathematics), yet so complete it will satisfy the requirements of knowledgeable building professionals, this authoritative guide gives you one-stop answers on designing, specifying, testing, and retrofitting residences to meet the new environmental standards and satisfy our need for peace and quiet.

Excessive noise levels are generally acknowledged to have adverse effects on our environment. Studies indicate that excessive noise levels can cause fatigue in exposed individuals, lower efficiency and productivity, impaired speech communication, and hearing loss. Excessive noise is almost everywhere today - in the office, in schools, hospitals and other institutional facilities, in all classes of public buildings, and in our factories. INDUSTRIAL NOISE High noise levels in factories can make speech communication in the plant difficult and at times impossible. Foremen are often unable to hear warning shouts from co-workers. The problem of hearing loss due to excessive noise exposure is of particular concern to industry, and to the federal government. In the early 1970s, the United States Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) which sets criteria for health hazards and established limits for noise exposure of industrial workers. The OSHA Noise Standard was amended in 1982 to require audiometric testing of all employees exposed to noise levels of 85 dB or above for eight hours. A NOISE IN COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS While noise levels in offices, stores, schools, and other commercial and institutional buildings seldom reach those encountered in many industrial environments, they often reach levels which are distracting to the occupants of such buildings. Impairment of speech communica tion among workers, or inversely the lack of speech privacy, are both deterrents to effiCiency and productivity and are detrimental to the occupants' comfort and sense of well-being.

Provides guidelines on avoiding noise problems during the design and construction of new buildings, and eliminating noise in existing structures. It covers such topics as properties of sound absorptive materials, acoustical characteristics of rooms, and structure-borne sound insulation.

Unwanted noise can be a significant nuisance in buildings, particularly dwellings. Part E of the Building Regulations for England and Wales has therefore introduced substantially improved standards for noise control and stringent new requirements for the testing of completed buildings. This new book explains the regulations in detail and provides recommendations for good design and construction. It explains those aspects of sound transmission necessary for an understanding of Part E of the Regulations.