Sound Insulation essentials
Excerpt from the WOLF-Planning-Brochure
1. Proper Planning of Sound Insulation
The pursuit of serenity within one’s own apartment or house is increasing at an increasing rate due to the continually growing noise at workplaces as well as private sectors.
Impenetrable walls and ceilings to the outside, the neighbors, and within the family becomes more and more a high valued attribute. Well planned new buildings and soundproof renovations fulfill the wish for calmness, safety, and anonymity without risking an argument with the neighbors.
People are nowadays more sensitive for sound in any form. Roughly 40% of the German population complains about the noise of their neighbors which makes it almost 10% more compared to ten years ago. At least in their own home people want to have a quiet environment. Premise for this understandable desire is an improved constructional sound insulation in privately used homes.
It’s common knowledge those expectations belied homeowners, instead they had to deal with a whole lot of lawsuits.
The BGH (German Federal Court) declared the minimum sound insulation of the DIN (German-Industry-Norm) 4109 contained in the law of building contracts as generally meaningless impacting planner of the construction industry.
The complexity of “sound insulation in above ground constructions” in theoretical, inspectional as well as constructional and legal aspects is enormous and challenges the planner in a way, he must consult a building acoustic specialist.
Wolf Bavaria has specialized on this field for many years now. Originated from the idea of using an innovative, new, and environmentally friendly raw materials which effectively, easily, and cost-effectively solve sound insulation problems in the interior constructions.
There is probably no other type of floor, ceiling, or wall we do not know or did not test out on its sound insulation attributes yet.
PhoneStar Sound Insulation Boards allow our customers to keep their wall, ceilings, and floors from intruding the room atmosphere while meeting highest requirements along the VDI (Association of German Engineers) Policies 4100 Sound Proof Level 3 (SST3).
This Planning Folder offers practical, comprehendible, easily realizable as well as affordable solutions for planners, specialized retailers, and processors.
Basis of this Planning Folder, along with years of experience, are various measurements of conducted tests as well as on actual construction places during which not only single but also multiple superstructures have been evaluated.
Our experience lets us recommend ten different floor toppings with PhoneStar Sound Insulation Boards, organized after depth of each boards. Those ten floor toppings were sonically evaluated for concrete ceilings and four different wooden ceilings. All in all, there are 50 different floor toppings for Air and Impact-Sound Insulation. *
Analogously, there are eight different topping boards depicted for each of the following: solid ceilings, partition walls, and wooden or concreted ceilings.
*Stated sound insulation data are guidelines and must be considered solely new for every object.
2. Things to Know about Sonical- and Physical-Parameters
Sound consists out of mechanical vibrations which have different attributes in different materials. Both, the Frequency (measured in vibrations per second - Hz) and the Volume (sound-pressure and -level; measured in Decibel - dB), are physical parameters of Acoustics.
*PhoneStar works exactly there best, where our ears pick up sound very well
Frequency and Volume
Our graphic above shows the volume over the frequency. The human ear perceives between 16-20.000 Hz while our voice can vary in a frequency between 200 and 8.000 Hz with a Sound Level of 30-70 dB. Ear pods play music on an EU-required maximum db of 80.
Threshold of Hearing
The blue curve shows impressively the different frequencies the human ear perceives. Very low frequencies can be perceived starting at 80 dB, while 3.000 Hz is the frequency for us to hear best.
Pain Threshold
The pain threshold, yellow curve, is above all other frequencies stated at around 120 db.
Sound Insulation
Sound Insulation of 6 dB corresponds to a physical halving of the sound level; the human ear conceives a change in sounds of 10 dB as half or respectively twice as loud. A 15mm PhoneStar Sound Insulation Board dampens Airborne Noise, white curve, in all frequencies very well. Especially in the range of best perceivable sounds for the human ear, PhoneStar dampens the sound best. Considering variable auditory sensations, a normed procedure determines a certain figure, the Appraised Sound Insulation Value, of a building component.
Rw for Airborne Sound
Ln,w for Impact Sound
The Laboratory-Tested Airborne Sounds Insulation Value of the 15mm-Wolf Insulation Board amounts to Rw=36 dB. Impact Sound Insulation of a 15mm PhoneStar topped by parquet on a concrete ceiling amounts to ΔLw=22 dB.