Copper Beech Court Sound Insulation Testing

Objectives:

In order to comply with Part E of the Building Regulations in the UK, sound insulation testing compliance must take place to ensure all party walls and floors are coherent with the rigorous requirements for both airborne and impact noise, ensuring the properties are suitable for those who will use them in the future. 

Our role in ensuring the compliance of the properties in accordance with Part E is critical to the success and timing of the project, with our qualified and experienced assessors being able to identify and advise on if improvements are required for compliance and what they should be if necessary. Consequently, we can ensure your project can avoid risk of failure later down the line, ensuring the project stays on schedule and is as low cost as possible for you.

Copper Beach Court comprises a property which is over one-hundred years old, merged with new elements to form extensions providing more space for new, luxury apartments. Due to being involved early in the project and communicating well with the client, we were able to formulate a strategy on how to combat the old elements of the property’s fabric to ensure compliance with the rigorous modern regulations, reducing the project’s cost and complexity later down the line.

Strategy:

• Phase 1 – Early Communication: Early Communication with Copper Beech Court to ensure that the build is to  standard which will achieve excellent and compliant results when the sound insulation testing is carried out on site. This ensures that once the build stage has been completed to a point where sound insulation testing is completed, the properties will be of a suitable standard and will pass, preventing the risk and extra cost of re-construction and rebuilding should the tests fail initially. 
• Phase 2- Airborne Sound Insulation Testing: After the build stage, a date is arranged for the Sound Insulation Testing to take place when the building is in a suitable condition. At Copper Beech Court, Airborne Sound Insulation Testing was completed through party walls and floors, ensuring that they complied with the regulations in various locations across the rooms, providing a well-detailed, thorough and accurate set of results. Inaccurate results were not an option for the Copper Beech Court project, with quality and consistency being of utmost importance for the luxury projects and at the heart of every GC Reports project.
• Phase 3 – Impact Sound Insulation Testing: Once the airborne tests were completed at Copper Beech Court, the team swiftly exchanged the speaker for the tapping machine and undertook the Impact Sound Insulation Testing for party floors. Again, taking readings from a variety of places around the rooms, enabling a precise test giving clear-cut results. This testing ensured Copper Beech Court had a well-rounded Sound Insulation Test, covering both aspects required for properties to be compliant according to Part E.
• Phase 4 – Results: Upon completion of the Sound Insulation Testing, results were checked on site, as the GC Reports standard, to ensure Copper Beech Court would be compliant on the off chance of an irregular result, which required retesting. Consequently, any further cost in terms of time and expense would have been prevented for the Copper Beech Court project, as no future re-test would be required to be organised so the project could continue to its schedule.