Satisfaction with sound insulation in residential dwellings – The effect of wall construction

• Airborne sound insulation of light and heavy wall constructions was studied.
• Both constructions fulfilled the norms but the heavy wall was better below 160 Hz.
• Survey was made in buildings having either heavy or light walls between dwellings.
• The occupants rated the constructions equally with respect to sound insulation.
• The insulation below 160 Hz seems not to be of primary importance for occupants.

AimThe aim of this study was to compare the acoustic satisfaction in residential multi-storey buildings with different wall constructions with a similar weighted sound reduction index R′w: Heavy construction (monolithic concrete walls) and Light construction (staggered double walls). Light constructions are known to have a lower sound insulation especially at low frequencies. Our research question was does this difference affect the overall acoustic satisfaction among occupants.Materials and methodsFour and two residential multi-storey buildings were chosen to represent building types Heavy and Light, respectively. A questionnaire was distributed to each dwelling. Seventy-two and eighty-seven respondents were obtained, respectively, with response rates of 62% and 54%. Some sound insulation measurements were carried out for verification purposes.ResultsAs expected, the airborne sound insulation was worse below 160 Hz in building type Light, while the R′w values were nearly equal, 56–57 dB. The satisfaction with sound insulation did not differ between the two building types. All neighbour noise sources were rated equally disturbing in both building types. The building types did differ from each other with respect to the effects of noise on sleep.ConclusionsThe results suggest that when the airborne sound insulation is close to 55 dB R′w, the construction type does not necessarily affect the acoustic satisfaction. The results also suggest that R′w explains better the subjective rating of sound insulation than R′w + C50–3150.