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BCA's New Soundproofing
Demands Need Soundguard Know-How
"You'll need smarter soundproofing
now that noise control is no longer a subjectively
defined 'frill' in the building process, but rather
a quantified set of demands laid down by the Building
Code of Australia 2004, in force from May 2004."
This is the claim of Australia's
Soundguard, who advises that the new demands apply
not only to all new buildings (including boarding
houses, hostels, guest houses, hotels, motels, apartments,
flats, aged care buildings, townhouses, terrace
and other "attached" houses), but also to new building
work in existing buildings and "change of use" of
existing buildings.
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"The scope of BCA demands
has also been extended, now including
the level of airborne noise tolerated
through separating walls and floors
of adjoining dwellings, minimum impact
sound insulation and a sound insulation
requirement for ducting, water supply
and stormwater pipework," says Soundguard's
Philip Cadwallen.
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"The performance provisions of the
new BCA are quite tightly specified and must either
by field-tested for compliance or subjected to "Deemed-to-Satisfy"
approaches, which include sighting results of laboratory
testing proving that the wall/floor systems used
actually do achieve the laid-down performance.
According to Cadwallen, Soundguard
routinely provides such results to satisfy this
requirement for the three main soundproofing materials
- Wavebar, Silentstep and Soundlag 4525C- needed
to cover all three of the above-mentioned specified
categories of demand.
"Wavebar is so well known
in construction and architectural circles that it
is widely used as the generic term for flexible
barium-loaded acoustic insulation, wherein the barium
layer acts as a heavily-damped membrane absorbing
more sound energy, particularly at the hard-to-stop
lower frequencies.
"As proof of its performance, Wavebar
was used as the noise barrier in the cladding of
the forced and induction fans of Wallerang, Liddell,
Loy Yang and Torrens Island where it cut noise down
to 81.5 dBA compared with other measures which couldn't
even get near the 85 dBA maximum required. Its use
in the Newcastle Entertainment Centre led to the
development of Wavebar Quadzero, meeting a demand
for a product scoring zero on all four fire retardancy
indexes," says Cadwallen.
"Silentstep for floors, on
the other hand, uses high quality Airstep rubber
underlay combined with a highly flexible loaded
vinyl to achieve an Rw of 28 and is effective against
both impact and airborne noises. Its use in a Sydney
hotel cut the noise in a room alongside where DJs
play loud music by up to 85 per cent as determined
by an acoustic engineer engaged by hotel management.
"Last of the trio, Soundlag 4525C,
was developed by qualified acoustic engineers, working
from National Acoustic Laboratories tests, into
a system designed to meet Rw45. Our soundproofing
development team achieve this by sandwiching 28
mm of convoluted hydrolysis-resistant acoustic foam
with a flexible loaded vinyl and a tough protective
layer of reinforced foil that has a Four Zero fire
rating.
"There are literally hundreds of
different materials and systems available in the
Soundguard range. But these are the trio destined
to play the major role in meeting the new requirements
of a tougher BCA, especially when coupled with sound
advice from Soundguard direct or, 24/7, via our
interactive product auto-selector at www.soundguard.com.au,"
Cadwallen concludes.
The new BCA provisions have been
adopted by all states and territories except, for
the present, Queensland, WA and NT. The consequences
of non-compliance are certainly to be avoided.
For further information contact:
Pyrotek
Address: Girraween, NSW, 2145
Phone: 02 9631 1....
Fax: 02 9896 7....
Web: www.soundguard.com.au
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