Posted by Vanja Landeck - 14 December, 2020
When it comes to creating the ideal office environment, there’s a fine line between normal background noise and unnecessary, distracting sound levels that not only hamper productivity but affect the health of employees. It’s important not to overlook a major factor in office acoustics – the flooring. Read on to find out about overcoming impact noise with sound-deadening solid flooring, and how our customer Koteng Eiendom in Trondheim, Norway, upgraded their floor surface to keep the noise down...
How can noise affect office workers?
Excessively loud noises or continual sounds can have negative physical and mental impacts on the health of employees. Experiencing noises varying from office machinery to general chatting or building work can raise individuals blood pressure and heart rate. While it might seem a little dramatic, the fact is that the stress caused by ongoing noise disturbance could have a knock-on effect on heart disease, a leading cause of death.
From the perspective of emotional wellbeing, dealing with unhealthy noise levels day-to-day can cause moodiness and even depression.
Realistically, working in silence isn’t always possible, or desirable, but managing noise to be at a reasonable level can help to improve employees’ health and productivity.
Impact sound and the office environment
Impact sound takes place when an object hits another object. In the workplace, a typical example of this is the sound of footfall, particularly coming from the floor above, causing a significant disturbance to people working below.
The flooring system used is the critical factor in controlling impact noise levels, so it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of the systems available at the specification stage. While carpet is naturally sound-deadening, it attracts and retains dust and dirt; on the other hand, fashionable wooden flooring is noisy to walk on. But those aren’t the only two options, as real estate developer Koteng Eiendom AS, based in Trondheim, Norway, discovered.
Tackling impact sound with MasterTop 1327-20dB
Koteng Eiendom is a leading property company in Trondheim, Norway, specialized both in investments and management. They undertook an office refurbishment program to transform the offices in its multipurpose building, constructed in 1968 – a perfect opportunity to create a pleasant and quiet contemporary working environment. As the existing floor dated back to the original build, unsurprisingly, there were some sound issues to tackle. Master Builders Solutions’ solid system MasterTop 1327-20db presented an innovative solution, offering an attractive and durable surface, comfort underfoot and the ability to reduce noise transmission by 20 decibels.
Fast and sustainable
A fast installation programme meant that the 150 m2 area had to be
completed in just five days. The tight timescale was no problem for the applicators since, unlike other sound-deadening systems, MasterTop 1327-20dB is applied as a liquid, removing the need to cut or glue a rubber mat base layer. Reducing downtime to return an area to use as soon as possible makes commercial sense, minimising disruption to the business so that office employees can get back to their desks.
An additional advantage of MasterTop 1327-20dB for any ecologically-aware organisation is its sustainability credentials. When installing the floor, there’s no waste – everything gets poured onto its destination area. With long-lasting good looks and an easy-to-maintain surface, MasterTop 1327-20dB offers lower life cycle costs by 7% compared to typical sound-deadening systems.
A sound choice – anywhere
The suitability of sound-deadening systems extends beyond offices – in any busy building, comfortable noise levels make a big difference to the overall experience. Whether you’re considering flooring for a commercial building, kindergarten, schools or other public sector facility, the benefits of a significant reduction in impact sound can make a big difference to building users.
Read the full case study here.
More information about the MasterTop 1300 flooring series can be found here.
Watch the video to learn more:
