New Student Accommodation

DELIVERING THE SOLUTIONS YOU NEED

We were commissioned by a client to develop an acoustic specification for new student accommodation created from an existing building in Sheffield.

The design was based around a number of ‘cluster’ apartments where each student would have their own ensuite bedroom with access to a shared kitchen/dining/living area. The challenges were to satisfy the requirements of Part E of the Building Regulations along with the control of noise break-in.

Part E – Resistance to the Passage of Sound

The client design had included for standard internal stud partition walls between the student bedrooms in each of the cluster apartments with a twin stud party wall system between the individual cluster apartments – the ultimate driver being cost control during the economic turmoil of 2008-10.

However, through careful design and management of our client’s expectations for the development (and the regulatory requirements of Building Control), the internal acoustic needs of the proposed design were specified. Clearly there was resistance to the additional cost associated with Part E compliance for separating walls and floors but given the ‘must haves’ for Building Control and the good, long term business sense of having quality, ‘lettable’ student rooms that provided a good level of sound insulation, the changes to the design were accepted and implemented.

In so many other cases we have seen, at building completion stage, walls and floors fail in student accommodation for the want of simple acoustic advice being provided at the design stage. The desire to shout “internal walls and floors between student rooms don’t work for Part E” becomes more pressing as the simple mistakes, which could be resolved through good design, could have easily been avoided.

The On Going Project

The project has been successfully completed, validated for Part E of the Building Regulations and also validated for noise break-in from the busy road outside.

The accommodation is now fully occupied (being ready for the Autumn term in 2010) and our client has now moved on to a similar follow-up development due for completion in July 2011, retaining our services for this development too.
We also took time to explain to our clients the differences between the various acoustic parameters such as Rw, Dntw, Rw+Ctr, Dntw+Ctr, all of which, if incorrectly applied to any design, can lead to acoustically poor performing partition walls and floors being constructed. This understanding is key to ensuring that when proprietary floor and wall systems are procured that all suppliers have a clear, contractual obligation as to what specification is required.

For further details about how ENS Acoustics can help you with sound insulation and acoustics for any student accommodation development that needs to satisfy the stringent requirements of Part E of the Building Regulations, please contact us.