5 Common Acoustic Challenges in Commercial Buildings (and How to Fix Them)

Your Building is Loud. It is a Big Problem.

You have a beautiful building. A modern office building. A busy restaurant. A welcoming hotel. But there is a hidden problem. The problem is noise. Unwanted sound. This noise pollution is not just a small bother. It is a big problem that costs you money.

Poor building acoustics can make people less productive. It can make them feel stressed. It can give visitors a bad first impression. In healthcare facilities, it can even slow down healing. The sounds in your building have a huge impact on the people inside. This is the science of psychoacoustics.

This article will show you the five most common acoustic challenges in commercial buildings. We will agitate the problem by showing you how bad it can be. Then, we will give you the solution. You will learn how to fix these problems and create better acoustic comfort.

Challenge 1: The Open Office is Too Loud

You have a modern open-plan office. It looks great. But it is very loud. You can hear every phone call. Every conversation. Every keyboard click. There are many hard surfaces. Sound bounces off the glass-walled rooms, the concrete floors, and the metal desks. This creates echo, or reverberation. There is no speech privacy.

This is more than just annoying. It is a productivity killer. The data is clear.

The constant background noise from phones, office equipment, and human speech is a huge distraction. It makes it hard to think. This is a major issue in many spaces, from call centers to corporate headquarters. The ambient sound level is simply too high for deep focus.

You must control the sound. You need a mix of strategies. This is called acoustic design.

• Absorb the Sound. The best way to stop echo is to absorb it. You can do this with special panels. Acoustic panels for office spaces are made for this. Beien Construction Co., Ltd. is a top maker of these panels. With over 15 years of experience, we make products that work. Our PET acoustic panels are a great choice. These pet felt acoustic panels are made from recycled materials. They are a form of acoustic insulation for your walls and ceilings. You can use:
  • Acoustic wall panels: These sound-absorbing panels go directly on the walls.
  • Acoustic ceiling tiles: These replace your normal ceiling tiles.
  • Baffles and acoustic clouds: These hang from the ceiling. They are great for high ceilings. We even make hanging acoustic panels from ceiling.
• Block the Sound. You also need to block sound from traveling. You can use partitions or room dividers. Upholstered furniture also helps.
• Cover the Sound. Sometimes, you can add sound to hide other sounds. This is called sound masking. A system plays a soft sound, like airflow. This white noise or pink noise makes human speech harder to understand. This increases speech privacy.

As a professional manufacturer from China, acoustic panels are our specialty. We offer OEM/ODM services to create custom acoustic panels that fit your office design perfectly.

The Open Office Challenge

Challenge 2: Echo in Lobbies, Atriums, and Hallways

Your lobby or atrium is the first thing visitors see. But it is a giant echo chamber. High ceilings and hard surfaces like glass, stone, and hardwood floors cause terrible reverberation. The reverberation time is very long. This means sound bounces around for a long time. It makes it hard for people to talk at the reception desk. It feels loud and stressful. The same problem happens in corridors and hallways and stairwells.

A bad first impression can hurt your business. If your lobby is loud and chaotic, visitors will feel uncomfortable. They will think your business is chaotic, too. Look at this real-world example. A company reception hall had a reverberation time of 2.49 seconds. That is very high. It was loud and unpleasant. Speech was very hard to understand. This is a failure of room acoustics.

You must add absorption to these large spaces. The goal is to lower the reverberation time.

• Treat the Walls and Ceilings. Large walls are perfect for decorative acoustic panels. You can use wood acoustic panels to get a warm, high-end look. Beien Construction is a leader in wooden acoustic panels. We offer many styles, like wood slat acoustic panels. These acoustic slat wood wall panels are beautiful and they work very well. We have natural walnut acoustic slat wood wall panels and natural oak acoustic slat wood wall panels. These can be used as acoustic wall art.
  • Our acoustical wood wall panels can turn a loud lobby into a quiet, welcoming space.
  • We also make wood acoustic ceiling panels to absorb sound from above.
• Use Soft Materials. Add large rugs and upholstered furniture. These soft surfaces help absorb sound.

In the case of the reception hall, they added acoustic wood wall panels. The reverberation time dropped from 2.49 seconds to just 0.87 seconds. The change was huge. The space felt calm and professional. With our 20,000㎡ factory, we can produce panels for any size project, from a small library to a huge conference center. Our products are CE, FSC, and SGS certified.

Echo in Lobbies, Atriums, and Hallways

Challenge 3: Poor Sound in Meeting and Conference Rooms

Your conference rooms and meeting rooms are where important decisions are made. But they have sound problems. Glass-walled rooms are very popular, but glass reflects sound. This creates echo inside the room, hurting speech intelligibility. Also, sound leaks out. Secret conversations can be heard outside. Sound from the hallway also leaks in. This is called flanking noise. It travels through gaps in doors and thin walls.

If people on a video call cannot hear you, you look unprofessional. If your private meetings are not private, you have a big security risk. A study by IPSOS found that workers lose an average of 29 minutes per week because of poor sound quality on calls. That is a lot of wasted time. The sound transmission through walls and doors is a major issue.

You need both sound absorption inside the room and sound isolation to stop sound from leaking. This is key for soundproofing.

• Absorb Sound Inside. Place felt acoustic wall panels on one or two walls. This will stop the echo. Our polyester acoustic board is a great choice. It can be cut into any shape, like hexagon acoustic wall panels. We can create custom acoustic art panels for a unique look.
• Block Sound from Leaking. This is about sound insulation.
  • Walls: The walls need to have a high Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating. This measures how well a wall blocks sound. You may need to add soundproof drywall or mass loaded vinyl (MLV).
  • Doors: Use a solid core door. Add acoustic sealants and door seals and sweeps around the frame. This stops sound leaks.
  • Windows: Use double-glazed windows.

As a one-stop shop, we can help you with a full solution. Our acoustic wooden slat wall panels are perfect for adding both style and sound absorption to any private office or meeting room.

Challenge 4: Noise from Building Systems

There is a constant low hum in your building. It never goes away. This is structure-borne noise. It comes from your building’s equipment. The main sources are:

• HVAC systems (heating and air conditioning)
• Plumbing noise
• Elevators and shafts
• Equipment in mechanical rooms and data centers

This noise travels through the building envelope. It travels through the steel beams, concrete floors, and even the pipes. It is a very common problem in all multi-use buildings.

This constant low-frequency noise is more than just a hum. The CDC says long-term exposure to noise can raise stress. It can increase heart rate and blood pressure. It makes it hard to concentrate. This is a serious issue for occupant well-being. It is a job for noise control engineering.

You must use vibration control to stop the noise at its source.

• Isolate the Source. The best solution is to isolate the machines. Use vibration isolators or equipment isolation mounts. These are like special rubber feet for your big machines. They stop the shaking from getting into the building’s structure.
• Block the Path. You can also block the noise. Build walls around machines using materials with a lot of mass. Seal all gaps where pipes go through walls.

This is a very technical problem. You should work with an acoustical consultant or a mechanical engineer. They can do an acoustic survey with a sound level meter. They can find the source of the noise. Then, they can design a solution. Our role is to provide the best sound insulation materials for the job.

Challenge 5: Noise Between Floors and Rooms

You can hear everything from the room next door. You can hear people walking on the floor above you. This is a big problem in hotels, schools, and offices.

There are two types of noise here:

1. Airborne noise: This is sound traveling through the air, like talking or music. It goes right through thin walls.
2. Impact noise: This is sound from something hitting the floor, like footsteps (footfall) or a dropped object.

A common path for noise is through the ceiling space. Sound goes up through your acoustic ceiling tiles, travels across the open space (the plenum), and comes down into the next room.

This lack of privacy is a huge problem. In an office, it means you can hear every word from the next room. In a hotel, it means unhappy guests who can hear their neighbors. The Impact Insulation Class (IIC) is a rating for how well a floor blocks impact noise. A low IIC rating means you will hear every footstep from above.

You need to improve the performance of your floors, walls, and ceilings.

• For Floors: To stop impact noise, use carpeting and rugs. For hard floors, use an acoustic flooring underlayment. This is a special layer that goes under your floor to absorb impact.
• For Walls: To stop airborne noise, you need more mass and separation.
  • Add Mass: Use thicker drywall or add a layer of mass loaded vinyl.
  • Add Separation: Use resilient channels or isolation clips. These special metal clips attach the drywall to the studs. They create a small gap that stops sound from traveling through the wall.
• For Ceilings: Use ceiling tiles with a high Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC). This measures how much sound a material absorbs. Also, use plenum barriers. These are walls that go above your ceiling tiles to block sound from traveling between rooms.

At Beien, we make a wide range of products to solve these problems, from polyester fiber panels to decorative wood wall panels. We can create a custom acoustic panels solution for any space, from a classroom to a home theater or a music studio.

The Best Solution is a Good Plan

You can see that there are many common acoustic challenges in commercial buildings. From open-plan offices to lobbies, noise is a big problem. It hurts people and it hurts your business.

The most important lesson is to think about acoustics early. It is always easier and cheaper to design a quiet building from the start. Work with an architect, an interior designer, and an acoustical consultant. They can help you choose the right materials and designs. They can help you meet building codes for acoustics, like the LEED acoustic credits or the WELL Building Standard.

But even in an existing building, you can make big changes. As we have shown, adding the right acoustic treatment can solve these problems.

At Beien Construction Co., Ltd., we are here to help. We are experts in making the products that create quiet spaces. We have a huge factory, strict quality control, and factory-direct prices. We can ship our PET panels and wood slat panels all over the world.

Do not let noise control your building. Take control of your sound. Create a space where people can feel good and do their best work.