How much soundproofing do I need for a room

I’ve recently been ask “Would you know what the Db level requirement would be for an edit room?

This question could equally be taken for a meeting room or an executive office.

Technically speaking we’d make a room perform to a written specification known as the Noise Criterion (NC) or Noise rating Curve (NR) This takes any subjectivity out of the final hand over of any room, as a proof of design can be made by a simple measurement of noise across a frequency range of 63Hz to 6.3KHz with-in the room.

In terms of a non critical listening edit room a NC value of between NC25 and NC30 is adequate quality, where there is a trade-off on cost of building works and the lower you go in NC curve level, pragmatically you’d always building something with as quiet as system as possible.

What is stopping me getting a perfectly quiet edit room?

For example if each room is going to have a local split A/C fan unit installed this item will affect the background noise level the most. (Typical indoor units run around 29/36dBA)  Continue reading