Building noise
Noise is omnipresent in everyday life, whether at home, at work, or on the street. Sometimes you learn to tolerate them. They are also sometimes sought after for leisure purposes (concerts, cinema, disco). But noise becomes a burden when it threatens the comfort and even the health of individuals.
What is noise?
Theoretically, noise is all that is perceived by the human ear. A sound source vibrates the surrounding air. These vibrations are transmitted by the air, propagate in the surrounding environment and thus cause the emission of noise. In buildings, it is important to note that these vibrations can pass through the walls and enter the premises. Sound can pass through any material (concrete, glass, metal, etc.) and propagates at a speed specific to each medium.
The frequency and intensity of sound are the two main parameters for measuring noise. The frequency, expressed in Hz, determines the number of vibrations emitted per second. Treble sounds are high frequencies while bass sounds are low frequencies. The noise perceptible to the human ear is between infrasound and ultrasound, that is to say in an interval of 20 to 20,000 Hz.
The sound level, or loudness, determines whether the noise is loud or weak. Its unit of measurement is the decibel (dB), 0 dB corresponds to the minimum threshold of audibility. 140 dB corresponds to the tolerance threshold for the human ear. Above this level, noise can affect the whole hearing, which is then exposed to more or less serious hearing damage.
Noise and construction:
In residential environments, the structure must be designed in such a way as to attenuate disturbing noises that affect the comfort of the occupants (music, footsteps, voice, television, etc.). As this is a workspace, it is also necessary to limit disturbing noises that distract workers and generate a drop in productivity.
In a building, there are two main categories of noise: airborne noise and structural noise. Airborne noise is produced outside (rail traffic, road traffic, plane takeoff, etc.) or inside (conversations, television, etc.) of the building. They pass through the walls and spread to neighboring premises. Solid-state noise is the impact of shocks subjected to walls (footsteps, moving furniture, etc.) or the use of technical equipment (flushing water, lift, air conditioners, etc.).
To combat the inconvenience caused by noise, two isolation principles are possible. The first is to make the walls as heavy as possible. The heavier a material, the more it is airtight and therefore to noise (this is the law of masses). If the nuisance is too great, the installation of a sound insulation system is essential.
Noise and its consequences:
In a building and depending on each person's own experience, the different kinds of noise can bother us on a daily basis. It can be noise generated by traffic or interior noise like the TV. But we also encounter impact noises such as falling objects. In addition, we have all at one time or another known the annoyances produced by the reverberations of sound (echoes). Especially during a conversation.
But the consequences of excessive noise pollution are not limited to these inconveniences or damage to the hearing sphere . Indeed, noise also causes disorders in the endocrine and cardiovascular system. But noise pollution is also known to be a worsening factor in the anxiety-depressive state. At the same time, they can seriously disrupt sleep. In view of these numerous consequences, it is therefore essential, for a construction project, to clearly determine the sound insulation work to be carried out . To conclude, the Qualitel barometer indicates that a correct renovation of the sound insulation would reduce noise-related annoyances by 50%.