Latest tests have given timber frame a further marketing boost.
On-site acoustic evaluation at a Tee-U-Tech timber framed development shows the system exceeds existing and proposed new building regulations.
The field tests were carried out by the Acoustical Investigation & Research Organisation at Partnership First’s development of flats in Deptford for the Amphion Consortium and Hyde Housing Association.
Belan, the parent company of Partnerships First, says the investigation consisted of a series of independent airborne sound insulation and impact sound transmission tests which measured the level of sound transmitted through the floors of the flats.
Building Regulations require that individual separating floors should achieve a weighted standardised level of difference of at least 48 decibels (dB) and that the mean result from up to four tests should be at least equal to 52dB.
The regulations also specify that each floor should achieve a weighted standardised impact pressure level of no greater than 65dB and that the mean result from up to four tests should be no greater than 61dB.
The tests showed that Tee-U-Tec performed significantly better than both the existing and proposed regulations.
John Cadwallader, chief executive of Partnerships First, said: ‘The tests prove that materials don’t have to be dense to be effective. It is the design and the way timber technology is used that count and, unlike other alternatives, timber is a lightweight, sustainable material that is not only environmentally friendly but is also the only product which, quite literally, grows on trees.
‘The requirements of both the current and forthcoming building regulations have been greatly bettered by these test results and they help to further reinforce our total commitment to timber frame construction,’ Mr Cadwallader said.
