Project Overview: Bathroom Plumbing Soundproofing Case The family in this Tampa home was dealing with a noise problem most homeowners write off as unavoidable. Every toilet flush and kitchen drain cycle was audible from the dining room. During family dinners, the rush of water through the pipes overhead was loud enough to interrupt conversation. When […]
01
May
May
Project Overview: Luxury Condo Soundproofing Why Luxury Condo Buyers Expect Higher STC Than Code Requires Building code sets the floor for residential acoustic separation. Luxury condo buyers set a higher ceiling. The IBC Section 1207.1 minimum of STC 50 between dwelling units is fine for code compliance, but a code-compliant wall is not the same […]
27
Apr
Apr
Project Overview: Crunch Fitness Multi-Tenant Building Assessment Crunch Fitness opened a second-floor commercial gym in December 2016. Within months, the tenants below and the spa next door were filing complaints. The healthcare provider on the floor below was hearing weight drops during patient sessions. The spa next door felt vibration during deep tissue treatments. The […]
19
Apr
Apr
Project Overview: Residence Inn Highway-Facing Rooms This Residence Inn sat on the wrong side of a major highway. Guests in the highway-facing rooms could hear traffic the entire night and the front desk fielded the complaints every morning. The hotel had never done acoustic testing and the windows had never been treated. The owner needed […]
23
Mar
Mar
Project Overview: Tampa Custom Home Build The owner wanted the master bedroom downstairs to sound nothing like the upstairs playroom. The playroom would see kids most days. The entertainment room would see a sound system most evenings. The master bedroom would see two adults trying to sleep through all of it. New construction made the […]
15
Feb
Feb
Project Overview: Dallas Luxury Cinema Multi-Auditorium Build This Dallas luxury cinema needed walls that did something most theater drawings ignore. The auditoriums sit shoulder to shoulder, and an action movie running at peak volume next door cannot be audible in the quiet drama starting on the other side. The STC 65 spec was just the […]
05
Feb
Feb
Project Overview: The Fenway Hotel Historic Restoration The Fenway Hotel was reopening after a full historic restoration, and the architect ran into the same wall every historic hospitality project runs into. Modern STC 50 demising wall targets, century-old wood-frame construction, and zero spare inches anywhere in the building. The acoustic spec called for boutique-hotel speech […]
03
Feb
Feb
Project Overview: Tampa Yacht & Country Club Outdoor Patio Tampa Yacht and Country Club ran a beautiful outdoor wedding venue and a real noise problem with the neighbors. Live bands on the patio routinely pushed past 55 dBA at the property line, well over the threshold in Tampa’s updated noise ordinance. The club needed a […]
03
Jan
Jan
Project Overview: USF Student Government Office The University of South Florida’s student government office sat next to a row of staff offices that needed quiet. The walls between them looked normal at human-eye level. Above the acoustic ceiling tile, those same walls just stopped, and the shared plenum carried every conversation from the student government […]
19
Dec
Dec
Project Overview: KForce St. Louis Field Office Recruiter Offices Have a Distinct Privacy Problem KForce is a national staffing and recruiting firm with field offices in major metros, including the St. Louis location featured in this project. The work that happens in a recruiter office is mostly phone work. Candidate calls, comp negotiations, employer briefings, […]