Flushing Out Courtroom Noise
John Marshall's Court Room in Downtown Richmond, VA recently went through an architectural renovation. As eye pleasing as it may have been, however, no one had considered the acoustical sound problems that arose from the renovation.
Application Introduction
Next to the court room a holding cell was installed. Every time someone in the holding cell flushed the stainless steel toilet (with a high pressure valve), those in the courtroom could clearly hear the noise. As one might imagine, the sounds of the flushing toilets were very distracting to the judge and the officers of the court. After state officials consulted with an acoustical engineer, they brought in Acoustical Solutions, Inc. to flush out the noise.
Treatment Provided
The first thing Acoustical Solutions, Inc. wanted to do was decouple the stainless steel toilet from the wall structure connected to the courtroom to reduce the structure borne noise that was transmitting through the walls.
To fix the structure borne noise problem coming from the toilets, Acoustical Solutions, Inc. recommended that a plumber be brought in to pull the toilets. After that had been done Acoustical Solutions installed isolation washer bushings between the toilets and the threaded mounts.
Acoustical Solutions also recommended painting a sound damping compound onto the back of the inside wall of the toilets to reduce the "ringing" sound.
Finally, the access facility was filled with unfaced fiberglass insulation in the back of the toilet to baffle the sound emitting from the back of the toilet.
Next, Acoustical Solutions addressed the air borne noise that was disturbing the courtroom by installing Audioseal Sound Barrier (mass loaded vinyl weighing one pound per square foot) to the face of the common court room wall separating the courtroom from the holding cell.
Over top of the AudioSeal Sound Barrier, AlphaSorb Fabric Wrapped Acoustical Wall Panels were installed from floor to ceiling to absorb sound waves so they couldn't reflect back into the space.
An acoustical door seals was added to the holding cell door to reduce sound leakage around it. Remember, a 1% opening can let through 50% of the noise, so a tight seal is essential.
To complete the project, Sonex Ceiling Tiles were added to reduce the reverberant noise that was building up in the holding cell.
Results
Thanks to Acoustical Solutions, the noise is gone and the judge is back in business without the background sound effects.
The result of the treatment provided resulted in a dramatic reduction in noise levels and the judges at the John Marshall Courthouse no longer have to deal with distracting noise while they conduct hearings.
For more information on this application, contact Blake Hall.
