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A Guide to Construction Essentials: Gantry

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If your business is into planning and organising events or engages in construction activities for companies, not only do you need to have adequate and skilled manpower, but you also need to have the right tools, equipment and a good gantry system. Combined together and executed skilfully, they can ensure success of your events and make your clients happy and satisfied. However, these equipment and gantries can be too expensive to buy and maintain. Good news is that you do not need to buy them. Instead, you can simply hire gantries for your events and construction projects. It will help you save lots of money instead of purchasing it!

What is a Gantry?

A gantry is an overhead assembly and serves multiple uses. It is primarily installed to provide protection to workers, pedestrians and the public against construction debris and falling objects from the building or construction site. However, the use of gantry in many applications other than at construction sites has also become popular. Gantries are versatile. They can easily be adapted, customized, adjusted and used in other applications. It can be used to provide an elevated platform for a variety of events of any sizes such as sporting events (e.g. marathon) and corporate events where the objective is to provide a highly visible presence and also to launch promotional campaigns. Gantries come in different sizes and designs, and they can be put up easily at different heights and widths in any locations.

Types of Gantries

There are many types of gantries you could choose from depending on your needs and purpose. Below are some of the more popular ones:

  • Gantry crane. Gantry crane is ideal for heavy-duty and industrial load needs. It is a special type of crane used for heavy-duty lifting. It is the toughest type of crane capable of lifting heavy loads. The gantry crane is commonly used at shipyards or construction sites to lift heavy stuff.

  • Tower gantry. As the name implies, this is a tower structure usually made of stainless steel at both sides which makes it very solid and sturdy. It is perfect for sporting events such as fun runs, cycling, marathons, etc. It can be erected at different heights and weights depending on the purpose of the event.

  • Lightweight gantry. This type of gantry is very light and easy to set-up. It is also affordable and works well for events that have a limited budget. It can also be set-up at different heights and widths, up to a maximum clearance and width of three meters (3m) and six point four (6.4) meters, respectively.

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Source by Steven K Difabrizio

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The History of Welding and Fabrication

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History of welding and fabrication is hard to write in one short article, but I will summarize it as much as possible…

Today when we are using different complex welding tools we need to know the history of welding a little bit. We need to look back and see when welding first came into being. To know that, we need to go back to the Iron Age.

At the time the Egyptians and the Eastern Mediterranean people first started the process of welding. They liked to apply this process to perfect the craft of welding their iron pieces to make iron boxes. This was during a time the hammer hadn’t been invented.

The hammer appeared later in the middle ages to make different kind of small iron products. They used to pound heat until it bounded. That process became older when Edmund Davy in the 1830s discovered Acetylene with which welding became much easier to do. It helped to identify the arc between two electrodes.

The invention of arc lighting gave a new modification to the conventional welding process where cutting and gas welding became far easier than the previous ones. At that time welding became popular as a joining process.

After almost 50 years, another scientist came with a new invention which influenced largely to the process. He was a Frenchman named Auguste De Meritens. He did show a new path to weld lead plates. He used the heat of the arc. This practice first started the famous carbon arc welding. It became popular from the 1900s.

The welding process became more popular in the 1900s. At that time coated metal electrodes was already invented and rapidly became very popular. The up-gradation electrode was very common at the time and all these modifications were, in fact, helping to deliver a more accurate arc. The year 1914 was really a very important year because the stick electrode was first introduced at that time.

With the perfect use of that stick electrode, many welding processes at that time became finer. Projection welding and seam welding were also greatly influenced by the involvement of stick electrode in the welding process. Many welding processes were benefited through this breakthrough in welding. The quality of gas welding and cutting began to improve rapidly. Blowtorch and low pressure acetylene were already there.

The popularity of welding businesses grew rapidly at the time of World War I. Countries were competing with each other in many aspects. Welding technology was one of them. They were trying to invent advanced technology of welding process to make powerful ships as ships played a very important role in the war.

One was able observe a revolution in welding business during this time. The British started to build their ships using the arc welding process. Because of that, arc welding became very popular in Britain and Europe. Americans had different plans and different goals to achieve. They concentrated more on repairing jobs. Instead of building new ships, they preferred to repair their ships and make them stronger. It can be seen how these powerful countries knowingly or unknowingly made a very serious contribution to develop welding process.

Airplanes also benefited from these emerging welding processes. After that revolution fifty years passed and when laser was invented, people again observed a change in the welding process and business. Laser beam welding became popular. This was a quick and automated welding process and even today this process has no competitor.

Welding has had different contributors from the different parts of the globe. Professional experts say that to become a Master of any technology, one need to know its history very well for his own improvement.

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Source by Tyler Powers

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Entrepreneurship Knowledge Services

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When an entrepreneur is starting a business he or she is faced with the requirement of several functions in which they might not be experts. They may know, for example, all there is to know about wholesale distribution but have no idea how to build a website.

Since most companies are started with very limited funds, many entrepreneurs are reluctant to set money aside to pay for consulting services to fill in their knowledge gaps. For example, many create a website from the many templates available. Some are even free.

Where the company website is concerned I feel that the use of existing templates is a false economy. The website functions as an online calling card and needs to put your best foot forward. For site visitors, seeing a format that they have seen before can reflect badly on you.

The amount of time required for the entrepreneur to become proficient enough to develop a quality website takes time away from tending to functions relating to product knowledge, operations and management. Contracting with a website development company could be the solution.

Websites, to be noticed, must go through the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) process. The purpose of SEO is to improve your website’s chances of ranking high in a search. The mechanism for doing this is complex and dynamic. This again is a very specialized function that is often beyond the capability of the business owner.

There are functions which may be grouped under the heading Entrepreneurship Knowledge Services that will present the company at its best. In addition to the website and SEO examples these can include Business Strategy Planning and Business Valuation Services.

Entrepreneurship Knowledge Services is a rich term covering what one needs to know to be a successful entrepreneur. There are other issues to be considered besides knowledge however. Do you have the right temperament? Do you have enough tolerance for risk? Can you acquire the funds to be a success?

My recent experience is that the cost of business services for the self-employed is going down. One of the reasons is the quality and economy of services from Indian consultants. My experience with two firms in India has been positive. This is simply my experience, and yours can be vastly different, but I got a substantial amount of website design for about $4,000 and SEO for about $2,000.

Your reaction may be that adding $6,000 to your startup expenses is prohibitive, but by farming this out the entrepreneur should find a quicker path to profitability.

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Source by John Vinturella

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Choosing Light Bulbs For Aesthetics

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Now when you have designed your new interior scheme and picked the lighting you do not want to go and ruin it all by selecting ugly light bulbs. There are definitely different alternatives that are available for energy saving light bulbs with different technologies, energy consumptions and aesthetics. So you need to select your light bulb for both energy saving efficiency and aesthetics. Lets look at some of the alternative bulbs that strike the balance between aesthetics and efficiency.

Halogen Light Bulbs

Halogen Bulbs are definitely aesthetically pleasing and they will save around 30% in electricity costs against the traditional incandescent bulb. As an example if you choose a clear candle halogen bulb for your chandelier then the clear light will really make the most of the sparkle from the crystals. Then if you really want that aesthetic design edge go for the candle flame tip halogen bulb which will enhance the look of your chandelier considerably and the light bulbs will really contribute to the overall looks. Clearly the bulbs will never look like real candles with a glowing flame but the simple clean design of the flame tip candle bulb is the best choice for an electric light bulb.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps- CFL’s

The energy saving bulbs which use the compact fluorescent lamp technology are certainly good from an energy efficiency perspective saving around 80% against a traditional incandescent bulb, but the aesthetics can be far from pleasing. This is just fine if the light bulb is tucked away inside a lamp and is not visible, but if the light bulb is seen under the shade or there is no sconce at all then be sure to pick the right choice. The original linear CFL’s look awful and now at least the full spiral energy saving light bulbs have improves aesthetics, but the visual appearance is still far from ideal. The best choice is to go for the globe design CFL and if you pick one with a nice spherical shaped energy saving globe light bulb, then the look can be highly desirable. This way you can get the best of both worlds with a beautiful looking bulb that will pay for itself in electricity savings in a matter of months. That has got to be a win-win situation on the light bulb front!

LED Bulbs

If you want the ultimate in energy efficiency then the best choice is the LED bulb which will save you around 90% in electricity although the initial outlay for the light bulbs is considerably higher. However, be aware of the appearance to be sure that they are right for your lighting application. Now if you have simple halogen downlighter then there are some very elegant LED MR16 bulbs available that will produce the equivalent of say 25W halogen output from a 3W LED. That is a great energy saving bulb and the aesthetics are good too.

If you have a chandelier with say 20 bulbs then if you use 40 watt traditional bulbs then you will be consuming a massive 800 watts which is enough to heat the room if it is not mod winter! This means then you really need an energy efficient bulb scheme. You can go for the halogen bulbs as mentioned above but alternatively you could fit say 3W LED candle flame bulbs which will give you a light output per bulb of around 25 watts. The aesthetics are not as pleasing as the halogen bulbs as the multiple LED lights can look rather high tech, but if you build that into your interior design scheme then the result can be quite pleasing.

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Source by Paul Nigel Towers

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Ancestor Surname: Do You Belong to an Ancient Noble Family?

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The purpose of this article is to show what you should look out for if you are searching for an ancestor’s surname and want to know if it is noble.

The most common noble predicates are “von”, “de”, “di” etc. (meaning “of”) before the surname. A predicate among your ancestors is by no means proof of nobility, and some families have wrongly assumed predicates to make themselves appear to be noble. In some countries the noble families do not have any predicates, but are noble nonetheless. A predicate is an indispensable part of a surname if the surname was originally constructed with it – if it has been assumed later (after the family was ennobled or generally recognised as noble) it is sometimes called a “prefix”.

A surname of a noble ancestor with a predicate or prefix should properly be registered on the first letter of the main name, not on the predicate or prefix. Hence my name, von Wowern, is registered under “W”, not under “v”.

Many noble surnames include words such as “gold-” or “golden”, “silver-“, “sword” or symbols which are used on the family’s coat of arms. Among your ancestors you may also find names constructed from animals (“Wolf”, “Lion”) etc. Noble surnames often, but not always, seem unusual and different (which of course was a way to make it stand out).

An incholate is typically the geographical predicate attached to a noble family. E.g. for the Prince of Wales, “Wales” is the incholate. Incholates in another sense can be used by Church dignitaries, e.g. “Titular Bishop of X Y “. In many cases the incholate was the family’s domains, but later developed into a titular attribute. In some families the loss of the geographical domain caused them to write the nobiliary title between their first name and the surname – hence it was no longer “Count X Y”, but “X Count Y”, as the family name became the new incholate. Any incholate found among your ancestors should be carefully examined.

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Source by Jan-Olov Von Wowern

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England in the First Millennium – Hygiene, Bathing and How to Deal With Fleas

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The word ‘hygiene’ in the first millennium, certainly among the Anglo-Saxons, was an oxymoron.

For instance, people would dig their latrine pits outside the backs of their houses, apparently untroubled by the odour, which would have mingled deliciously with the droppings from their animals and perfumes of similar pungency.

The flies, of course, must have had a field day. A good tramp in the latrines, followed by a stroll across any food they might find lying about in the house, no doubt made their day.

For some reason, the Anglo-Saxon thought it only fair and reasonable that his or her body should play host to any parasite that was anxious for shelter. The whip-worm, despite its name, was relatively inoffensive. The maw-worm, however, was not. It favoured people’s liver and lungs, and had the most startling habit of suddenly appearing from the corner of someone’s eye.

Fleas, on the other hand, were not well tolerated. A number of methods used to be tried to rid the householder of these pests, one of which was laying sheepskins around the bed and waiting for the little brutes to vacate the bed and embrace the sheepskin, as it were. Since the sheepskin was white, or nearly so, the flea could be spotted as soon as he landed.

I expect the bed was gently tapped to encourage their exodus, but once on the sheepskin, the homeowner would presumably leap from hiding, waving a cudgel and lay about him or her, sending as many fleas to the promised land as possible.

It almost goes without saying that bathing wasn’t the most popular pastime around, either. The monks of one 10th. century European monastery were ordered to bathe 5 times per year. Now to your average Anglo-Saxon, this was fanaticism. Once a year, fine. Twice, if you were one of those fastidious types, but five times? Come on!

Mind you, it seems that on the other end of the scale, the Danes would bathe and comb their hair every week. Now while this was frowned upon, (I’m surprised the church didn’t issue a sanction on such radical behaviour), the commentator on this Danish custom was forced to admit that it seemed to give them a distinct edge when it came to the ladies.

So there was absolutely no concept of hygiene nor cleanliness in any form. But again, the Lord would protect you. If you happened to drop a piece of food on the floor, which as you can imagine would be covered in all forms of excrement, the best advice was to pick it up, make the sign of the Cross over it, season it well and pop it in your mouth!

Allow me to leave you with this thought. Acupuncture. No, not with needles, but with red hot iron pokers. There was even a book showing the points on the body where the pokers should be applied.

Enjoy your dinner!

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Source by Mike Bond

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How Mean is your Lean? Results of UK Study in Manufacturing

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It is starting to become accepted amongst management that Continuous Improvement (CI) requires an appropriate organisational culture change to create a sustainable improvement and benefits stream.

Whilst this emanates from research which goes back to the early 1990s, it has been slow to gain acceptance amongst business leaders, possibly due to scepticism, as after all, organisational culture is seen by many as being intangible, ‘soft and fluffy’.

Practical experiences and setbacks in the successful adoption of Continuous Improvement by practitioners, coupled with continued research (for example, see Jager et al, 2004 ; Gallear & Ghobadian,2004 ; Tennant & Warwood & Chiang, 2002 ; Warwood & Roberts 2004 ) has led to this final acceptance that organisational culture is a contributory factor in the successful adoption of Continuous Improvement.

The study.

As part of a PhD research programme, a pilot study amongst UK manufacturing companies was conducted. All of the companies in the sample had implemented Lean manufacturing techniques, although at different points in time, so each could be regarded as being at different points on the ‘journey’, but they all shared dissatisfaction with the results they had each attained with their Lean programmes.

Organisational culture assessments, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative approaches were conducted with each of the companies, involving several days with each. The approach was consistently applied across all of the companies in the sample.

Some of the findings.

The results were analysed and the findings which were drawn from these which showed that overall, the top three categories of organisational culture which were ‘resisting’ Lean implementation were Communications, Training & Development of employees, and Planning.

Employees saw the type and level of communications as being inadequate in engaging them with Lean, often inconsistent and contradictory.

Insufficient training and development of staff before and after the initial implementation of Lean made left employees not knowing what it was all about, and how to operate in the new ways of working. This extended to managers also.

The planning category included both planning for Lean, as well as strategic and operational planning. Overall, employees felt that there was a lack of coherent planning and direction, which led them to doubt the ability of the management to manage, as well as to ‘lead’ the implementation of Lean.

Finding out more.

If you would like to find out more about the findings of this research and practical ways of improving your Continuous Improvement (CI) programme, you can come and hear Tim Franklin talk at the Southern Manufacturing event and exhibition at Thorpe Park on Wednesday 8th February 2006 (“How Mean is your Lean?”), as well as on Thursday 9th February 2006 (“Accelerating your business improvement”). Alternatively you can contact Tim timfranklin@ambianceconsulting.co.uk

Sources:

Jager, B. d: Minnie, C; Jager, J. d; Welgemoed, M; Bessant, J; and Francis, D. (2004).

Enabling continuous improvements: a case study of implementations. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol 15, number 4.

Gallear, D; & Ghobadian, A. (2004). An empirical investigation of the channels that facilitate a total quality culture. Total quality management, Vol 15, number 8.

Tennant, C; Warwood, S.J.; & & Chiang, M. M. P. (2002). A Continuous Improvement process at Severn Trent Water. The TQM Magazine, Volume 14, number 5.

Warwood, S.J.; & Roberts, P.A.B. (2004). A survey of TQM success factors in the UK. Total Quality Management, Volume 15, number 8.

Tim Franklin MBA

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Source by Tim W Franklin

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Going Green Makes a Lot of CENTS

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You’ve likely heard the term “going green” and why it’s good for the environment. But what about the dollars and cents aspect? There are any number of reasons why building and business owners should invest in energy-efficient upgrades in their multi-family properties.

First, bear in mind how much LESS efficient older structures and related appliances and systems are compared to newer ones. Let’s take the example of a Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning System (HVAC) system on but one of your properties. Older buildings often have older HVAC systems with Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) ratings of only 6-11. Conversely, a new building, or one with an upgraded HVAC system, has a SEER rating of 15-20 – or more. And energy savings = cost savings.

* As an advertising tool. Being seen as a developer interested in “going green” will reap dividends as you’ll be seen as being environmentally friendly – promoting the environment while lowering energy bills for renters at the same time! This will make your properties more desirable, especially for the younger set.

The caveat here is practicing what you preach. Green marketing won’t work unless your organization is committed to protecting the environment. The last thing you want is a connect between what your brand says and what you actually do. If you follow the other bullet points in this article, you’ll be well on your way!

* Differentiating yourself from your competitors. Because going green costs more at first, you can be rest assured that not every business developer will be willing to make a green commitment. But doing so will pay off in the long run. Appraised value of your property, for instance, can be expected to double by installing SMART technology that improves energy efficiency. Going green makes a lot of “cents”.

* Increasing the bottom line of your properties. Homeowners know that remodeling – such as new siding, roof, etc. – will increase the value of their home. It’s like that with developers, too! As noted earlier, energy-efficient upgrades can easily mean add double the cost of the upgrade to the value of your property.

* Saving renters’ money. Installing energy-efficient HVAC systems, lights, water heaters, etc. on your premises will save renters in monthly expenses. A residence with energy-efficient upgrades can realize a 30 percent savings – or roughly $100 to $150 – in a single month. Renters can save a lot of money pretty quickly!

* Extending the life of different systems (lights, water, AC) with smart thinking technology to operate more efficiently. Efficient appliances not only cost less to run, but they also last longer. Consider the example of a simple LED light bulb. A typical LED light will last 1,500 operating days, or almost five years. Can your incandescent bulb say the same thing? And if a single LED light can last that long, how much longer can much costlier systems be expected to operate?

Summary

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why investing in energy-efficiency upgrades in multi-family properties makes a lot of “cents” for any developer or investor. What are you waiting for?

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Source by William Carson, Jr

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The Different Giant Tankless Water Heaters Offered Today

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Giant offers tankless heaters for both commercial and residential use, in compact sizes that are efficient enough to be compared with any other standard heaters. All units of Giant tankless water heaters are Energy Star certified and offer a superb energy factor of 0.96, which is phenomenal.

The distinction that Giant offers through its tankless heater range is that they can be used in form of small units for single use requirement, whereas multiple units can be used where demand is high for hot water. There are models that serve ideally to the jumbo bath tubs today offering efficiency in terms of use and energy consumption without compromising the need of hot water in any setting.

The biggest quality of tankless heaters is that they are the best suited option when space is a concern. Also these aqua heaters work well for vacation homes or places that are not visited quite often, as they save the hassle of emptying and cleaning a tank heater that has been filled with stagnant water for a long time.

Not only are these units ideal for individual needs, but are also self protectant, with enhanced scale detection illuminating possibilities of damage to unit and temperature lock feature facilitating prevention of accidents.

The star feature in all Giant aqua heaters is the PP (PolyPropylene) Concentric venting technology which is engineered to offer maximized use of condensing technology. The different units are covered under varying limited warranty covering residential units under 12 year warranty of heat exchangers, while the parts were covered under a 5 year warranty. The commercial models are offered under a 5 year warranty of heat exchanger on all models and for parts of UGTC models only.

The four unique tankless water heaters offered by Giant include the UGT 180 and 199 and the UGTC 152 and 199.

The UGT tankless heaters models offer:

– Enhanced hot water supply in accordance with the users need,

– Maximum energy factor of up to 0.82

– Space saving options through its resemblance to bathroom cabinet size

– Available in both condensing (PP technology) and non condensing models

– Capability of adjusting to all types of plumbing fixtures

– Vacation mode to avoid freezing in pipes owing to lack of use

– Minimum flow of 0.26 GPM and maximum flow of 0.40 GPM.

The UGTC aqua heaters models offer

– Eco energic proven heaters

– Space and energy saving units

– Ideal for increased hot water consumption

– Ability to serve all types of plumbing fixtures

– Temperature lock features helps in preventing any hot water related incidents

– Available in condensing (PP technology) and non condensing options

– Long term anti damage properties ensured by superior scale detection

– Ideal for vacation home use

– Minimum flow of 0.26 GPM and maximum flow of 0.40 GPM offered.

A technology that all Giant aqua heaters offer is the PP Concentric venting technology which allow certain distinct features to all the units including

• Allows absolutely no (0%) combustibles clearance.

• Especially engineered for venting of gas appliances

• Double protection owing to two pipes.

• Installation assurance through positive lock and fit.

• No messy, harmful or flammable glues, solvents or cements used.

• Every contract and joint sealed to endure any weather change or temperature ensuring no cracking or flexing in the venting.

Giant tankless water heaters besides offering continuous flow of hot water through innovative and smart features and designs, also offer easy installation and user interface services, making life of homeowners easier. Water heaters are the ultimate need of every homeowner today and models such as Giant’s tankless water heaters not only offer energy efficiency but also effective space management through a unit similar to the size of a medicine cabinet only. Giant heaters are without a doubt enhancing everyday living in the most efficient and effective manner.

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Source by Mahvish Arshad

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Common Soundproofing Materials

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Common Soundproofing Materials and How to Soundproof a Room

What is everything for? There are many different materials used in sound proofing. Some of these materials are readily available and fairly affordable. Others are proprietary and have “hidden” specifications and/or design characteristics and are usually expensive. Beware, it is often the expensive proprietary materials which also come with the most outrageous claims. In reality it is possible to achieve good soundproofing with readily available and inexpensive materials if you know what you are doing.

How much does it all cost? It is very difficult to put a budget on soundproofing. There are a lot of variables like where you will be purchasing your materials from, how much material you will need, the sort of surface that you be working on and so forth. If you are doing it yourself, perhaps a rule of thumb is total cost will be twice the price (per square foot or square metre) of the main material which you are using. In other words if you are using a material which is $5 per square foot you might want to budget $10 per square foot to do the job. Obviously the second $5 goes towards other components of the soundproofing. This is just a very rough rule of thumb and it assumes that you are not factoring in any labour costs.

Which ones do I really need? A quantity of a material is considered to be cost effective if it offers a good measure of soundproofing at a relatively low price compared to other materials or compared to a greater quantity of the same material. So there is every chance that you might have heard of a perfectly good soundproofing material which is not discussed here. If you were to put together a basic list of soundproofing materials it might include the following:

  • Drywall/plasterboard and possibly mass loaded vinyl
  • Flexible acoustical caulking & a caulking gun
  • Laminated glass
  • Solid core doors
  • Resilient fixings e.g. furring channels
  • Basic timber frames

Which soundproofing materials are the easiest to work with? Unfortunately most soundproofing techniques and materials require a bit of effort. The secret to success is to take your time and to read as much as you can about best practice installation. For example plasterboard (drywall) installation is fairly straightforward if you do it recipe style. On the other hand if you try to make it up as you go along you will probably create an unsightly mess. Again the materials and techniques presented here are the ones which are considered to be suitable for DIYers while also effective for relatively inexpensive soundproofing.

Which soundproofing materials are the most effective? The effectiveness of a material or technique will very much depend on the quality of the installation. The key things to watch for are:

  • Avoid any rigid fixings like screws and nails and use resilient mountings wherever possible.
  • Ensure everything is airtight.
  • Pay particular attention to any joints and ensure that they are properly caulked.
  • Ask yourself what will happen to the effectiveness of your soundproofing system at any edges or junctions.
  • Is it possible for sound to “flank” or travel around your newly constructed barrier?
  • Sometimes you will need a strategy to deal with this “flanking noise”.
  • The easiest flanking strategy is to continue the soundproofing technique beyond the edges of the surface in question onto the adjoining surface eg ceiling to wall and vice versa.

The theoretical effectiveness of a material is usually presented as a sound absorption or sound reduction measure, also expressed as sound transmission and noise reduction classes (NRC & STC). There are many tables available with these measures for all sorts of materials. The purists will tell you that these figures mean totally different things and should not be interchanged. This is true but in many ways it is not something the DIYer should be concerned about. Here is a quick way to interpret the figures: over 30 for good individual materials and over 50 for a good complete soundproofing system.

If a material is a sound absorber like fibreglass batt insulation or open cell soundproofing foam, try to place it near the source of the sound, not in the room receiving the noise. If you can only work in the room receiving the noise pollution then stick to sound barriers, also known as sound reflectors. Note that fibreglass insulation is a poor sound barrier (low STC) but has a good noise reduction coefficient (NRC) when used at the source of the noise. It is important to keep the terms “noise source” and “receiving” and “absorption” and “barrier” top of mind when you review the comments on the materials below.

If the material is clearly a rigid or dense material then the comments are likely to be referring to its performance as a sound barrier placed in the room receiving the noise pollution. If the material is porous, flexible, or of quite low density then the comments are likely to be referring to the material as a sound absorber placed near the source of the noise.

Naturally there are a number of exceptions to these descriptions. Below are some examples of absorbers and barriers. Clearly many materials are hybrids and have both characteristics.

Obviously you will be shopping for inexpensive materials with good noise reduction properties whether as barriers or absorbers. You might find an expensive material which is being dumped at a good price or you might live in a part of the world where a material is in ready supply and so is less expensive. Be a little bit lateral when you start shopping and planning.

Another important consideration is the frequency of the sound that you are trying to attenuate. Generally most materials perform more poorly for lower frequency sounds like drums or boom cars or stereo subwoofers. If the sound is low-frequency try to use more dense and or thicker materials. Again as a rule of thumb if you always prepare your designs for low-frequency soundproofing you will invariably solve your high-frequency soundproofing issues as well.

Absorbers

1) Rolls of building Insulation

As expected building insulation is a very good sound absorber at the source of the noise. The thicker and more dense mineral products are superior. Performance can be improved by introducing an air space in the total design of the soundproofing and also by using insulating materials with a lining – where the lining faces the sound source. Building insulation tends to be more effective for soundproofing around the frequency of human voice. The most cost effective thickness for roll insulation is probably 3 1/2 inches or just under 9 centimetres.

2) Batts

As for rolls of building insulation.

3) Rigid fibreglass sheets & ceiling board

Again generally the thicker the board the more effective it is. Probably the most cost-effective thickness for fibreglass board is around 2 inches or 5 cm. Interestingly fibreglass boards with facings seem to perform less well than fibreglass boards without facings. In other words avoid the added expense of faced boards.

4) Form board for roofs

Two to 3 kg density fibreglass form board of only 1 inch thickness is easy to handle and performs very well if you are able to obtain it at a good price.

5) Ceiling boards

Painted perforated and fissured mineral ceiling board is easy to handle and performs reasonably well at around 2 cm thickness. The best soundproofing is achieved with cast rough texture mineral ceiling board. Note: wood fibre ceiling boards do not perform particularly well. Foam sheets/tiles and soundproof foam ceiling boards perform quite well as absorbers when they are one or 2 inches thick. At this thickness they perform almost as well as the mineral ceiling board, but are clearly much easier to handle. Mineral ceiling board probably has better barrier qualities though.

6) Wall panels

For the general principles relating to wall panels see the comments on ceiling boards.

7) Floor coverings

Carpets are only good soundproofers if they are used as absorbers. A lot of their effectiveness comes from reducing impact noise. So for example you might put down carpet mostly to reduce the sound of footsteps on a timber floor and to dampen some of the airborne noise in the room. There are specialised underlays which can be placed beneath carpets or floating floors. These need to be properly selected and you should ask for very clear sound transmission performance data and additional data on impact noise performance.

8) Brick

People are usually surprised to learn that bricks are sound absorbers rather than sound barriers. They are even more surprised to discover that brick is a relatively poor sound absorber. Notions of very quiet brick homes usually come from older double brick construction were an air cavity between the two skins of brick contributes significantly to the overall soundproofing effectiveness.

9) Other

There are arguments around about whether materials like plywood, drywall and glass are absorbers or barriers. Here they are referred to as barriers and they are outlined in the next section. Do not worry about the various proprietary laminates of absorbers they are not worth the money. Moreover you will usually get a better effect if you purchase the two layers un-cemented and install them separated by a few inches of airspace and perhaps secured by some sort of resilient fixing. The small airspace between two absorbers seems to add quite noticeably to soundproofing performance. Spray on cellulose can be a useful absorber however there is no guarantee of what you will be getting or how thick it will be. Properly applied it can be an excellent material to use in roof cavities for thermal and acoustic insulation. It can be sprayed directly onto the underside of the roof board or shingles or tiles.

Barriers

1) Glass & Acrylic sheets

These options perform about the same at equal thicknesses. The most cost effective thickness being around of an inch or just over 6mm. Rather than using thicker material it is advised that you create a sealed air cavity between a couple of sheets of the material.

2) Plywood

Plywood is not quite as effective as drywall but is obviously stronger and less fragile. The most cost effective thickness for plywood is probably half inch or about 13mm.

3) Drywall, Gypsum board or Plasterboard

The performance of drywall does not seem to improve very much between 1/2 inch and 5/8th inch thickness, so the most cost-effective thickness is obviously half inch. When you use multiple layers of drywall it’s important to secure them with some form of resilient fixing, this considerably improves the soundproofing characteristics.

4) Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) & Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic Panels (FRP)

MLV & FRP are highly effective and easy to use products as they can have a thickness of only a fraction of an inch. The downside is that they can sometimes be expensive. A roll of MLV with a density of 1 pound per square foot or about 5kg per square metre is as effective as half inch drywall and 1/8th inch (3mm) FRP. If you can buy MLV or FRP at about the same price as drywall you might consider using them instead. You could even consider using MLV or FRP behind a second layer of drywall to create super soundproofing without increasing the thickness of the wall too much.

5) Concrete Panel

This is not really an option for most DIYers however if you are looking at buying an apartment make sure the walls are at least 4 inches of concrete plus drywall or 6 inches of concrete if it is an unfinished surface. Six inches plus drywall finishing should give you the same soundproofing as a double brick and cavity construction.

6) Laminated Products

Again there is little justification for purchasing laminated products. For about the same cost, better performance can be achieved using the individual components resiliently mounted with a small air cavity.

Do You need to buy any special proprietary products? The simple answer to this is no. You will come across lots of advertisements for groundbreaking scientific innovations in soundproofing. It’s possible that one day something will be invented that will be inexpensive and highly effective but for the moment most proprietary products perform no better than readily available combinations of inexpensive materials.

An important note on resilient channels: Having said that it is not essential to buy proprietary products, the resilient Channel is probably one material that you should select more carefully and which may be worth restricting to specific brands. You should look for a product made from 25 gauge steel ideally with some form of STC guarantee. Channels can have one or two legs and usually have slits or cut outs along their length, these are design characteristics which add to the resilience of a material.

When installing resilient furring channel on a wall, if it is the type with an open flange, face the flange upward so that it is pulled away from the frame slightly when the wallboard is attached. Point all the flanges in the same direction whether on a wall or ceiling. Take great care when installing the wallboard to the channels so that you do not “short out” the channel by screwing too far through the channel and into the timber behind.

Published by Craig Williams (2012)

EzineArticles Expert Author

For more information on inexpensive home soundproofing visit http://www.SoundProofingSecrets.com

(May be reproduced with author acknowledgment and attached URLs.)

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Source by Craig R Williams