Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Acoustics for the Commonhouse

[Robin Allison (robin.allison]

I'm coming in late to this discussion....

We have just finished our common house, and it has great acoustics in the 
dining room. No clatter, just a pleasant buzz of voices when we're dining. But 
it's not muffled either - if there are only a few people in the room, you can 
hear what people say clearly from across the room.

We are an eco-neighourhood, so avoided fibreglass or plastic (except to the 
kitchen ceiling where we have high performance plastic-coated fibreglass tiles, 
washable). The entire dining room cathedral ceiling is lined with 40 x 20mm 
timber boards with 25mm gaps between, on top of hessian fabric, which covers 
the polyester thermal insulation between the rafters. This allows the sound in 
the room to go between the spaced boards and be absorbed by the insulation. 
Simple, and very effective, even with timber paneled walls and no soft 
furniture or rugs yet.

We have Woodtex in the children's room ceiling (thin strips of wood in a cement 
base, compressed into tiles - maybe that's what you call Tectum?), which also 
works very well.

Regards,
Robin Allison

Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood
P.O. Box 70001, Ranui,
Auckland, New Zealand
www.earthsong.org.nz