In the past few years, there has been greater recognition for the role sound plays in creating occupant comfort in homes, schools, workplaces and healthcare facilities. As families today are trending smaller, many new buyers are moving into modest-sized one- and two-bedroom homes or townhomes and condos in urban settings. Most people need a reasonable degree of quiet to concentrate, relax or feel comfortable, and as such, wall assemblies are playing a greater role in the management of sound and indoor environmental quality.
Sound travels as waves. Waves that move through solids just as they do the air, albeit at different speeds. Some materials are good conductors of sound waves while others are not so good. In acoustic control for buildings, the goal is to employ poor sound conductors in the wall, ceiling and floor assemblies. In most wall assembly acoustic design, there are two basic schools of thought with regard to how to disrupt these waves.