Spectrum act as BREEAM Acoustic Consultant

28 November 2016 by Nick Treby, Director

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is used widely in the construction industry to determine the sustainability of buildings. A building is assessed against numerous sustainability criteria, and determined overall to be a pass, good, very good, excellent or outstanding. Within the method is the need to determine the acoustic sustainability of a building, and Spectrum frequently act as the BREEAM Acoustic Consultant, to help the developer, design team and contractor achieve the BREEAM Acoustic Credits, that count towards the overall certification standard.

Traditionally, this has been used for office developments. At Farnborough Business Park, XLB Projects were developing two new speculative buildings. They were near to Farnborough Airport. The BREEAM Acoustic Credits required the building to keep out noise from the airport, to control noise from building services plant, to ensure the internal sound insulation was sufficient, that reverberation was controlled and that noise from the external plant did not disturb the neighbours. As each member of technical staff at Spectrum is a “suitably Qualified Acoustician” as defined in BREEAM, we were able to act as the BREEAM Acoustic Consultant. We assisted the developer pre-tender to develop suitable specifications, we helped the contractor during construction to ensure the standards were achieved, and we completed commissioning measurements to enable the BREEAM Assessor to award the necessary credits.

BREEAM has extended far beyond simply commercial buildings though. Acoustic Credits can be awarded for any type of building. We have acted as BREEAM Acoustic Consultant on education buildings, medical buildings, residential buildings, sports facilities, prisons, car dealerships, retail centres and many more besides.

Acoustic Credits are usually related to indoor noise levels, the sound insulation between adjacent spaces, the control of reverberation and environmental noise from any building services plant. It is often not straightforward to achieve the BREEAM criteria, and it can be difficult to evaluate how best the requirements can be achieved. Spectrum understand that the acoustic credits are just one part of a larger project, and are experienced in working with other professional disciplines towards the overall aim of BREEAM Certification. We can advise on the practicality of achieving the credits so that they are not targeted, then later missed as a result of failed testing. We can assist the BREEAM Assessor by evaluating the technical work associated with contractor submissions.

Further information on obtaining BREEAM credits