Vibration Control and Gyms

Vibration can seriously affect people's sense of comfort within buildings. Vibration also affects structural and cosmetic integrity and may affect sensitive equipment (i.e. imaging equipment or projectors). Specialist service and expertise are available for highly sensitive receptors, such as laboratories or studios, where very low levels of vibration are tolerable to protect sensitive equipment (such as electron-microscopes to levels such as NIST-A) as shown below.

A scientist using a high-precision electron microscope

A gym containing a large amount of power lifting weights.

We also work to isolate Gyms from the structures they find themselves in, which are often near places where people are living, and so present complex challenges to get right acoustically. Lightweight building structures are a particular challenge which we regularly deal with.

It is considerably more cost-efficient to get things right from the beginning than try to retrofit a solution, and it is advised that a baseline assessment of a building is completed to check it is suitable. We are in the process of leading a working group to provide guidance on behalf of the acoustics industry on gyms, which is due towards the end of 2020.

The impact on human comfort within buildings can be assessed against British Standard 6472 and on the structural integrity for damage in accordance with British Standard 7385 within buildings.

We conduct surveys in an accordance with these relevant standards for environmental, building and construction activities. We also work with structural engineers to quantify the vibrational response of the buildings to their environmental vibration around them (such as near train or tube lines) to help diagnose problems or prevent structural noise that will cause issues.

Finally, health and safety assessments at high levels of vibration exposure affect workers using percussive and rotating tools. We can carry out assessments in the workplace to guard against the permanent disability known as vibration white finger.