In September 2003, Green Bay, Wisconsin's legendary Lambeau
Field celebrated the completion of a $297 million
redevelopment. On a nearby street named after football's
greatest coaching legend, another multi-use structure
opened for business. Combining an indoor water park,
arcade, and conference center with an exquisite 161-room
lodge, The Tundra Lodge Resort and Waterpark seemingly had
everything going for it on opening day. Just four blocks
from the country's newest pro stadium in a region famous
for rabid football fans, many of whom travel long distances
to attend games, The Tundra Lodge was perfectly situated to
draw faraway fans and local families to its Lombardi Avenue
address.
THE PROBLEM
But then the complaints about room-to-room sound intrusion
began. The facility's Managing Director of Engineering,
Melanie Novinska, vividly remembers the impact that
mounting complaints over unwanted sound were having by the
end of the first year of operation. "It cost our property a
lot of discounted rooms and certificates for people to give
us another try. "The sound transfer from one guestroom to
another was unacceptable. Of course, when you first open
any hotel property, business is slow. You don't find the
problems until you're selling lots of rooms and guests are
next to each other." How bad was the real-life performance
of the resilient channel walls her original
architect-builder believed would deliver an STC rating
around 50? Before renovation began, the sound transmission
of the old walls was measured. The best-performing walls
came in at a mere STC 37 and the worst yielded a paltry STC
34 rating-only one or two points above standard 5/8-inch
drywall. Because the lodging business is so heavily
impacted by word-of-mouth, Novinska estimates inadequate
sound isolation in the original construction was causing
some 50% of repeat business to evaporate. That's a lot of
revenue for any hotel to lose; for a lodge with over 160
rooms it was a flat out disaster. Something had to be done.
THE SOLUTION
Novinska felt compelled to educate herself. "I read about a
number of solutions on the internet and requested
information. We chose to fix the problem using QuietRock,
an internally damped soundproof drywall." After receiving
third-party validation from Patrick McCormick of Brandner
Engineering about the proposed solution, contractor HJ
Martin began the work of removing the now two-year-young
drywall. While the new soundproof drywall could have simply
been placed over the existing drywall, outlets needed to be
moved as well, so it was decided to remove the drywall on
the shared walls. The soundproof drywall was then used
instead of the old RC/drywall wall. "With tape, texture and
paint, we were able to complete about 6-8 rooms every 5
days", Novinska recalls.
RESULTS
"Before we fixed it, the situation was really bad," Jay
Hussong of drywall contractor HJ Martin commented. "You
could hear conversations right through the walls. After we
addressed each room, we measured multiple rooms at STC 50
or better-we could clearly hear the difference." "After
fixing the rooms, the noise complaints ceased," reported
Novinska. "The difference was amazing, and our occupancy
rates went up. This was the perfect solution for us.
Factoring all the costs, including materials and labor,
you'll realize savings over the long term by addressing
soundproofing upfront, she advised other building owners.
"Start with the right products and properly position your
outlets and any other openings on back-to-back guestrooms,
and you'll get quiet rooms."
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Kevin Surace is CEO of Quiet Solution in Sunnyvale
California. More information is available at
http://www.quietsolution.com .
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