Wall of silence | Archive Titles

Table 1: The main requirements
Requirement	Limits on application
Protection against sound from adjoining dwellings or buildings
E1: Dwellings and rooms for residential purposes shall be designed and constructed in such a way that they provide reasonable resistance to sound from adjoining dwellings, adjoining rooms for residential purposes, other parts of the same building, and adjoining buildings	Requirement E1 does not apply to hospitals and prisons
Protection against sound within a dwelling
E2: dwellings and rooms for residential purposes shall be designed and constructed in such a way that: (a) an internal wall between a room containing a wc and a living room, dining room, study or bedroom (except where the wc is en suite) shall provide reasonable resistance to sound (b) an internal wall between bedrooms, and between bedrooms and other rooms, and an internal floor between bedrooms and between bedrooms and other rooms, shall provide reasonable resistance to sound	Requirements E2 (a) and E2 (b) do not apply to hospitals and prisons Requirements E2 (a) and E2 (b) do not apply to existing walls and floors in material change of use
Protection against noise from external sources
E3: dwellings, and rooms for residential purposes, shall be designed and constructed in such a way that they provide reasonable resistance to noise from external sources.	Requirement E3 does not apply to hospitals and prisons
Reverberation in the common internal parts of buildings containing dwellings
E4: the common internal parts of buildings containing dwellings and buildings containing a room or rooms for residential purposes shall be designed and constructed so as to prevent more reverberation than is reasonable around the common internal parts	Requirement E4 does not apply to common internal parts other than corridors, stairwells, hallways and entrance halls that give access to the dwellings or rooms for residential purposes
Acoustic conditions in schools
E5: each room or other space in a school building shall have the acoustic conditions and the insulation against disturbance by noise appropriate to its normal use.	Requirement E4 does not apply to hospitals and prisons