Roly Ward, Head of Business Development at MEDITE SMARTPLY outlines why OSB can improve sound insulation, help deliver acoustic efficiency and a provide a tranquil home. 
For many, having peace and quiet in the home is one of life’s little pleasures. More importantly, it’s an essential part of ensuring a comfortable and healthy environment – so much so that a baseline level of noise reduction is a key component of Building Regulations in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
There’s a large body of evidence establishing a link between excessive, unwanted noise and several adverse health conditions. For example, studies have indicated that noise pollution in homes is a leading cause of stress, annoyance and anxiety. Other studies have found that those experiencing long-term ‘noise annoyance’ have higher chances of experiencing depression and anxiety.
The minimum sound insulation standards outlined in the Building Regulations help to mitigate this for occupants. The regulations require that internal residential floors achieve a sound reduction performance of 40dB from airborne sounds, which in theory is enough to dampen the sound leakage from an alarm clock (~80dB) to be around the volume of a refrigerator hum (~40dB).
It’s important to note that these regulations apply to a complete floor system, not just the individual products used. This is because there are various aspects of a subfloor system that can affect noise insulation, from the presence of an isolating void between floor joists to insufficient density of insulation material.
The Building Regulations Approved Document E for England and Wales and the Technical Booklet for Northern Ireland offer a specific example of a timber floor solution that meets the sound insulation performance requirements. This solution includes wood decking panels with a minimum mass of 15kg/m2, alongside a single layer of plasterboard (with a minimum 10kg/m2 mass per unit) and a 100mm+ thick layer of mineral wool insulation in the cavity.
Alternatives to chipboard
While the Building Regulations Approved Document E highlights the use of timber in floor systems, there can be some shortcomings to some timber-based solutions — namely, the weight, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of chipboard in residential floor systems.
There will be variations in the density of timber panels between manufacturers, but we can put the average weight of a one square metre panel of 22mm thick chipboard at approximately 15kg. This weightiness comes from how the chipboard is produced and can make the installation process more laborious for installers.
Fortunately, installers aren’t limited exclusively to the chipboard-based floor system that are commonly used. However, laboratory sound insulation tests are required to demonstrate that other floor systems meet the requirements of the Building Regulations. Oriented strand board (OSB) offers a low-cost and high-performance alternative.
The cross-orientation of wood strands in OSB contributes to the panels’ high versatility and durability. Their density and structural strength mean that they can provide excellent sound absorption and vibration dampening, and the OSB itself can be treated to further enhance these properties.
With the material lending itself to sound-dampening applications, panels can be made thinner and lighter without compromising performance compared to chipboard. For example, MEDITE SMARTPLY recently successfully completed extensive testing with a UKAS-accredited laboratory on timber flooring systems for internal residential floors featuring 18mm thick OSB panels.
If we take the average weight of a 600kg/m3 density OSB panel, this will put the weight of an 18mm thick panel at roughly 11kg per one square metre — 30% lighter than chipboard. This makes handling on the construction site and installing easier. The reduced thickness also further reduces the panel cost, on top of OSB’s usual cost-effectiveness.
The recent testing was specifically on systems featuring the SMARTPLY MAX DB and SMARTPLY SURE STEP DB panels, with both systems achieving the required airborne sound insulation performance of 40dB. In addition to the sound dampening and airtightness, the SMARTPLY SURE STEP DB system also benefitted from the panel’s enhanced durability and slip resistance due to its high-performance coating.
Sustainability in mind
OSB can also fit comfortably within the sustainability considerations of home construction. Because OSB is made of wood strands, the entirety of the tree is used, and nothing is wasted, reducing the foresting impact of production.
In the case of SMARTPLY OSB, the material is exclusively sourced from sustainably managed and accredited Irish forests. The panels are also manufactured using no added formaldehyde, contributing to healthier environments for dwellers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
With the recent UKAS-accredited testing helping to dispel any misconceptions that OSB is unsuitable for sound-dampening residential floor systems, there are now more options available to build safe, comfortable and quiet homes in line with Building Regulations. Even better, it can be done while ticking off many of an installer’s requirements — another of life’s little pleasures.
