CERAM Building Technology (CBT), part of CERAM, has set up a specialist testing facility to help designers, builders and building product manufacturers ensure that their products and developments meet the stringent Part E acoustic requirements of the Building Regulations.

CBT’s experts have built a structure at their laboratories in Stoke-on-Trent to provide the facility for testing sample panels of floors which separate different dwellings, as well as for testing sample panels of separating walls, external walls and facades. The tests are undertaken at different frequencies to accommodate the different requirements of the regulations.

The regulations, which are designed to reduce the impact of unwanted noise, also stipulate that 10% of all new housing stock will have to undergo acoustic testing and that this is the responsibility of the Building Control Officers. To accommodate this, CBT also has a mobile testing facility which can undertake on-site testing at any new development

Professor Edgell, Divisional Manager for CBT commented: “Under Part E some of the testing can be carried out by the manufacturers themselves, however, there are areas which require independent testing and we have ensured that we have the facilities to carry out any or all of these tests.”

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