Acoutics in the home

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Have also posted in property/diy but maybe someone here can help please.

Does anyone know who to contact to get advice on acoustics in the home? Our new family room is awful and our deaf ds can't hear an adult talking at a normal level in there and I dread to think how loud the tv will have to be in there for him to hear it!!

have you thought about getting a loop system for the tv? We got one through the local hearing and vision service, part of social services, referred ourselves. You need the loop setting put on the hearing aids as well but it only takes a couple of minutes to do.

I think the ndcs site has something on acoustics somewhere on the site, probably in relation to schools but will give you some idea. I think you want things like carpet/rugs, curtains and soft furnishings to stop the echoing which might be the problem.

have had a quick look on ndcs. You need to search for acoustic toolkit, couldn't link it as it comes up as a pdf. There is also a list of acoustic companies that may be useful.

bigcar thank you so much. I didn't know there was a hearing and vision service as part of social services. But thinking about it when he was tiny and very very ill the social worker sent out to assess was a deaf specialist and did say something about being able to advise on technology at a later date. I'll see if I can find her details and contact her. I'll also go and look on the NDCS website again. I had a look around there earlier but couldn't find anything.

Haven't really thought about a loop system for the TV but that does make sense. I'm guessing that won't help our unaided DD who has a mild to moderate loss?

loop system feeds the sound direct to the hearing aid so will be no use to your dd unfortunately. May be now's the time to go for surround sound! Ss may have some idea, they usually have access to all sorts. They also have flashing doorbells/phones and vibrating alarm clocks etc, may as well ask what else may be of use in the future.

Are you able to give any more detail about what makes the room so awful? Is it very echo-y or is the problem the complete opposite?

I used to work in acoustics research (after TreeHouse but before becoming a teacher just in case people who've read other things I've written think I'm some weirdo who claims all sorts of random professions!) and may be able to come up with something/someone who can help but would need to know a bit more first.

Very very echoey and the large glass doors haven't gone in yet. But also it seems that however loud something is its just not clear. Even as a hearing adult I'm finding that I need to be able to SEE the speaker to hear them properly.

The full knocking through to the main house hasn't happened yet. When that happens the room will be open plan to the kitchen which I'm now thinking was a really bad idea for him. I'm worried that the noises from the kitchen will not be dampened in anyway.

We've not done the flooring yet. We were originally thinking to do wood floors with rugs but now we're wondering if we'd better do carpets and put up with the difficult cleaning that would come with that. Maybe just put hard flooring at the doors.

I'd wait until it's all finished I think. I'm presuming it's empty at the moment, it will be different by the time there is furniture in there, by the time you have sofas and chairs, curtains, rugs, toys etc it may well be better anyway. Our old house was awful for acoustics when we went to look round (empty), really echoey (is that even a word?!) but by the time we had the bookshelves up and curtains and a sofa and the dcs junk it was an awful lot better. Still worth finding out about a loop system, it's easily fitted, just a box under the tv and a loop of wire that runs round the room. Btw, I'm very of your extension, sounds great

bigcar thank you. We need to decide on the heating soon and we had planned to ufh but we're not sure we can if we want carpets. I've contacted the NDCS and their audiologist is going to call me back at some point to discuss it with me. We like the extension, absolutly lovely and its not even finished .

Are you using an architect for your extension? If so s/he should be able to talk to an acoustician about reverberation times and signal to noise ratio. There are all sorts of things that can be done to improve the acoustics including changing the materials used on the wall or having a panel in the ceiling that can be used to bounce sound off.

The acoustics of any empty room will be affected by whatever is put in it be that people, furniture or wall/floor coverings. It might be that you need to be strategic over where you place pictures on the wall and opt for things such as curtains instead of shutters made out of a hard, sound-reflecting surface.

The noise team of your LA environmental health department is likely to have at least one person who has studied acoustics and noise reduction so it might be worth contacting them and seeing if they'd be happy to come and assess the space in conjunction with the LA planning team.

An educational audiologist may be able to offer some advice although much of their work is done in/for schools. Failing that ou could e-mail an academic who has an interest in acoustics and their effect upon children with hearing problems e.g. South Bank University Acoustics Group.

Your TOD should also advise, including some basic testing of background noise. You've got to think about what's in the room, soft things don't bounce the sound about as much as hard things, so curtains (rather than blinds), rugs (we have wooden floors and my DD is profoundly deaf), think about furniture noise as well, sofas and soft chairs rather than lots of wood. Her school has also been advised to think about rubberising the bottom of chairs (classrooms are notoriously bad).

just been looking on the connevans site, this is the loop we have, not the most hi tech but does a good job, also saw this made me think of your dd, it would allow her to listen into the loop system with headphones. They have a few other things for non hearing aid users so may well be worth a look The ndcs are pretty fab aren't they!