Anybody that lives close to a main road, an airport or has noisy neighbours will tell you how disruptive it can be to suffer from the effects of noise pollution. We have always welcomed the opportunity to help people to use our products to improve their lives as well as their properties.
One of the reasons why homeowners may have become more concerned about this issue could be the recent publication of a study that suggests that living near to heavy traffic increases the risk of dementia; something Scientists have previously tried to prove for many years.
A common assumption is that it is better to have a triple glazed unit as opposed to a double glazed unit on the belief that having another layer of glass will be beneficial in preventing noise from travelling through the window from outside to inside.
However, evidence suggests otherwise. We know from test evidence that the introduction of a third layer of glass can in some instances actually increase the problem in that the third layer is actually just another piece of material that can vibrate; and more vibration = more noise.
So if the solution is not Triple Glazing then what is it?
We believe that a better solution is to use a special ‘acoustic laminate’ glass in a double glazed unit. The acoustic laminate layer is actually made up of three components – two pieces of 3mm glass with a PVB Polyvinyl Butyral) interlayer sandwiched in-between them.
Test evidence from experiments conducted in laboratories suggested that this combination would be better at reducing noise levels. Of course, the real test is in customer’s homes.