Assessment and profiling of acoustic solutions for mitigating the noise levels originating from hydrosanitary facilities in buildings

Excessive noise is deemed a public health problem due to its imphuman health. Within such context, the need for acoustic control in residential buildings is highlighted, and as regards this study specifically, with respect to noise control in buildings' hydrosanitary facilities. Such high noise levels may arouse unpleasant auditory perceptions, generating embarrassment among neighbors due to the lack of privacy. This article's goal is to evaluate the outcomes of possible acoustic solutions for mitigating the sound pressure levels generated by hydrosanitary facilities in buildings, due to toilet flushing activation as well as from the opening of water taps. Sound pressure levels measurements have been carried out according to the ISO 16032: 2004 standard as adapted for lab purposes within IPT's hydrosanitary acoustic essay chamber, for nine samples of acoustic envelopment. Such technical results arising from the physical quantity LZeq were evaluated for each of the samples, as measured both in acoustically-enclosed as well as in bare pipes. Concerning the samples under assessment, the results were deemed satisfactory, since most of the samples present differences in terms of the global sound pressure levels, LZeq,nT, equalling DL 20 dB upon toilet flushing and DL 10 dB for the noise levels arising out of tap opening events.