The end justifies the means – Sprayed sound-absorbing coating on non-acoustic materials

There is a growing demand in the market for elegant but at the same time more sustainable acoustic solutions. To achieve good acoustic environments there are several ways to tackle the problem. Do we go to high-end luxury road, or could there be more affordable solutions with the same end results? And how to pull off the trick? In this study we present results from acoustical measurements taken in four different spaces of varying functionality where 10 mm thick acoustic coating has been installed directly on non-acoustical hard surfaces. The acoustic coating absorbs sound without the need of an acoustic base material underneath. When installed on existing surfaces, the carbon footprint of the building is reduced. The coating can be tinted to any color, and its texture can be customized from rough to smooth, thus architectural visual changes can be minimized. We demonstrate that the presented acoustic coating is a cost-efficient seamless acoustic solution that can be used to achieve excellent acoustic comfort, even though the thin layer sounds like insufficient. We demonstrate that coating can easily have larger surface area than traditional acoustic tiles, thus the required total absorption area is achieved with only 10 mm thick coating. The use of the acoustic coating, however, requires acoustic engineers, designers, and architects to rethink their acoustic plans with a more creative and sustainable mind.