General provisions for Section 7

This Section describes how to determine the amount of additional absorption to be used in corridors, hallways, stairwells and entrance halls that give access to flats, maisonettes and rooms for residential purposes. For the purposes of this Section, a corridor or hallway is a space for which the ratio of the longest to the shortest floor dimension is greater than three. For the purposes of this Section, an entrance hall is a space for which the ratio of the longest to the shortest floor dimension is three or less. When an entrance hall, corridor, hallway or stairwell opens directly into another of these spaces, the guidance should be followed for each space individually. Two methods are described to satisfy regulation 51, Method A and Method B. Method A: Cover a specified area with an absorber of an appropriate class that has been rated according to BS EN ISO 11654. Method B: Determine the minimum amount of absorptive material using a calculation procedure in octave bands. Method B is intended only for corridors, hallways and entrance halls as it is not well suited to stairwells. Where additional guidance is required, specialist advice should be sought at an early stage.