Hi everyone,
Is there a particular definition of Conference Room listed anywhere. We have two types of rooms in the building. One with table and chairs, which is named as 'conference room' and another with only loose chairs, which is labelled as 'meeting room'. We are looking at what exactly constitutes a conference room for the STC rating requirements to apply.
In addition to that, we are using sliding doors(like the Nanawall) at one of the conference rooms which doesnot give an STC rating of more than 40. But since the owners want the sliding doors to open from the conference room into the hallway, we cannot change it. So is there another way around this? Any other sliding door manufacturer has STC 50 doors? It seems we might lose on this credit because there may not be manufacturer making a high STC sliding door.
Thank you,
K
Ken Shook
PartnerLongman Lindsey
LEEDuser Expert
5 thumbs up
May 30, 2018 - 5:09 pm
Both spaces you have mentioned would likely fall under the category of "conference rooms".
Regarding the STC requirement, our approach has been to assume the 50 rating applies to walls, not doors. To comply with STC-50 is not practical for doors in a typical office space. This would require an acoustically rated swing door and frame, usually reserved for a studio type application.
Michelle Rosenberger
PartnerArchEcology
523 thumbs up
May 30, 2018 - 5:25 pm
Hi Ken,
We queried this very issue with the USGBC for the reasons you indicate. This is the answer we received:
"As you probably are aware, any openings in a partition are paths for sound to travel. So, it makes no sense to provide a high STC partition with unprotected openings. The overall STC calculation of a composite partition is a weighted value and is explained in the reference guide (Further Explanation). It does not mean that a doorway must also have an STC rating of 50 but that the composite must achieve that level."