Lucky Tsaih,
Yosua W. Tedja,
An-Chi Tsai, Julie Chen
Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan.
1pAAa6 – Soundscape of washroom equipment and its application
Jun 25, 2017
173rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 8th Forum Acusticum
Click here to read the abstract
There is at least one toilet in your apartment, sometimes two for a house or even three toilets for a midrise building. There are lots of toilets are in school. Wow! Toilets are everywhere! How loud is a toilet flush sound?
Audio 1. Credit: Tedja
It is about 92 decibels. Since human hearing is less sensitive in lower frequency regions, we only hear it as about 85 decibels. 85 decibels is as loud as a truck driving by in front of you. Since most people desire to sleep, work, and study in a quiet space, when someone flushes a toilet, our sleeping can be disturbed or our concentration broken.
Figure 1. Toilet sound and quiet space. Credit: Tsaih
Thus, how good is your washroom wall, door and window at reducing the toilet flush sound while you are sleeping, working or studying? As in most cases, a typical single layer of gypsum board wall is used and doesn’t reduce much of the low frequency sound, as Figure 2 shows.
Figure 2. Toilet sound and sound reduction of a typical GWB wall. Credit: Tsaih
So, during work, study or sleep, you will still probably hear the “hmmmmmmm” sound. The simulated sound below assumes there are only walls, and no windows or doors in the washroom.
This research is to show how loud the washroom equipment sound can be and what kind of proper noise control an architect should consider using when designing washrooms in spaces like bedrooms and classrooms. We measured and analyzed sound pressure levels of washroom equipment. We also analyzed sound transmission class and its frequency spectrum of some typical washroom partitions to see if these partitions could reduce washroom equipment sound sufficiently.
Audio 2. Credit: Tedja
Figure 3. Toilet sound in study room and bedroom. Credit: Tsai
In short, a wall that blocks toilet flush sound is necessary in our homes, classes, and offices.
Figure 4. Learning and sleeping with toilet flush sound. Credit: Tedja and Chen