Elme Hall Hotel, Cambridge: acoustically sound extension

Challenge

This project entailed the demolition of existing outbuildings of the Elme Hall Hotel, followed by construction of a 34-bedroom building known as The Lodge. This extension has been built to cater for extra demand at the hotel, with all modern facilities expected of modern hotels.

Being a hotel, acoustic considerations were of paramount importance, as was robustness of construction materials. As a commercial development there was no need to meet a standard such as the Code for Sustainable Homes, but the solution still needed to comply with Building Regulations and be cost effective. Therefore, an aircrete solution was chosen by Project Manager Kevin Wood of Paktel Communications. Paktel owns the site and the hotel, so the company was essentially both client and contractor on this project.

Solution

Paktel Communications was looking for an aircrete construction over timber frame, primarily due to acoustic considerations. The robustness of finished solid aircrete walls was also an important factor, as was the technical backup the company received from H+H – even before the project began. H+H provided detailed information via phone and at site meetings prior to work starting on site, including costings and acoustical information.

“The decision to use aircrete was entirely down to me, as being in the hotel business, timber frame is not the best choice, especially in today’s world. Nowadays we have flat-screen TVs on every wall and guests bring with them iPods, speakers, laptops and the like, so the transmission of sound is a big concern. With high footfall, hotel rooms need to be robust too: guests are not renowned for treating them as they would do at home and aircrete has properties that fit in with these requirements.

Having made that material choice, we contacted all the major aircrete manufacturers for information and the only one who came back with anything was H+H. We would make a phone call and receive information, which did not happen with other companies.

The building is now completed and we have exceeded the Building Regulations for transmission of sound and airborne noise. This excellent resistance to airborne and transmitted sounds provided by the solid aircrete walls eliminates the usual complaints of adjacent room noise present in so many hotels.”

Kevin Wood, Project Manager, Paktel Communications Ltd

Outcome

“Right from the start, the intention was to achieve the best possible sound reduction for the internal walls whilst making sure the solution was robust and cost effective. To this end we used aircrete, as it ticked all these boxes whilst also being lightweight to handle and easy to install on site. Personally, I like using aircrete within a solid wall configuration and would not hesitate to use H+H Celcon Blocks for this application again.”

Darren French BA (Hons) Arch.; Richard C.F. Waite, Chartered Architect