Acoustic design: quiet from day one.

Stage 2 or 3, ideally, while layout, orientation and massing are still live. Those decisions cost nothing to change on paper and do more for the acoustic performance than any construction upgrade later. Appointed at Stage 4 or 5 we can still fix things, but the fixes get thicker, heavier and more expensive the later they arrive.

A document (often required by a planning condition, or as part of ProPG's good acoustic design process for residential schemes) that sets out the site's noise context, the internal and external criteria the scheme is designing to, and how the layout, facade and ventilation strategy achieve them. We write them to discharge the specific condition or requirement, in the language planning officers expect.

Approved Document E sets minimum sound insulation standards for new dwellings and conversions, demonstrated either through Robust Details or pre-completion testing. A consultant earns their fee by specifying constructions and junction details that pass first time. Flanking transmission, not the wall build-up itself, is where most failures come from. We specify the details, review them on site and arrange the testing.

Part O deals with overheating, and its favourite mitigation (openable windows) collides with the acoustic strategy on any noisy site, because bedrooms assessed with windows open rarely meet the internal noise criteria. The two strategies have to be designed together: facade performance, ventilation and cooling resolved as one package, not two consultants' reports that contradict each other.

Every project is a fixed fee agreed up front, scoped to the stages you need: a one-off feasibility note, a Stage 3–4 specification package, or full appointment through to completion. Send a drawing and a brief description and we'll come straight back with a figure. No day rates, no surprises.

Design notes and specifications are scheduled around your programme. Tell us the deadline dates and we'll confirm delivery when we agree the fee. Where survey work is involved, the report lands within five working days of the survey. Up against a tender issue date? Say so, and we'll tell you straight whether it's achievable.

Yes. BB93 performance standards apply to new school buildings and most refurbishments, covering indoor ambient noise, reverberation and sound insulation, and building control or the DfE framework will expect the acoustic evidence. We provide the design input during the stages that determine compliance and the completion testing that demonstrates it.