For anyone contemplating installing ceramic tile anyplace other than a
bathroom or kitchen, a cautionary tale.

Couple days ago I went to a little eating establishment hereabouts
(Bezerkeley). I was disappointed not to find the little burrito place
I'd planned on eating at (Gallego's), but a new restaurant instead.
They'd remodeled the place. It looked very clean and tidy, with the same
ceramic tiles on both floor and partway up the walls.

It looked nice, but when I sat down with my pal to eat, I discovered a
problem. Because of all the hard surfaces, my own voice echoed off the
walls and floor and back to my ear in a quite unpleasant way. It sounded
like a bad part of a subway station.

So you might want to keep this in mind if you plan on tiling a place
where people might be sitting and conversing. I suppose it might work OK
if there were some acoustically "soft" surfaces nearby to compensate.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...
For anyone contemplating installing ceramic tile anyplace other than a
bathroom or kitchen, a cautionary tale.

Couple days ago I went to a little eating establishment hereabouts
(Bezerkeley). I was disappointed not to find the little burrito place I'd
planned on eating at (Gallego's), but a new restaurant instead. They'd
remodeled the place. It looked very clean and tidy, with the same ceramic
tiles on both floor and partway up the walls.

It looked nice, but when I sat down with my pal to eat, I discovered a
problem. Because of all the hard surfaces, my own voice echoed off the
walls and floor and back to my ear in a quite unpleasant way. It sounded
like a bad part of a subway station.

So you might want to keep this in mind if you plan on tiling a place where
people might be sitting and conversing. I suppose it might work OK if
there were some acoustically "soft" surfaces nearby to compensate.


It's even more fun when some clown builds a venue where there will be live
music, and uses clangy materials on all surfaces. People who review building
permits should at least be trained to ask "Are you out of your mind?"

Materials are important, but so are the configurations of surfaces. Lots of
flat surfaces which are exactly parallel will exacerbate echo. Some
non-parallel surfaces will break up the resonance. You'll never see
parallel walls in a concert hall, but you'll see them all over restaurants
and convention halls.

So I would say that if you are building a room where "people might be
sitting and conversing", consult an architect with experience in acoustics.

Edward (who values quiet restaurants)

On 6/26/2010 10:37 PM Edward Reid spake thus:

Materials are important, but so are the configurations of surfaces. Lots of
flat surfaces which are exactly parallel will exacerbate echo. Some
non-parallel surfaces will break up the resonance. You'll never see
parallel walls in a concert hall, but you'll see them all over restaurants
and convention halls.

So I would say that if you are building a room where "people might be
sitting and conversing", consult an architect with experience in acoustics.

Well, that would be one way to deal with it. A much simpler way would be
simply to use less acoustically-hard materials, or add some acoustical
baffles to the room.

Edward (who values quiet restaurants)

Me too. (Well, the restaurant can be noisy, but not ringy or echoey.)


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

David Nebenzahl wrote in
.com:

For anyone contemplating installing ceramic tile anyplace other than a
bathroom or kitchen, a cautionary tale.

Couple days ago I went to a little eating establishment hereabouts
(Bezerkeley). I was disappointed not to find the little burrito place
I'd planned on eating at (Gallego's), but a new restaurant instead.
They'd remodeled the place. It looked very clean and tidy, with the
same ceramic tiles on both floor and partway up the walls.

It looked nice, but when I sat down with my pal to eat, I discovered a
problem. Because of all the hard surfaces, my own voice echoed off the
walls and floor and back to my ear in a quite unpleasant way. It
sounded like a bad part of a subway station.

So you might want to keep this in mind if you plan on tiling a place
where people might be sitting and conversing. I suppose it might work
OK if there were some acoustically "soft" surfaces nearby to
compensate.



Ever go into a tiled rest room on crutches where the floor was recently
mopped? Bambi on the ice scene.