Building Vibrations Are An Unseen Cost To Many Businesses, But There Is A Solution

Most building vibrations are unnoticeable. An underground train, heavy traffic or even a large amount of footfall can cause tremors. But even if we aren’t fully aware of vibrations, they are having an impact. 

Research conducted at the University of Exeter found that employees working in buildings with excessive vibration take up to 80% longer to complete tasks. They might not notice, but subtle floor movement impairs their concentration and reaction times. 

The resulting financial cost is something businesses cannot ignore, said Paul Reynolds, CEO of Calmfloor, whose company co-authored the study. Having spent much of his career and academic life investigating building vibrations, Reynolds said that only now is an instant fix available.

“People don’t know about the problem until they have a problem, and then they realise how difficult it is to solve through traditional use of steel and concrete,” he said. “As vibrations increased over the years, it became even more important to find a solution that is easy to deploy.”

The trend towards mixed-use buildings is one factor increasing vibrations for tenants, Reynolds said. It’s common to have offices, residential and leisure in the same building, bringing in people with conflicting requirements for both quiet and lively spaces. 

Cities are also increasingly full of tenants that are even more affected by vibrations than office workers, Reynolds said. Trading floors have multiscreen workstations and electronics that are sensitive to movement, as well as continuous movement across open-plan layouts. 

Many of Calmfloor's clients operate and own life sciences buildings, often where offices have been converted into laboratories. In these facilities, excessive floor movement can derail equipment and test accuracy, delaying progress, Reynolds said.

The design and structure of buildings both old and new are worsening the problem, he said. Many high-rise buildings were built in the 1970s and not designed for today’s footfall or sensitive equipment. 

“In contrast, buildings constructed in the last few years are designed to minimise use of materials to reduce their embodied carbon, as well as keep costs down, but this reduces their ability to absorb vibrations,” he said. “They also tend to have large, open-plan floors where vibrations are more easily transferred rather than partitioned areas.”

The increasing introduction of gyms into workplaces is particularly problematic, he said. This is one area where Calmfloor's active mass damper units are most used.

One of Calmfloor's city centre clients converted a 380-square-metre suspended office floor into a gym for staff. Despite the building meeting required standards for structural strength, the gym potentially made the open-plan office floor below unusable. 

When Calmfloor investigated, the team found that the gym floor vibration was two to four times greater than what would be acceptable in a normal office. 

“Architectural solutions weren’t an option, as vibrations were transmitted through vertical columns and walls,” Reynolds said. “We installed 16 units around the vibration hot spot areas and instantly halved vibrations, ensuring that the floor below would be usable.”

The units work by creating vibrations that counteract all unwanted movement in a building’s structure. They are installed discreetly either under floors or on beams, monitoring all vibration frequencies and reducing them by up to 90%. 

This technology was born from decades of research, Reynolds said. He had been looking at problems caused by building vibrations since the mid-1990s and, during his time as professor of structural dynamics and control at the University of Exeter, he was motivated to find a solution. 

“These problems are very hard to solve using traditional technologies,” he said. “I wanted to find a solution that was both easy to deploy and cost-effective that would just make the problem go away.”

While the background research for Calmfloor's solution spans 20 years, product development was rapid, Reynolds said. Work began in 2020, and by July 2022, the team had the first units installed for customers.

Now used by clients across Europe and the U.S., Calmfloor tackles three problems for property owners and occupiers. The first being when vibrations are causing issues for tenants and an immediate fix is needed. 

The second is when a property owner is retrofitting a building and needs to improve it, perhaps while switching use from office to labs, for example. And the third is when a developer is creating a new building and wants to save materials while improving the final product.

Calmfloor's active mass damper units are a more effective solution than traditional means for several reasons, Reynolds said. They improve sustainability, reducing the need to install raw materials to absorb vibrations, which is increasingly a priority for both tenants and property owners. 

They are also cost-effective, he said. Most clients acquire the units they need, but Calmfloor recently started to offer a leasing model to accommodate the needs of tenants who only intend to occupy a building for a short term.

Finally, they can be installed very quickly, even on a weekend, to remove disruption to tenants. Product demos can be done interactively in a single short visit to the site.

“It’s an instant fix you can demonstrate,” Reynolds said. “Users go from a problematic environment to problem solved in the flick of a switch, which is pretty gratifying to see live.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Calmfloor and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.