Effectiveness of plasterboard walls in reducing noise levels

The humble plasterboard wall can be a good noise control. While dense, plasterboard is not completely solid and the small gaps in the boards can give quite a good noise insulation.

A plasterboard wall is usually a wooden (or sometimes metal) frame with plasterboard sheets on both sides of it. Commonly those sheets are about 12mm thick. That means a normal plasterboard wall has two skins of 12mm plasterboard forming it.

On a noise assessment in 2025 I measured the noise in a production area where the production office was right among the noisy machinery and the plasterboard had a good impact on noise attenuation / noise reduction.

• Immediately outside the office noise levels were ≈80 dB(A).

• Immediately inside the office with the door closed noise levels were ≈59 dB(A).

59 dB(A) is a safe noise level so that plasterboard wall and office door were reducing noise levels by a good 20 dB(A). The machinery could clearly still be heard, but the noise was not dangerous.

Using offices or cabins as a noise control / noise attenuation measure

Sometimes, if an operator monitors machinery in a static position but the external noise level is high, building a cabin can be an effective control and these measurements would show that the cabin doesn’t need to be anything fancy, a standard double-skin plasterboard wall will do the job.

If we take the HSE’s level of 85 dB(A) as an all-day noise level which becomes dangerous, and use that 20dB noise attenuation figure which I measured, then that would imply that a plasterboard office or cabin could give a safe area for employees where hearing protection is not needed in an area where otherwise noise levels are averaging around ≈105 dB(A), well above the average noise in most workplaces.

Plasterboard walls would therefore be a cheap and effective way to separate personnel from a noise risk where space and the working routine permits.

Effective noise attenuation, even if they still venture out sometimes

Don’t forget, the Noise Regs are focused on the average noise exposure for people, not just occasional bursts above 85 dB(A) and a cabin / refuge / office could mean people don’t need hearing protection at all, even if still occasionally exceeding a noise level of 85 dB(A) for short times as they monitor equipment.

As an example of what I mean:

• ≈93 dB(A) is a typical industrial continual noise level.

• If an operator can monitor the machine from inside a cabin built from the standard double plasterboard walls, then we can expect levels inside that to be ≈73 dB(A).

• That would mean they could go outside into the 93 dB(A) area for up to an hour every day and their average noise exposure for the day would be 84 dB(A).

• That would mean hearing protection is not needed and things like a need for hearing testing would also not apply.

Even if they went outside it for more than the hour, they would then only need hearing protection for that time rather than wearing it all day.

This is also compliant with the HSE’s Noise Regs as well where they require average noise exposures to be reduced to as low as possible, even if still exceeding the upper limit.

It is a low cost and effective control if space and the working routine permits it.