Secondary Glazing for Aircraft Noise

Approach noise is dominated by airframe and flap-deployment noise — broadband, sustained, and heaviest at 200-800Hz. Departure noise is engine-dominated, louder at peak but shorter, with more high-frequency content. Homes under an approach path experience more total noise exposure; homes under a departure path experience higher individual peaks.

We specify 10.8mm acoustic laminate at 150mm minimum. Because aircraft noise is broadband, the acoustic PVB interlayer is essential — it removes the coincidence dip that would otherwise let the 2-4kHz jet content straight through.

On top-floor rooms and loft conversions we also assess rooflights, which are frequently the dominant path once the windows are treated and are easy to overlook.

Early arrivals matter disproportionately because they land in the last sleep cycle. Getting a bedroom from 58dB peaks to under 35dB is the difference between waking on every overflight and sleeping through the approach sequence entirely.

Aircraft noise in London is highly directional and schedule-driven. Properties under the Heathrow approach in west London experience a repeating pattern that switches with runway alternation; City Airport approaches over east London bring lower, steeper movements concentrated into weekday windows. Both produce a broadband event that peaks overhead and includes substantial low-frequency content on departure.

Because the noise arrives from above at a shallow angle, roof and ceiling paths matter more than they do with road noise, and no window specification removes an overflight entirely. What good secondary glazing does is cut the peak enough that an event stops being intrusive indoors — the difference between conversation pausing and conversation continuing.

For flight-path properties we start with an assessment rather than a product. That means establishing which approach you are under, when the movements occur, what the peak levels are at your façade and which rooms are actually affected — front and rear elevations often differ far less than they do on a road, because the source is above rather than in front.

That work is delivered through our acoustic consultancy service. It exists because specifying 10.8mm laminate everywhere in a flight-path house is expensive and frequently unnecessary; the measured assessment usually identifies two or three rooms that justify the top specification and several that do not.

With a deep cavity and heavy laminate we reach up to 54dB reduction in suitable configurations, which for most residents under an approach path means aircraft become audible rather than dominant. We do not claim silence, and we will not quote a figure for your address before measuring it.

Ventilation deserves particular attention here. Flight-path residents often keep windows shut year-round, which raises humidity and CO2 indoors, so we review trickle and mechanical ventilation as part of the assessment rather than sealing a room and leaving it.