When planning an office remodel project, consider the natural power of stone wool from ROCKWOOL Group and the benefits it brings to any office renovation.
Download the business caseJob health and the wellbeing of employees are good for business and society. Healthier employees take less leave, reduce the strain on public health services, and are more productive while at work.
The evidence shows that the indoor environment (just like office ergonomics) does impact the long-term health of employees. When planning an office remodelling project, it is important to consider these factors and select products that enhance the indoor climate for office workers.
According to research, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work during their lifetime. Now imagine what spending 90,000 hours in a suboptimal indoor environment will do to their health and performance. High noise levels can lead to stress, concentration problems or even cardiac diseases. Similarly, a humid office can lead to respiratory issues or even asthma.
Renovating offices isn’t just a health consideration. It can also help organisations to reduce their operational costs, improve office productivity, and increase the wellbeing of workforces. Employees are a company’s most valuable resource (and often the most costly too) and ensuring a healthy and comfortable work environment will help increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and reduce sick leave. Similarly, a good work environment can help organisations to attract talent, improve business resilience, and support environmental sustainability.
Before starting a project, building owners need to consider what the purpose of the office renovation is, what technologies support these initiatives, and what the impacts on future indoor comfort and sustainability will be. Consider the following factors before starting an office renovation project.
Improving the health and wellness of staff starts with reducing the negative effects of noise pollution in their work environment. Noise is unwanted sounds that penetrate a worker’s consciousness, creating a distraction and making them more irritable.
Improved office acoustics have been proven to increase employee performance, especially in tasks that require consistent concentration and focus. Elevated noise levels also create other adverse health effects with studies linking it to immediate performance issues, including:
While long-term exposure could lead to:
Using the sound absorption qualities of stone in their building materials, developers, owners, and investors can renovate for a more desirable indoor acoustic environment. This in turns helps businesses attract better talent, retain their most valuable resources, and create a more sustainable office space.
Inefficient insulation in an office building leads to increased costs and poor indoor climate. If employees aren’t comfortable while performing tasks, the business will start seeing a decrease in their staff’s performance. With poor insulation, maintaining indoor comfort can increase energy costs.
Employee performance will suffer when the indoor climate is suboptimal. When temperatures in an office fall below 21°C, performance drops by 4 percent. Conversely, temperatures above 30°C will reduce performance by 6 percent. Increased humidity could also lead to mould that can cause respiratory issues in employees. Providing a better indoor climate will reduce the adverse health effects while ensuring employees can operate productively.
Renovating to optimise the amount of natural light in an office space can improve the health and wellness of employees. Including ceiling tiles and wall panels with greater reflective properties and aesthetically pleasing designs like Rockfon can help maximise the use of natural light, which leads to:
Knowing these focus areas and why they are important is the first step to a successful renovation project. The next step is the find the right solution for your project depending on the goals, budget and building.
Well-suited for open spaces or near communal areas that require extra sound absorption, Rockfon acoustic baffles offer superb sound reducing abilities whilst also being aestheticallypleasing. The baffles come in almost any shape, size, colour, and texture, offering complete design freedom for your office.
Internal wall insulation will help maintain thermal comfort and separate hot and cold areas. In addition to increasing thermal comfort, reducing room-to-room noise is important around meeting rooms and when separating communal areas from workspaces. Insulating internal walls using stone wool insulation will help reduce inter-room noise pollution and maintain a quiet working environment.
Installing stone wool ceiling tiles will help reduce noise, increase natural sunlight, and reduce glare, making for a more comfortable indoor environment. In fact, stone wool ceiling panels reflect up to 86 percent of available light, significantly improving both productivity and wellbeing for employees, whilst reducing the need for artificial lighting. Rockfon ceiling tiles can be installed both directly on your ceiling in a suspended grid and even offers solutions for exposed ceilings.
Maintaining a stable and comfortable indoor temperature starts with insulation. Installing external wall insulation will help reduce heat transfer between the office space and the outside environment, helping employees stay cold in summer and warm in winter. Stone wool’s natural ability to ‘breathe’ will further help maintain stable indoor humidity, making for better indoor air quality. Finally, stone wool insulation’s sound absorbing qualities will help reduce outside noise.
In spaces where there are a lot of hard surfaces (glass, steel, concrete) or where other solutions are impractical, it can be necessary to install additional soundabsorbing solutions. Rockfon wall panels offer an aesthetically pleasing way to reduce noise in office spaces and can easily be installed directly on any wall type.
Insulating between storeys is an important element of creating a comfortable and safe office environment. The added insulation will help reduce noise travelling between floors, improve thermal comfort, and significantly improve fire safety. Stone wool’s fire resilient properties make it a great fire barrier, helping to contain a fire to where it started and allowing employees to evacuate.
Floor insulation Ceiling insulation
If you are looking to increase thermal comfort and reduce outside noise pollution, whilst at the same time giving your building a great new look, then Rockpanel façade cladding and ROCKWOOL façade insulation is the way to go. The stone wool façade panels give you complete design freedom, have very low maintenance costs, and are easy to install, whilst the underlying insulation ensures optimal thermal and acoustic performance.
Hot air rises; it’s the same principle that let’s hot air balloons fly and also applies to the air in buildings. Maintaining a stable and comfortable indoor temperature without spending huge amounts on heating or air conditioning requires a well-insulated building envelope. However, because the heat goes up, the roof is the first place to look when you’re looking to improve thermal comfort (and lowering your energy bill).
ROCKWOOL Group provides innovative solutions suited for every kind of office renovation project. Our solutions are recyclable, fire-safe, and harnesses the natural power of stone into products that enrich modern living. With stone wool insulation, organisations get greater acoustic performance, thermal retention, and fire resilience without compromising on office aesthetics.
