A room divider reaching to just below the ceiling divides a space into zones, with no building work.
First: what exactly is causing the disturbance?
Start with the place, not with the product. A colleague taking a call at the desk opposite calls for something different from a meeting room that echoes or a team on video calls all day.
Why sound absorption helps concentration, and what the difference is between absorbing sound and blocking sound, you can read in our article acoustic panels in the office. This article goes a step further: which solution suits which situation, and what to look out for when choosing.
Ask yourself three questions:
Where does the noise originate? At the desk, in the walkway, throughout the space or in a single conversation?
Is it sound or sight? Sometimes it is not the talking that disturbs, but the movement in your field of view.
Should the conversation stay audible, or precisely not? A partition absorbs; only an enclosed space keeps a conversation inside.
Between two desks
With two desks opposite or next to each other, a desk screen is the smallest intervention. It absorbs sound travelling straight across the top and takes the person opposite out of your field of view. ROFA makes three of them, each attaching to the desk in a different way.
Packman desk partition — you clamp it onto the top, up to a top thickness of 4.5 cm. 40 cm high, 70 or 80 cm wide, 3.5 cm thick, with rounded corners. Quickly moved, to a meeting table as well.
Desk Up — goes between the two tops of a duo workstation. When ordering, you supply a drawing showing the centre-to-centre dimension of the pins.
Desk Up Fly (Fly By) — you decide for yourself how high the panel sits below or above the top.
Desk Up and Fly By come in two versions: a 3 cm thick upholstered wooden panel with a honeycomb core, or a 5 cm thick acoustic sandwich panel finished with acoustic material on both sides. For both, ROFA states a material sound absorption of Aw 0.90 and a reaction to fire of Euroclass A1 (EN 13501-1).
Watch out with sit-stand desks: a screen fixed to the desk moves up and down with it. If two colleagues work at different heights, a panel on its own frame is better.
Between workstations and walkways
If more desks stand in a row, or a corridor runs past the workstations, a free-standing panel that is separate from the desk helps.
Goalpost wall
The Goalpost is an upholstered acoustic panel on its own frame. You set the top edge from 100 to 135 cm, in steps of 5 cm. Because the panel is not fixed to the desk, it stays at the same height when someone raises or lowers their sit-stand desk. Cables run underneath the panel.
Panel with T-foot
The acoustic panel on a T-foot is 100, 115 or 135 cm high and 6.5 cm thick as standard (also in 5 cm). It does not have to be fixed to the floor or ceiling.
Panel configurations from L to X
For screening on more sides there are fixed configurations, 100, 115 or 135 cm high and linked without fixings:
L configuration: one workstation, screened on one side, left or right.
The H and U configurations also come in an open version, open at the legs or feet. For the panel on a T-foot, the Goalpost and the panel configurations, ROFA states a material sound absorption of Aw 0.90 and Euroclass A1.
Dividing a space into zones
A 135 cm panel absorbs sound that falls on it, but a conversation on the other side simply carries over the top. If you want to divide an open space into real zones, a meeting corner next to a quiet zone for instance, you need taller partitions.
Roomdivider — 6.5 cm thick and reaching to just below the ceiling. That stops sound carrying around over the top of the partition. It is not screwed into the floor or ceiling. If there is no suspended ceiling, it is anchored into the structural ceiling with a small adjustment. Optionally with a recessed magnetic whiteboard.
ModuWall — ROFA's M+ Wall, 10 cm thick and 100 to 240 cm high in steps of 20 cm. You link the panels without tools via a hole pattern top and bottom, into walls, corners and alcoves. Filled with recycled acoustic material, Aw 0.90.
Fabricks and Bilding — separate building blocks that slide onto aluminium posts. Power and data cables run through the posts. If the wall turns out too low later, you place a post on top of the existing one and build on. ROFA tested Fabricks to BS EN ISO 354:2003, with label A for sound absorption. Bilding is the same wall as a complete set.
Wall and ceiling
If the space itself echoes, the problem lies in the hard surfaces, not between the workstations. Then panels on the wall or ceiling help.
Wall panels make use of a surface that is already there.You clamp the Packman onto the top, on a meeting table as well.
Acoustic wall panel — 4, 8 or 12 cm thick, in a fabric and colour of your choice. Fixings are included, wall screws are not. Aw 0.90 and Euroclass A1.
AkoestiekA — lightweight panels without a visible profile, for the wall or beneath a (suspended) ceiling. Maximum 2400 × 1200 mm and 50 mm thick, white as standard, upholstered on request. Aw 0.90, absorption class A.
Cabinet panels — for the back of a cabinet: with magnets on metal, with adhesive strips on wood.
If there is lighting above a table anyway, then LightSound by Quadrifoglio is an option: LED modules and class A acoustic panels in a single fitting, on the ceiling or wall.
Separating off for calls and meetings
No partition or panel keeps a phone call inside. Anyone who wants to make a confidential call, or hold a video call with three people without disturbing the rest, needs an enclosed space. Without building work, that is possible with a phone booth: from a booth for one person, such as the Flexaro X-Pod, to a modular M+ Room by ROFA that you configure to size.
Keep to that order: first absorb where the noise originates, then separate between teams, and only after that enclose for conversations no one may hear. Often a partition is already enough.
Overview by situation
Situation
Solution
What to watch out for
Two desks opposite each other
Packman, Desk Up
Top thickness (Packman up to 4.5 cm); centre-to-centre dimension of pins (Desk Up)
Row of sit-stand desks
Goalpost
Top edge 100–135 cm, separate from the desk
Along a walkway
Panel on T-foot
Height 100, 115 or 135 cm
One to four screened workstations
L, T, H, X or U configuration
Open or closed version
Zones in an open space
Roomdivider, ModuWall, Fabricks
Ceiling height and type of ceiling
Echoing space
Wall panel, AkoestiekA, ceiling panel
Available wall and ceiling surface
Confidential calls or meetings
Phone booth or M+ Room
Number of people, power, ventilation
The lead time for the ROFA partitions and panels is four to six weeks. On the pages ROFA acoustic walls and ROFA acoustic panels you will find all the versions together.
Advice and a floor plan
Send us a floor plan or a few photos of the space, and tell us where it grates. We will make a 2D or 3D floor plan free of charge with the partitions and panels in it, so that you can see in advance what goes where. In our 1,000 m² showroom in Moordrecht you can view the partitions, by appointment. Delivery and installation are carried out by our own fitters.
Aw is the weighted sound absorption of the material, on a scale from 0 (nothing) to 1 (everything). ROFA states the value for the material used, not for the partition as a whole in your space. The effect also depends on how much surface you add and where.
Does anything have to be drilled into the floor, wall or ceiling?
Not for the Packman, the Goalpost, the panel on a T-foot, the panel configurations or the Roomdivider. Only if there is no suspended ceiling is the Roomdivider anchored into the structural ceiling. Wall panels are screwed to the wall, though.
From Moordrecht we deliver and install throughout South Holland. About the showroom by appointment, the free floor plan, lead times, installation by our own team and the removal of old furniture.
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