More and more of us work from home. It’s time to turn the home office into a peaceful, more productive place.
Some say the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed how many of us will go to work.
About four percent of the U.S. workforce worked from home through 2019. In 2020, that number skyrocketed to more than 50 percent, a massive test of the work-from-home concept. Experts now say by the end of 2021 up to 30 percent of us will permanently telecommute.
The world has changed. Today there’s an increasing need to make the home a professional work environment. That frequently starts with household acoustics. Children, lawn mowers, pets, vehicles, appliances, and music can create a cacophony of noise that can interfere with video conferences, distract from tasks, and slow productivity.
Meet ProCore®
One way to manage unwanted noise is to close the door. However, not every door is suited for noise abatement. JELD-WEN ProCore® doors are up to the task.
The ProCore logo on a JELD-WEN door signifies the door reduces sound transmission by up to 50 percent over a comparably sized hollow core door. ProCore is an upgrade option available on all of JELD-WEN’s molded wood composite interior doors.
Quiet by Design
What makes a ProCore door special? Its core is solid rather than hollow, composed of medium density fiberboard, a strong, durable engineered-wood building material formed by using wood fiber (82%), resin (9%), water (8%), and paraffin wax (1%). The material is molded into shape by high heat and compression, and the dense mass that results serves as an effective sound transmission buffer.
Just how effective? That’s measured by a rating system called sound transmission class (STC), based on ASTM E413, a recognized industry standard. Hollow core molded doors, for example, test out at a 25 STC. Our top ProCore door is rated at 36 STC. A difference of 10 in the STC system means sound is reduced by 50 percent.
STC Rating
A 25 STC rating means normal speech can be easily and distinctly understood through the closed door. A 36 STC means loud speech may be audible but unintelligible through the closed door. A typical 2×4 interior wall carries a 36 STC rating, so it usually doesn’t make much sense for an interior door to go beyond a 36 STC rating. Here’s a copy of the latest JELD-WEN STC rating guide.
WELL Building Standard
The shift to quieter work and home environments is not a new development. Companies have long understood the role sound control plays in worker productivity and well-being. The WELL Building Standard, a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment, includes acoustics as one of its 11 core concepts. It’s easy to imagine the same commercial disciplines being applied at the residential level in coming years.
Extra Benefits
ProCore doors come with three other benefits:
- Fire Rating. Medium density fiberboard thickness contributes to a tested 20-minute fire rating for all ProCore doors.
- NAUF Option. NAUF stands for no added urea formaldehyde (urea formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound). A ProCore door with NAUF means no urea formaldehyde was added at any point in the manufacturing process, which contributes to healthy indoor air quality.
- Added durability. The solid, robust core construction improves the doors’ resistance to everyday wear-and-tear.
Even after the post-pandemic return to work, it’s likely that your clients will put a premium on resilient home offices that are even more functional and family-friendly. JELD-WEN stands ready with proven door products for a productive work-at-home environment. To learn more about sound control, visit https://www.jeld-wen.com/en-us/discover/reference/sound-control.
