Continuing professional development
An hour in your studio on specifying acoustic finishes.
Most acoustic specifications are written from a headline figure on a brochure. This session is about the other numbers — the ones that decide whether the room performs, whether the ceiling passes a fire assessment, and whether the detail can actually be built.
No charge. Your office or online. One hour including questions.
Five things that decide whether the specification holds.
Reading an acoustic report
What a reverberation target in an AS/NZS 2107 report is actually asking for, and how a material NRC figure relates to a room result. The short version: they are not the same number, and the consultant owns the second one.
NRC, αw and thickness
Australia specifies to NRC. Absorption is a function of build thickness, so a figure without a thickness beside it is not a specification. We work through the published octave-band data for each system and show where the thickness stops buying you anything.
Fire, and what the report covers
Group 1 to AS 5637.1 and what the NCC calls it up for — and, just as usefully, the limits of a Group Number assessment. A report tests a build-up, not a product range.
Junctions and set-out
Wall connection, shadow gap, service penetration, free edge. The sealing-profile rule from 10 mm. Where a break belongs, and what happens at a bulkhead if it does not. Drawn, not described.
Where it is not the answer
Impact zones and reachable surfaces. Absorption is not insulation — a sprayed ceiling will not fix transmission between two offices. Substrates without plant access. The cases where we would tell you to specify something else.
How it runs
An hour, with samples on the table.
In your office over lunch, or online if that is easier. We bring the sample boxes — all six finishes in the material, and the twelve standard colours, because a sprayed texture cannot be judged from a photograph. Bring a live project and we will work through it in the second half; that is usually where the hour earns its keep.
If your team is small, we are happy to combine studios. If it is large, we will run it twice rather than talk to forty people at once.
Presented by Peter Kavatziklis and the technical team
Why we are the ones presenting it
McPherson Coatings holds the exclusive Australian applicator licence for the Acosorb system. We are not a distributor passing on a manufacturer's deck — we spray it, we own the mock-up, and we carry the ten-year workmanship warranty on the result. Every figure in the session comes from a certificate we hold, and we will say so when the manufacturer publishes nothing.
Recent work behind the examples: a full floor plate in DC3 Basic White at Meta, 51 Flinders Lane; a two-level Siemens fit-out where the soffit was sprayed in a custom cobalt blue over slab, beams, ducts and pipework; and Green Line HK Grey at Easy Go.
CPD status
We run this as a structured session against a written outline, and we will issue an attendance record for your own CPD log. Formal accreditation through the Australian Institute of Architects' Refuel network is being sought and is not yet in place — we would rather tell you that than imply otherwise, because these are hours you log against your registration.
If your practice needs formally accredited points before it can schedule internal learning, say so when you book and we will tell you where the accreditation has got to.
Book it
Email office@mcphersonpainting.com.au with your studio, a rough headcount and two or three dates, or call 0421 002 749. We will confirm within two working days.
Start a project
Send us the drawings.
If there is a finishes schedule, an acoustic report, a scope of works or a defect list, send that too. We price from documents. Most enquiries get a written response within two business days, and a site visit inside the week.