Office garden too noisy? 8 interventions in order of impact

Sound is the most frequently mentioned complaint about office environments, yet it’s also the issue that’s least effectively addressed. Usually, nothing is done, and when something is done, the most expensive solutions are chosen first.

That’s unfortunate, because the cheapest interventions are often the most effective. Below are eight measures, ranked by their return on investment. Follow this order, and you’ll rarely need to consider the eighth step.

First, understand what you hear

“Too noisy” is not a diagnosis. There are three different problems; they feel the same, and they require opposite interventions.

• Reverberation. Sound lingers in the space and builds up. The room sounds hollow and gets louder as the day progresses. Solve it with absorption.
• Sound propagation. You can clearly hear a colleague three workstations away. Solve this with screening and zoning.
• Lack of privacy. Confidential conversations are audible. Solve this with enclosed spaces.

Try the clap test before reading further: clap your hands once loudly in the middle of the space. If you hear a lingering echo, your issue is primarily reverberation. If it sounds immediately dull while colleagues can still hear you clearly, it’s diffusion.

1. Rezone the floor

Cost: almost nothing. Impact: sound dispersion.

Mark on a floor plan where which behaviors belong: focused work, collaboration, calls, through-traffic, breaks. Overlay the complaints. Almost always, you’ll see the same pattern: complaints arise where two incompatible activities overlap. A concentration zone next to the coffee area. Sales next to finance. A walkway cutting through a quiet zone.

Moving five desks can take a Friday afternoon and often resolves half of the complaints. There’s no reason to start with the ceiling before trying this.

2. Set behavioral agreements

Cost: nothing. Addresses: spread and privacy.

Not as rules on a poster, but as three concrete agreements that the team makes themselves:

• Move conversations longer than a few minutes to a meeting area.
• Hold video calls with audio and video away from open desks.
• One agreed-upon zone where calling is allowed, so the sound concentrates instead of spreading.

This only works if there are also places to go to. Behavioral agreements without alternatives are a request to feel uncomfortable, and no one sustains that.

3. Reduce the background noise you yourself generate

Cost: low. Addresses: the overall level.

An underrated category: printers, coffee machines, ventilation, cooling systems, doors slamming shut. Individually unnoticeable, together they set the baseline noise level over which everyone speaks.

The Belgian Code explicitly sets a requirement for ventilation systems: they must be designed so that employees are not bothered by noise or vibrations. A noisy installation is therefore not something to simply accept.

Walk through the empty office and listen. What you hear then, everyone hears all day.

4. Address the ceiling

Cost: medium to high. Addresses: echo.

If investment is required, start here. The ceiling is the largest continuous surface in the room, reflecting sound downward to every workspace at once, and it is usually the only surface still fully hard — walls have windows and cabinets, floors have furniture.

A fully acoustic ceiling is the most thorough solution. If that’s not possible—for example, because you’re renting or the installations need to remain visible—then ceiling islands are a good alternative: you hang absorption precisely where the sound originates.

When choosing, pay attention to both the absorption class and the suspended height at which it was measured—these two belong together. How this works is explained in absorption class A to E.

5. Use soft flooring

Cost: medium. Addresses: echo and footfall noise.

A hard floor does two things at once: it reflects sound and produces it, in the form of footsteps, chair wheels, and closing drawers. Carpet tiles solve both issues and can be installed per zone, which is practical if you want to work in phases.

This is also the intervention with the least hassle: no construction work, can be installed over a weekend, and immediately noticeable.

6. Add screening between workstations

Cost: low to medium. Addresses: spread.

A screen between desks interrupts the direct sound path between two people. An important detail: the screen must be tall enough to surpass seated ear level; otherwise, the sound simply goes over it. Low screens are mainly visual.

A variant that does two things at once: acoustic partition walls and planters. These screens off, absorb sound, and bring greenery to the floor — which in turn contributes to how employees evaluate the space.

7. Add wall absorption

Cost: low to medium. Addresses: reverberation and reflection.

Wall panels are useful as an addition, rarely as the main solution. They work best in areas where sound directly reflects: opposing hard walls and the wall at the end of a long space.

The common mistake is concentrating everything on one wall. Sound comes from all directions; spreading the same surface area across multiple planes works better.

8. Place enclosed spaces

Cost: high. Addresses: privacy.

Lastly, and deliberately last. Phone booths and meeting pods solve the privacy issue that absorption never fully addresses — but they are the most expensive solution, and they only work effectively once the first seven steps are in place.

Calculate how many you need instead of estimating. Track for two weeks how often people resort to using the stairwell or going outside to make calls. That number is your actual requirement.

What you should avoid

• Distribute headphones only. This shifts the problem to the employee and makes collaboration more difficult. Good as a supplement, not as policy.
• Sound masking as a first step. Adding noise to mask speech can work, but not if reverberation hasn’t been addressed yet — then you’re stacking sound on top of sound.
• Tackling everything at once. Then you won’t know what worked afterward, and you’ll almost certainly overinvest.

How you know if it worked

Measure before and after using the same method. This doesn’t have to be expensive: count how often people step away to take calls, and ask your team the same question before and after. For more objective measurements, look at reverberation time and speech intelligibility between workstations.

For the normative aspect: since 2021, ISO 22955 exists, specifically for the acoustic quality of open-plan offices. This standard links requirements to the type of activity rather than prescribing a single value for the entire space. In addition, NPR 3438 serves as a practical guideline in the Netherlands for noise disturbance in the workplace.

The complete journey from measurement to completion is outlined in improving office acoustics: the 4-step plan. To find out which interventions yield the best results in your space, check out acoustic solutions or request a quote.

If you reach step eight and want to know the cost: what does a phone booth cost breaks down the pricing per size, including items rarely listed in quotes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Noise Disruption in the Office

How can I reduce noise in the office?

Start with zoning and behavioral agreements — they cost almost nothing and resolve a large portion of complaints. If that’s insufficient, address the ceiling: it’s the largest hard surface and reflects sound to all workstations at once. Soft flooring and screening between desks follow; enclosed spaces come last.

What does the law say about noise at work?

Legislation in Belgium and the Netherlands primarily focuses on hearing damage at high noise levels, not on the nuisance caused by colleagues talking in the office. Office acoustics follow practical guidelines: ISO 22955 for open offices and, in the Netherlands, NPR 3438. Additionally, the Belgian Code explicitly states that ventilation systems must not cause nuisance through noise or vibrations.

What noise level is acceptable in an office?

This depends on the activity, and that’s exactly what ISO 22955 is based on: a concentration zone requires different values than a collaboration zone or a cafeteria. One standard for the entire office doesn’t work — determine per zone what needs to be achieved and accept that a lively zone will stay lively.

Do acoustic panels help against talking colleagues?

Partially. Panels reduce reverberation, so sound doesn’t build up as much. They don’t block sound: if you can clearly hear a colleague three workstations away, you need screening and zoning, not absorption. The two problems require opposite interventions.

Is an office landscape always noisier than individual offices?

Not essential, but more sensitive. In an open-plan office, every sound counts for everyone, causing noise levels to rise with occupancy. With a well-designed ceiling, thoughtful zoning, and sufficient enclosed spaces to retreat to, an open-plan office works perfectly. Without those three elements, it rarely does.

Last updated on 24 October 2026 by Stijn Belmans