30 Years of a leading noise and acoustic consultancy

2017 marks 30 years since Acoustic Consultants Limited was formed. Over that time we have become a leading noise and acoustic consultancy with steady and consistent growth in a number of key construction and industrial sectors.

Stephen Peliza formed Acoustic Consultants Limited in 1987 after a career working for small and large consultancy firms addressing building acoustics and noise from building services. Seeing a need in the market for specialist noise and acoustic only consultancies, Stephen started his own firm with the aim of providing high quality, independent and pragmatic advice to architects, contractors and developers.

Since 1987 we have survived two major recessions and grown to a team of 8 (soon to be 9) acousticians and technicians who have worked on thousands of successful projects across the U.K. and internationally. As a team we have over 80 years of experience in the field.

Over the last 30 years we have seen considerable changes in how noise and planning are intertwined.

The government aimed to simplify the planning process with the removal of the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG24), however within wales the Technical Advice Notes (TAN11), with the creation of the National Planing Policy Framework (NPPF). In some respects this has made the assessment of noise more complex with the rigid structure of PPG24 removed.

However, this has also allowed greater flexibility in the planning process and through careful design it is possible to demonstrate sites are suitable for residential development where previously this may not have been the case. Our strong technical knowledge base has allowed us to work on some very challenging sites with positive results for designs developers and ultimately residents.

During our 30 years there have been multiple iterations of the most used guidance and assessment documents, British Standard 8233 (BS8233) and British Standard 4142 (BS4142), Building Bulletin 93 (BB93) and Approved Document ‘E’ (ADE). We have always worked hard to ensure we have a full understanding of the changes so that our work is up to date and technically robust. 

We have also seen considerable changes in the construction techniques.

Concrete heavy weight builds have become less of the norm with light weight timber and steel structures (Metframe, Metsec, Keebs etc) used more and more frequently. We have always proactively worked to understand the principle behind new construction methods and systems to ensure our advice remains correct and gives the most benefit to our clients.

Part of the benefit of our considerable experience is that our database of schemes and library of gathered data is vast, ensuring our advice can be relied upon. There are very few types of scheme we have not worked on since 1987.

The company has also changed management structure in that time with Blake Lucas and Daniel Oldaker taking on the managerial roles in 2013 giving Stephen Peliza more time to focus on consulting and passing his valuable experience onto the newest members of the team.

Since 2013 we have also continued to grow with numerous new clients who we are pleased to say have returned for advice on other schemes and with which we have built long and productive relationships. We have recruited additional employees and brought in new technologies which bring new skills and tools to aid our consultancy. 

2017 is looking like an exciting time.

A new experienced consultant will be operating within the Manchester area giving us the opportunity to provide specialist noise and acoustic services more competitively in the North West and North Wales. We have also been developing innovative and exciting technology which will hopefully be finely tuned ready for demonstrations as part of our CPD presentations in the near future.

So please get in touch if you require any noise and acoustic advice for planning, educational, residential, commercial or specialist Scheme; or if you’re an architect, planner, housing association, contractor and would like a CPD we would happily be available to give a presentation at your offices.