Approved Document E ('Resistance to the passage of sound') is the England-and-Wales guidance supporting Part E of the Building Regulations. It sets sound-insulation standards between dwellings and rooms used for residential purposes — both airborne and impact sound — plus a reverberation requirement in the common internal parts of blocks of flats, and it points to BB93 for schools. Its insulation requirements are met by mass and construction, not by absorptive wood panels: acoustic panels only address the reverberation and in-room echo side, and must never be presented as satisfying the insulation clauses.
What Approved Document E actually covers
Approved Document E — 'Resistance to the passage of sound' — is the guidance that supports Part E of the Building Regulations in England and Wales. Its main concern is sound insulation: how well the separating walls and floors between one home and the next, and between rooms used for residential purposes, resist both airborne sound (voices, television) and impact sound (footsteps). It sets minimum performance standards those constructions must reach.
Alongside insulation, Part E carries a separate reverberation requirement for the common internal parts of buildings containing flats — corridors, stairwells and entrance halls — and it refers to BB93 as the route by which schools demonstrate they meet the Regulations' acoustic requirement. These are genuinely different problems: insulation is about stopping sound crossing a boundary, whereas reverberation is about controlling echo inside a shared space.
Do acoustic wood panels satisfy Part E?
No — not the insulation part, which is what most people mean when they ask. Part E's sound-insulation standards are met by mass and construction: dense separating walls and floors, resilient layers, structural isolation and careful detailing that stop sound energy passing through. Absorptive wood acoustic panels do the opposite job — they soak up sound within a room. Fixing them to a wall adds no meaningful insulation, and they must never be presented as meeting Part E's insulation clauses.
This is the crucial difference between absorption and insulation. As how acoustic panels work explains, a slatted or perforated panel reduces reflected sound and improves speech clarity in the room it sits in, but it does not block sound travelling to the room next door. Where a specification calls for a set airborne or impact-sound performance under Part E, that is a job for the building fabric, not for a decorative absorber.
Where panels do help: reverberation in common parts
The one place where Part E and acoustic panels genuinely meet is the reverberation requirement in the common internal parts of blocks of flats. Hard-finished corridors, stairwells and entrance halls can be very live, so the Regulations expect a proportion of absorptive treatment — commonly on the ceiling — to bring the reverberation time down. Absorptive panels, baffles and acoustic ceilings are exactly the right tool for this task.
Reverberation time depends on how much absorption a space contains relative to its volume, as reverberation time explained sets out. The Approved Document offers two ways to satisfy the requirement — a calculation of the absorption area to provide, or covering a defined area of ceiling with a material of a stated absorption class. Either way, the performance you rely on should trace back to a tested absorption figure for the actual product and its mounting.
Part E, schools and other regulated spaces
For schools, Part E does not set the numbers itself — it refers to BB93, which fixes maximum reverberation times and indoor ambient-noise limits by room type. If you are working on a teaching space, BB93 for schools is the document that governs, and acoustic absorption is how you reach its reverberation targets rather than anything in Part E's own clauses.
In homes, healthcare and other regulated settings the same principle holds: panels are a tool for the reverberation and comfort of a space, not a substitute for the insulation built into its walls and floors. For residential projects the compliant route is to let the construction handle Part E's insulation and let absorption handle echo — modelled, where it matters, by a qualified acoustician against measured data.
Specifying honestly on a Part E project
The safe mental model is simple: insulation is the wall's job, reverberation is the panel's job. Never let a supplier imply that fitting wood panels will 'soundproof' a flat or lift a separating wall up to Part E — it will not. Where Part E requires airborne or impact-sound performance, that is verified on the finished building, and it depends entirely on the construction. Bring an acoustician in early so the fabric and the finishes are each specified for the job they actually do.
Frequently asked questions
Does fitting acoustic wood panels make a wall meet Part E?
No. Part E's sound-insulation standards are met by mass and construction — dense walls and floors, resilient layers and isolation. Wood acoustic panels absorb sound within a room; they do not block sound passing between rooms, so they cannot satisfy the insulation clauses and should never be sold as doing so.
What does Approved Document E actually require?
It requires sound insulation between dwellings and between rooms used for residential purposes, against both airborne and impact sound, plus a reverberation requirement in the common internal parts of blocks of flats. For schools it refers to BB93. It applies in England and Wales.
Do acoustic panels help with Part E at all?
Yes, but only with the reverberation part. Part E asks for absorptive treatment in the common internal parts of blocks of flats — corridors, stairwells and entrance halls — and panels are well suited to that, as they are to controlling echo within any room. They play no role in the insulation requirements.
Is Part E the same as soundproofing my flat?
Not quite. Part E sets minimum sound-insulation standards for the construction between homes, which is achieved by the walls and floors and confirmed on the finished building. Acoustic panels do not soundproof — they reduce reverberation and echo inside a room, which is a different and complementary thing.