Field measurement of the effect of painting acoustic tile ceilings

Abstract

A suburban school district experimented with painting acoustic ceilings in a 25-year-old elementary school building in an attempt to improve the appearance of the deteriorating tiles. Several ceilings were painted using a latex primer and acrylic semigloss paint. Following complaints by teachers the painting program was suspended and other approaches were tried to increase absorption in rooms with painted ceilings and/or decrease the effect of painting in rooms still to be painted. Measurements of reverberation were made for each condition in an effort to correlate the effect of painting acoustic ceilings.