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Soundproof booth: build it or buy it prefabricated?
An office where you can finally think in peace, call a client, or take a five-minute break: that's what many companies are looking for, without always knowing how to make it happen.
Two options are available: building a custom space or installing a prefab pod that's already ready to use.
Building takes time and a real budget, while a prefab acoustic pod installs in a few hours, with no construction work, and offers greater flexibility.
To help you choose the solution best suited to your project, we've put together a practical guide detailing, point by point, the criteria for making your decision.
A prefabricated soundproof booth can be installed within 6 to 8 weeks and without any construction work.
Cost control
Buying a prefabricated acoustic pod, or a room, is up to 44% cheaper than a custom-built one.
Acoustic
Prefab acoustic pods use materials specialized for sound insulation. The product is designed once, tested, certified, and then reproduced identically for every unit.
Sustainability
A prefab pod limits construction waste and allows for reuse through refurbishment, unlike a custom build, which almost never survives a move.
Flexibility and modularity
Prefab pods are easy to move and adapt as your company evolves, whether you relocate or reorganize your space.
5 reasons to choose a prefabricated booth over a custom-built room
1. Fast delivery and installation
Building a meeting room or an isolated space can take several months, between planning, construction, and coordinating different trades. An acoustic pod, on the other hand, arrives ready to use.
Building a soundproof space costs between €9,000 and €13,000 per workstation, up to 3 times more expensive than an Island Solo pod.
The prefab offers a clear, controlled budget with no surprises. It's purchased at a fixed, transparent price at the time of order: no gap between the initial quote and the final invoice.
It's the most cost-effective solution for spaces of up to 4 to 6 people.
Product
Acoustic door
Self-supporting partitions
Acoustic insulation
Electricity
Ventilation
Floor
Furniture
Labour
Total
Island Solo
€3,990
Included
Included
Included
Included
Included
Included
€240
€500
€4,730
Construction sur mesure
--
€1,150
€2,000
€400
€500
€500
€300
€500
€1,450
€6,800
Not sure whether to build or buy your acoustic pod?
Timescales, costs, flexibility, environmental impact and acoustic performance: our comparison guide looks at these 5 key criteria to help you make the right choice. Download the guide to read our full analysis.
With hybrid work and online meetings on the rise, office needs change constantly. Today, 81% of meetings include at least one person on video call (source: Dimensional Research). Offices now need spaces adapted to shorter, more frequent formats.
As office layouts keep changing based on how they're used, the flexibility of these quiet spaces isn't a nice-to-have, it's a requirement. A prefab pod, designed from the outset as a standalone module, can move from one space to another in a matter of hours, with no construction work and no disruption for teams.
They can be reconfigured to fit your needs and can even move with you when you relocate. A flexibility that's impossible to achieve with a fixed, permanent build.
Buy or build? The criteria to help you decide.
Timelines, costs, durability: the guide that answers every question to ask before choosing your acoustic pod.
Some custom builds can cost the same, yet sometimes use materials that aren't suited to acoustics. Prefabrication flips that order.
The product is designed once, tested, certified, and then reproduced identically for every unit. For example, Work With Island's Solo and Desk pods are Class A certified under the standard ISO 23351-1, with sound reduction of 30.2 dB and 31.1 dB.
What changes with our pods: Noise reduction
A Reference Scale
30 dB
Whisper / Library
40 dB
Quiet office
60 dB
Normal conversation
70 dB
Lively open plan office
80+ dB
Noisy street
Our Pods
Outside the pod 65 dB (Lively conversation)
Inside the pod 37 dB (Library)
WWI cabine audio
5. Ergonomics and everyday comfort
A prefab pod limits construction waste and allows for reuse through refurbishment, unlike a custom build, which almost never survives a move.
At Work With Island, our Work With Me Again program takes this idea all the way. When a client no longer needs a pod, we'd rather give it a second life through refurbishment than send it to landfill.
What matters most to us is modularity and flexibility: being able to move the pods around to suit the different layouts of our offices. It was also more practical and more cost-effective than building meeting rooms.
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