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When a church finds that its rooms are inefficiently laid out, it can solve the problem through a strategy of "divide and conquer" through the use of moveable walls and portable room dividers.

Moveable walls range from the sliding accordion door to sophisticated operable systems that are electronically controlled to arrange individual panels in the desired configuration. Portable room dividers come in varying heights and colors, and can give flexibility at reasonable prices. To choose a system to purchase and install, think of three A's: arrangement, acoustics, and aesthetics.

Some churches need to split up a large room to accommodate a wider variety of uses, such as extra education classes or meeting rooms. Others need separation to create flexibility for uses that vary from day to day.

Wall panels can be used to divide spaces ranging in size from classrooms to gymnasiums.

Troy Pavy, marketing manager of Modernfold, says churches need to know whether the walls will provide physical separation or acoustical control.

"If it's basically physical separation, is it in a space where an accordion partition will do the job or would an operable partition or moveable glass wall better satisfy the space requirement? Is day-lighting a desired function of this physical separation?" he says.

Portable room dividers offer flexibility in a variety of rooms as well. A church can transform a fellowship hall into multiple classrooms for children or adults and can also reconfigure the dividers when multiple events need to occur at the same time, says Rich Maas, vice president at Screenflex.

You need moveable walls with the desired acoustic quality to keep your sound in and the other room's sound out. This means you have to consider what happens on both sides of the wall.

"On one side, parishioners might be looking for a quiet place to sit, and on the other side, there may be an event with loud speakers," says Emily Dixon, marketing manager for Panelfold.

Sound rating systems provide valuable information about the acoustical quality of moveable wall components. One common system is the Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating. The higher the number, the quieter the room is—and the more expensive the material. A rating of 25 means that normal speech in the adjacent room is easily understood. Someone in a room with a rating of 55, however, would not be able to hear a person shouting in the adjacent room.

These rating systems are helpful, but are only one piece of the puzzle, says Bonnie Swenson, director of marketing for Hufcor. "There are other factors that determine how much sound the partition prevents from passing into the adjacent room," she says. "Noise can travel over the ceiling tiles, through HVAC ducts, or through hallway doors."

To completely soundproof a room is unlikely and costly, Maas says, and it may be unnecessary since audiologists say people can handle varying amounts of background noise and still focus. Instead, churches should focus how a product absorbs sound, Maas says. For instance, the height and the number of panels selected for a portable room divider will dictate how much sound gets absorbed.

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