OH SO QUIET
Sound suppressing underlays that reduce acoustic intensity are a must for any commercial or residential project says Interfloor sales director Gary Cowley.
Reducing the impact of noise on building occupants is becoming increasingly important as health and wellbeing climb higher up the list of priorities for owners and managers of residential, high-rise, hospitality and commercial environments. In fact, anywhere people are working, learning or playing.
While underlays have chiefly been considered for their underfoot comfort enhancing qualities, as well as their contribution to making floorcoverings perform better for longer, their ability to help keep noise to a minimum shouldn’t be overlooked. Flooring is one of the most effective ways to influence acoustic performance in a room; when used in conjunction with the right underlay, it can help to create spaces which are perfectly suited to their intended use.
One of the ways the sound reduction qualities of flooring and underlay are measured is by British Standard BSEN ISO 717-2:1997, which manufacturers quote on their technical specifications. The standard measures impact sound insulation.
Interfloor, a leading manufacturer of underlay systems used extensively in the international contract flooring market, says the impact sound insulation performance of specialist underlays is perfect for high traffic areas which will benefit from noise reduction.
For commercial spaces where noise reduction and durability are a priority, carpets and high-quality rubber underlays are the perfect combination to keep impact and airborne sound to a minimum.
In high traffic hospitality environments, such as hotel bedrooms, dining rooms and reception areas, there is likely to be increased noise from footfall, trolleys, furniture scraping on the floor, doors closing, and dropped items. Using a good quality crumb rubber underlay, such as the double-stick Duralay Durafit System, has been a popular choice to reduce impact sound in commercial environments since these types of underlays were first introduced in the 1980s.
SPECIALIST UNDERLAYS FOR
HARD FLOORING Impact noise can be a real problem for areas where hard flooring has been installed, and with the current trend towards this type of floor in both domestic and commercial settings, there are now specialist rubber underlays available for use with wood, laminate and luxury vinyl tiles (LVT).
Tests show in-room acoustics can worsen if inferior or lightweight underlays are used with hard flooring; putting a lightweight, air filled, cellular product under wood or laminate creates an echo chamber and more noise, whether it’s generated by scraping furniture, heavy footsteps or reverberation.
Interfloor’s Duralay was the first brand to develop special noise reduction underlays for wood and laminate floors. Independent tests prove its sponge rubber Timbermate underlays, with their superior weight and density, reduce acoustic noise levels by up to 30%.
38 | UNDERLAY & ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS
INNOVATIVE BUILT-IN SOLUTIONS With the growing demand for effective solutions to meet more demanding building legislation and as architects and specifiers are increasingly uncompromising about the need for excellent acoustic performance, there are emerging more built-in solutions which have a long life and are independent of the differing floorcoverings that may be laid above them.
For example, an innovative method that is growing in popularity in the UK and across Europe involves installing synthetic rubber mats permanently into the subfloor which creates excellent acoustics improvements and is a permanent solution to all the acoustics problems in the building regardless of the chosen flooring materials, now and in the future.
www.interfloor.com
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