Floor Sound Rating

The floor covering industry considers the sound insulation very important in living areas such as multi family or single family dwellings.

Floor sound rating.

When evaluating flooring underlayment sound deadening and acoustical ratings are one of the things homeowners or hoa considers it all begins with how sound is generated and the medium it transfers through. The third covers room to room transmission more appropriate for walls. Sound control standards were developed to regulate the amount of noise allowed to penetrate through common walls and floors within dwellings and are used to compare product qualities. â under the current sound rating system the higher the number the better sound suppression quality.

The first two measure flooring sound transmission. Stc sound transmission class stc is simply a numeric value defining how well a building or in this case a floor is at reducing the effect of airborne noise. Iic is measured in terms of sound impact or how well sound vibration travels through a floor to the room below. Catalog of stc and iic ratings for wall and floor ceiling assemblies russell b.

Generally an iic rating of 50 will satisfy the building code requirements. We found a flooring called duraguard mannington with an iic rating of 72. Dupree office of noise control california department of health services berkeley california 94704 introduction building codes. Each defines a different way in which sound is transmitted.

In the us it is widely used to rate interior partitions ceilings floors doors windows and exterior wall configurations. Sound transmission class or stc is an integer rating of how well a building partition attenuates airborne sound. Stc rates a partition s or material s ability to block airborne sound such as a television or people having a conversation. The condo has wood subfloors.

Measures a floor ceiling assembly s resistance to transmission of structure borne or impact noise such as footfall or a chair dragging on the floor. Sound transmission class stc is an integer rating of how well a building partition attenuates airborne sound in the usa it is widely used to rate interior partitions ceilings and floors doors windows and exterior wall configurations see astm international classification e413 and e90. A higher stc means the material is better at attenuating the everyday noise in rooms with wood and laminate floors. In order to maximize soundproofing is it recommended or necessary to put additional underlayment on top of a wood subfloor to maximize soundproofing or is a flooring with a iic72 rating enough to soundproof between floors in a condominium.

Iic impact insulation class iic is the numeric value defining how well a floor assembly is at reducing the. Outside the us the sound reduction index sri iso index is used.