Concrete and Wood-frame building floor soundproofing

Concrete building floor soundproofing

The 12mm (½”) cork underlay has been tested and found to absorb 48 dB of noise and 6mm (1/4”) cork underlay absorb 23 dB of noise.  This is the number that can be ADDED to your subfloor’s calculated rating of (assume 27 dB).  That means the subfloor you have (assume 27 dB) together with the 12mm cork underlay will achieve 75dB.  If you work with a cork floating floor (19dB) over top of the 6mm cork underlay (23dB), you can add (with confidence) 42 dB worth of acoustic insulation to the 27dB subfloor.  That means it is entirely possible to have a floor-ceiling assembly that will achieve 69 dB…without effort.

Wood-frame building floor soundproofing

If you have a wood-frame building, the floor/ceiling will only offer 25 dB worth of insulation. It is very difficult go get sound barrier standards 72dB (most HOA requirements about flooring/soundproofing) if you use a laminate flooring with cork underlayment, such as Pergo laminate is a NEGATIVE number (-6 dB) which means it INCREASES noise in the space AND INTO the spaces next to it (your neighbours).  (25dB +23dB-6=42dB)

We will recommend you order cork underlayment with Forna cork floating flooring. With 6mm underlay (23dB) + 12mm floating floor(19dB) =  42dB, you can achieve 69 dB.   Or 12mm underlay (48) + 12mm floating floor (19dB) = 67 dB, you can achieve 92 dB.  A “92 dB” is considered “Super Quiet Acoustic floor” without having to add hundreds of thousands of dollars of acoustic ceilings.

 

STC/IIC – Flooring, Cork Underlayment, Subfloor and Ceiling

Your floor’s calculated rating:

Eg. Cork flooring (19 dB) +1/4″ cork underlayment (23dB) + 6” Concrete slab (27 dB) =69dB
Eg. Engineer hardwood (0dB)+ 1/2″ cork underlayment (48dB) + Wooden subfloor (25) = 73dB