System development to reduce floor impact sound in apartment houses

Abstract

The floating floors used to reduce floor impact sound in European countries are not as compatible with Korean style floors because every residential floor in Korea is heated up by the floor heating method. In this case, considering the floor heat radiation effect, the cement screen is constructed to be about 40 to 50 mm thick. So constructing the low-density damping materials, such as glasswool, under the cement screen over 20 mm definitely makes some cracks. To prevent this kind of floor crack and to improve the impact insulation performance, the floating floor system using a plastic pallet and rubber was developed. The developed plastic pallet is 30 cm wide ×60 cm deep ×4 cm high and is designed to array on a concrete slab; above this plastic pallet, a 2-cm thick thermal insulator is constructed. On this, the insulator heating coil is installed, and finally the 4-cm-thick cement screen is constructed over that. The test results of impact insulation performance for the developed system show good improvement, about 15 dBa between before and after installation of the system.