Flooring Sound Test

It all begins with how sound is generated and the medium it transfers through.

Flooring sound test.

When evaluating flooring underlayment sound deadening and acoustical ratings are one of the things homeowners or hoa considers. Some test reports and the resulting acoustical performance may be based on field tests or lab tests with small size samples please check the test report for further details. Sound absorption of floor coverings may be measured on two of those scales. Iic impact insulation class iic measures a floor ceiling assembly s resistance to the transmission of structure borne or impact noise.

Iic is measured in terms of sound impact or how well sound vibration travels through a floor to the room below. The main test done by flooring industry is the impact insulation class iic ad sound transmission class stc. The impact sound insulation properties of a floor ceiling structure including the flooring are usually tested by measuring the transmitted sound in a room below while a standard hammer machine bangs on the floor above. Iic and stc tests are conducted in sound test laboratories.

It is important to understand that iic and stc tests are not for individual components of a flooring assembly but for the whole floor ceiling structure from the surface of the floor covering material in the upper unit all the way to the ceiling in the unit below. The higher the number the better the sound isolation. The results of the test are rated in terms of the impact insulation class iic.