New Standard for Impact Sound Testing to Floors Published
The new standard for impact sound insulation testing to floors has now been published – IS EN ISO 16283 Part 2.
Based on the requirements of the current Building Regulations and Technical Guidance Documents when this document has been published testing under the old test method IS EN ISO 140 Part 7 is to cease and use of the new standard should commence from the date of publishing. Impact Sound insulation testing to floors has been made more onerous by the requirements for improved performance. Firstly there is no allowable deviations for the results of impact sound insulation tests and Secondly the minimum level has been improved from 61dB L’nT,w down to 58dB L’nT,w. This is significant for timber flooring in particular as many separating timber floor constructions were failing to pass the requirements of the previous building regulations TGD Section E 1997.
It is therefore particularly important to pay attention to the detailing of separating timber floors as there is very little on site data available for such floor structures which pass the previous sound test requirements. Technical Guidance Documents 2014 Floor Type (FT4) provides a suggested detail for the makeup of a separating timber floor construction. It is understood that the suggested detailing for this floor relies heavily on results obtained from on-site sound tesing data provided by DECLG and other technical sources..
