Cost-effective evaluation of different residential hard-surfaced flooring and underlayment systems

Abstract

There is increasing interest in replacing carpeted flooring with hard-surfaced flooring. Changing from soft-surfaced to hard-surfaced floors always results in an increase in the liveness of hard-flooring rooms and increased impact noise in lower rooms due to reduced impact isolation performance of the revised floor/ceiling assembly. An effective underlayment between the subfloor and the hard-surfaced flooring must be carefully selected and evaluated for ultimate compliance with floor/ceiling assembly performance requirements. In addition, any overall increase in flooring thickness is a major concern. This paper presents optimized field performance testing of several condominiums in a luxury multi-family residential complex for which the homeowner's association had set strict performance and testing requirements. Failure meant restoring the flooring to its original condition. A series of in situ and special field tests were undertaken to assist in the selection of qualifying underlayment systems for the desired hard-surfaced flooring. In situ, client-preferred, flooring samples were installed by the respective flooring contractors. Special field tests that involved the preferred systems and other flooring/underlayment combinations were conducted in a vacant two-story residence. In the in situ and vacant testing locations, the respective variables at each location were the different flooring and multiple underlayment systems.