Effect of associated walls on the sound insulation of concrete party floors

Abstract

Lightweight inner leaves contribute more than heavier inner leaves to thermal insulation, but there are reasons for expecting that they may adversely affect the sound insulation of party floors. The most sensitive indicator of the influence of inner leaves is provided by differences, if any, between the performance of centre block and end block floors tested in the same block of flats. Analysis of data from all blocks where floors in both situations were tested shows that, on average, the airborne insulation of end floors is significantly poorer than that of centre floors when the party walls are heavier than the inner leaves. Impact insulation is affected to a smaller extent. The airborne insulation of end floors adjacent to plastered inner leaves of surface mass less than 120 kg/m 2 is found to be significantly worse than that of end floors adjacent to heavier inner leaves. When party wall leaves are similar to inner leaves differences are not significant and the two situations may be treated as equivalent. The effect of plasterboard internal partitions is also assessed and found to be beneficial.