Overcoming field impact isolation performance failures due to faulty flooring installation practices

Abstract

There is very strong demand by new owners of luxury condominiums for hard-surfaced flooring. In some cases, there is a medical need. In most cases, the reasons are personal preference. However, most high-end condominium homeowner associations (HOA) have enacted regulations requiring that upper level dwelling unit owners, making flooring upgrades from any existing flooring to hard-surfaced flooring, meet higher minimum field impact insulation class (FIIC) or impact sound rating (ISR) performance standards than is typically required by building codes. Failure to comply usually causes the HOA to require restoration to prior flooring conditions within a certain time period, with fines and potential litigation for restoration delays. This paper presents field performance test results for several renovated condominiums in different multi-family residential complexes that had successfully passed HOA impact performance tests by using customized sample underlayments and the owners’ desired hard-surfaced flooring, but failed to pass the HOA impact performance requirements after final installation due to faulty installation practices, in spite of explicit verbal and written installation instructions provided to the owners and their flooring contractors. Examples of methods verifying faulty installations are discussed and successful remedies are presented, along with respective passing test results.