Noise Control
When you carry out refurbishment or new-build work, there are a number of building regulations governing the minimisation of airborne and impact noise. Element7 has considerable expertise in this area and can guide you around the pitfalls to ensure that you comply with the regulations and achieve the most practical and aesthetically harmonious solution.
One piece of good news is that engineered wood, having a relatively resilient core material, is generally a good absorber of impact noise anyway. Beyond that, there are two main options.
The first is to use acoustic sub-floor panels which are sound and impact noise-rated. In this case, the wood floor is bonded to the sub-floor in the normal way.
The second is to float the floor. This involves gluing only the tongue and groove of the floor, not its undersurface, in order to form a single raft of wood. Specified decibel-rated acoustic insulation is then laid between the wood floor-raft and the sub-floor.