Where airborne noise from below is the issue, SBX boards and Tecsound 50 are a truly effective "under the carpet solution"
A slim fitting floor soundproofing solution
Fast, easy and effective floor soundproofing
Award-winning German engineered silica filled panels
Online calculator will work out your exact requirements
Soundproofing kit delivered to your door in 48 hours
SBX Soundproofing - How it works
SBx Boards are our most effective solution when looking for ease of fit ( no need to lift floorboards)
They are effective in :
i) Blocking airborne noise rising from below ( and from your room to the room below) - be aware they are far more effective than rubber mat solutions for this purpose which typically only offer only 5dB airborne protection.
ii) Decreasing your impact sound experienced to the room below.
iii) Improving the acoustics in the soundproofed room.
SBx Boards are very simple to install with the boards simply being laid butted together on the floor beneath a carpet, tiles, floating floor or laminate. For a full description of the boards see SBx boards on our products page. We are of the opinion that the SBx boards offer the best thickness to performance ratio of all above the floor soundproofing products outperforming heavy rubber mats when stopping sound rising.
The Sbx board is a sand filled board that works more effectively than just simply adding more mass to the ceiling. Conventional wisdom states that as you increase the mass of the dividing structure you improve the soundproofing. However simply adding more mass runs into the law of diminishing returns. The beauty of the SBx board is that the material in the core is loose and arranged in an irregular fashion. This irregularity and looseness disrupts the passage of sound more effectively than the dead mass of rubber or solid boards.
For customers wishing to further enhance the performance of SBx boards as a simple lay over the floor solution we can highly recommend the Tecsound 50 membrane. A heavy high performance membrane which is an excellent .For customers looking to insulate noisy pipes please see our acoustic pipe wrap.
Soundproofing and tiling bathrooms/kitchens
The unique fluted inner core of SBx boards allow "give" while maintaining its shape. This award winning German design means that the board can be used as a rigid surface that will still reduce impact sound considerably.
A common problem in bathrooms is wanting to reduce impact sound and still have tiles. The SBx boards means you can tile and still reduce impact sound. We don't know of another product that provides the necessary rigidity to tile over, while still providing impact sound protection
Sound proofing basics
When it comes to soundproofing your floor , it is important to establish what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to stop noise from below reaching you, or are you trying to eradicate your impact noise passing down to your neighbours?
In practice, most people are aiming at stopping the sounds from below traveling upwards. Many products on the market boast great soundproofing credentials (particularly rubber mat or underlay solutions) but the figures quoted are almost always referring to a reduction in impact sound and are of very little use in identifying how much airborne sound is being reduced.
Understanding Performance
To the right you will see a performance table.
The total performance which is normally quoted on most sites refers impact sound only. However if you are worried about sound rising from below you should only consider the airborne sound number ( which is rarely quoted)
We also give an indication of acoustic performanceuplift. Remember that every 10dB of performance uplift corresponds to roughly a 50% improvement in the performance of the floor. So 20dB would indicate a 75% Improvement over and above the original floor.
*Please note figures stated for total system are based on a a timber joist ceiling floor construction with 200mm joist. The figures are Lab figures and are Ctr corrected. So are not comparable to regulation E Systems. The improvement figures state improvement over a regular timber floor and plasterboard ceiling.
Important Note*
As a consumer comparing different products from different companies is very hard.
While we talk about improvement in decibels in all our tables many other companies will state a single figure for their products which is often in excess of 40 or even 50db. It is really important to understand that these figures invariably refer to the performance of a whole floor ceiling structure, and this will include a standardised floor and ceiling that will already be quite well soundproofed. There is no single product in existence, to our knowledge that will provide in excess of 30 db when added to a standard floor ceiling divide ( plasterboard ceiling and wooden floor).
In an attempt to level the playing field we are taking a standard ceiling 12mm plasterboard a void and 18 mm floor boards as our base case. We reckon that this has an acoustic performance of about 34 db rw ( airborne). The final column of our table gives an indication of we believe our system might achieve in Rw( simple airborne performance) terms.
An important word about regulation E ( the sound test required for conversions) . We have a dedicated regulation E web site www.uksoundproofing.co.uk. The figures in the above tables do not take into account Ctr corrections so do not attempt to create an off the shelf solution for regulation E
More info when making a comparison of our products with others:
Please note that the figures that we provide refer to improvement over the average floor as opposed to the performance data of the product in isolation typically this is impact sound numbers).By this we refer to products that can be lab tested in a way that the product is tested on its own, which can give little indication how it performs in situ,(i.e. on your floor)
This is a very important distinction to understand and is confusing to a lot of people. Almost all our competitors will state the performance of the product either in isolation or include the existing floor construction within their numbers. This will exaggerate the true benefit of their products. For more information click here. This is particularly the case with laminate underlay's.
Surpisingly good Our expectation for the product was quite good given the reviews we had read but we were surprised at how effective they were. We had orginally tried to sound proof our floor with mineral wool belwo the floor boards. ( Not from soundstop). The results were not great and we were informed we had probably used the wrong density. I decided I could not face lifting floor boards again. We went for a combination of Tecsound and the SBX baords. We are really pleased with the result. I would say it has eradicated all TV noise and normal conversation. Loud music does penetrate at the bass end of the frequency scale but the result is so much better.
Ashok Shah 05 April 2017
Quick and Easy We are happy with the product. We failed our soundproofing regualtion E test by about four decibels. We added the product and passed easily. Pleased with fitting time and end build quality
Angela Green 08 March 2017
Good Great Product. Thanks
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