SBx Boards are our most effective solution when looking for ease of fit (no need to lift floorboards)
They are effective in:
- 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 offer only 5dB of airborne
protection.
- Decreasing your impact sound experienced to the room below.
- Improving the acoustics in the soundproofed room.
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.
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 performance to thickness ratio of all above the floor
soundproofing products, outperforming heavy rubber mats when stopping
sound rising.
Soundproofing and tiling bathrooms/kitchens
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
SBX Soundproofing - How it works
The SBx board is a silica filled board that works more effectively than just simply adding more mass to the floor. 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 and high performance membrane which is excellent for reducing airborne sound penetration.
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
At the foot of the page you will see a performance table.
The total performance which is normally quoted on most sites refers to 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 performance uplift. 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.
A very important note on getting the right product.
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 40 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 case study. We believe that this has an acoustic performance of about 34 dB Rw ( airborne). The final column of our table gives an indication of what 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 of 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. This is particularly the case with laminate underlays.
*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.
Fitting Instructions