SBX boards - Acoustic floor insulation

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The SBx board is a silica 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 and high performance membrane which is excellent for reducing airborne sound penetration. For customers looking to insulate noisy pipes please see our acoustic pipe wrap.

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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 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 performanceup lift. 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.

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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 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 underlays.

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