Developers are always trying to match expectations, costs and performance in building systems. One of the most common areas of complaint has been in noise control. For apartments or condos, the cost of erring in the floor system can be great. Developers want high performance or assured performance in a 0.25” sound mat with a 1.0” gypsum concrete pour. KEENE developed QUIET QURL 55/025 MC MT to provide luxury performance in a low profile system. The new “MUFFLING”, MT product enhancement achieved that goal. In the lab, the performance was 20 dB better at the high frequencies than standard, code complaint QUIET QURL. More importantly, the performance in the low frequencies down to 125 Hz was 5 dB improved. Five decibels of improvement is considered noticeable by industry standards.
The MT product enhancement diffuses air pressure build up in the cavity. Space or touching is the first line of defense for impact noise in flooring assemblies but that small airspace can pressurize and transmit vibration noise in the form of air pressure. With the compressed “highloft” fabric, the air pressure build up is greatly diminished and the IIC level is improved by as much as 7 points.
In the Camden Commons project, field tests showed bare gypsum concrete with an AIIC (Apparent Impact Insulation Classification) of 58, vinyl plank performance of as high as 60 and engineered wood performance as high as 64 AIIC. Those luxury performance numbers greatly exceed normal 0.25” sound mat performance in wood frame from any other product on the market. Laboratory tests in similar wood frame applications showed high performance similar to this level. All tests are conducted by independent acoustical consultants and testing companies.
KEENE’s patent pending MT Muffling technology enhancement is designed to compress into the interstices of the entangled net mat. The “highloft” fabric is heat laminated to the bottom side of the core adding almost no additional thickness to the sound control mat when loaded with a 1.0” to 1.5” underlayment. KEENE has developed a method of reinforcing the gypsum concrete with a combination fiberglass scrim and fabric that adds as much as 20% to the tensile strength. The reinforcing fabric is called “RF”.