Floating floors (impact sound insulation)

Application

Noise transmission between rooms and/or apartments caused by impact sound transmission via ceiling or adjacent floors can be reduced in floating floor constructions.
Using an highly elastic separation layer between floor and screed greatly improves the impact sound properties of the floor construction.
Very often space is a problem and the call is for a thin but effective material. Another problem may be humidity diffusion in wet rooms calling for water barrier material which does not rot.

Alveolit/Alveolen fulfil all the above requirements.
The main applications are in

• renovation and/or new buildings
• concrete screed
• special screed for ceramic tiles.

Parquet underlay applications are described in a separate leaflet.

Alveolit/Alveolen an inert, light weight, resilient, soft elastic, physically crosslinked closed cell polyethylene (PE) foam sheets. They have a fine cell structure with two process skins and are supplied in roll form.

Alveolit/Alveolen provide:

• good impact sound insulation at low thicknesses
• excellent chemical and mechanical stability
• flat ’undulation-free’ laying with good thickness tolerances
• good water vapour barrier
• environmental friendlines

PE - foam

• light-weight, inert, does not deteriorate or mildew
• good ecological balance (recyclable resp. reusable)
• easy to cut with a knife, does not crumble

closed-cell

• negligible water absorption

physically crosslinked, fine cell structure

• highly resistant to chemicals
• high compressive strength
• low thickness loss
• good long-term performance
• excellent water vapour barrier

low dynamic stiffness - highly elastic

• good impact sound insulation
• easy to lay and fold
• may be walked on during laying

low thickness, low thickness tolerances, smooth sheet with no undulation

• only slight increase of floor thickness
• easy to lay, no problem with joins

Depending on the static, dynamic and other application requirements, the correct Alveolit foam type and grade must be selected.
For normal domestic floor constructions (no floor heating) some typical products are:

* The max. load is the load at which the thickness loss of the foam is <10% after 3 years at 23°C and includes both screed weight and traffic load (incl. furniture). Typical concrete screed thicknesses are 50 - 70 mm corresponding to ca. 1 kPa load.

This product table is intended for guidance only. The optimum type/grade must be chosen according to the actual application.

This product guide does not absolve the customer from determining the correct product suitable for each application.

Generally Alveolit TE/TEE types have better impact sound insulation values. However, max. load values are lower than for TA types and need to be checked in each case. For industrial floors, heated floors or special structural floor constructions (e.g. elastic screeds), please ask for more information.

A commonly used product for concrete floating floors is Alveolit TA 3005. Application specific data is shown below. For other properties and full product description see the individual product data sheets.