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Amorim Provides Solutions to Multi-Family Building Code IIC Ratings With LVT

A few years back, before LVT was on the front page of every publication related to the flooring industry, we had an inquiry from a company in regards to an impact sound solution for vinyl plank flooring.

Amorim Provides Solution to Multi-Family Building

A few years back, before LVT was on the front page of every publication related to the flooring industry, we had an inquiry from a company in regards to an impact sound solution for vinyl plank flooring.

Before the Great Recession, our focus in marketing sound control underlayment products was the condominium market, which at its peak in 2006 offered about 150,000 units of new construction opportunity. In the pre-recession condo era, vinyl flooring was not an application that we addressed or had much in the way of inquiries in regards to, as the condo market was focused on high-end hard surface finished flooring products.

 

The company contacted us in regards to a solution for vinyl flooring. It was a property manager, who owned well over 100,000 apartment units.

The company that contacted us in regards to a solution for vinyl flooring was a property manager, who owned well over 100,000 apartment units in properties scattered over multiple United States metropolitan markets. The company had a problem. They had embarked on a program to replace the carpet and pad in the living and dining room areas of existing apartment units with vinyl plank (LVT) flooring.

They had started this initiative for two primary reasons:

- one was to give a more modern look to existing properties
- but more importantly, they had done a life-cycle cost analysis of carpet versus vinyl flooring. This study revealed vinyl plank flooring was a much lower cost alternative, over its longer anticipated lifespan.

The problem they encountered with their early conversions was that the tenants in the downstairs units, below the units converted to vinyl flooring, were complaining about hearing almost every footstep of their upstairs neighbours.

"As a result of this experience and the exponential growth of LVT plank flooring in the multi-family, hospitality, student and senior housing markets, we have developed a whole range of products, specifically designed for the challenges presented in providing code compliant impact sound attenuation for vinyl flooring."
Source: Pro Installer Magazine
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"As a result of this experience and the exponential growth of LVT plank flooring in the multi-family, hospitality, student and senior housing markets, we have developed a whole range of products, specifically designed for the challenges presented in providing code compliant impact sound attenuation for vinyl flooring."
Source: Pro Installer Magazine

Key LVT characteristics

  • From over 60 to 30 IIC floor rating

    By replacing the soft carpet and pad, which was probably in total about 1”-thick, with a 2mm vinyl plank flooring product glued directly to the structural sub floor, the floor/ceiling system had lost a great deal of its impact sound attenuation capability.

    With the carpet and pad, their floor ceiling assemblies probably had IIC ratings over 60, whereas with the 2mm glued down plank LVT plank flooring without acoustical underlayment, the IIC rating of their floor/ceiling assemblies were now in the 30’s.

     
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  • The Uniform Building Code requirement for IIC ratings in multi- family structures is a minimum of 50.

    This was a problem because the Uniform Building Code requirement for IIC ratings in multi-family structures is a minimum of 50.

    Since their floor replacement program was an initiative in progress, involving multiple vendors and installation contractors all over the US, they needed a workable solution to address the tenant noise concerns, and they needed it quickly.
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“As a result, we have been working with this same client for almost seven years, in the renovation of about 5,000 apartment units annually.”

Pro Installer Magazine

  • Result: zero claims or issues over the span of nearly seven years

    Thankfully, due to our global presence, we had a proven solution for direct glued resilient flooring that had been used successfully in the European market for many years. This application was not very common in the U.S. at the time.

    We were able to supply this solution quickly, and through our nationwide network of distributors set up a supply chain to service this business, in a just-in-time manner, with their designated installation contractors across the country.
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