Estimation of impact sound reduction by wood flooring installation in a wooden building in Korea

Multi-family homes have been constructed traditionally using heavy materials like concrete/steel and bricks. Wooden structures are a promising substitute for typical heavyweight constructions. However, floor impact noise has been identified as the most annoying noise source in South Korea. Here, we have studied the effect of floorboard installation on impact sound changes before and after installing the floorboard on the floor of a wooden building. We used standard tapping and bang machines in this study to generate lightweight and heavyweight impact sounds. The changes in noise from lightweight and heavyweight impact sounds were estimated on the upper layer (UL) and lower layer (LL) floors before and after the installation of the plywood floorboard (PFB). The average of the octave band center frequencies at 125, 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz from the lightweight impact before installation of PFB was 84.08 dB (UL) and 50.54 dB (LL), respectively, while 84.04 dB (UL) and 41.90 dB (LL) after the installation of the surface decorated PFB. Similarly, the heavyweight impact sound before installing PFB was 73.26 dB (UL) and 42.16 dB (LL), respectively, while after installation of PFB, impact sound appeared at 71.58 dB (UL) and 42.48 dB (LL). The results exhibited that lightweight impact sound could be reduced by about 8.6 dB on the LL. These results could entice the researcher or building engineer to design wooden floorboards for a comfortable building environment. This study is new because it compares the impact sound of the floor before and after it has been constructed.