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Managing Noise with Interface Flooring
There are many things you can do to minimize noise in your environment, including the layout and interior finishes you're using. Both greatly impact the noise level of a space, and perhaps the largest finishing is your floor. Interface offers a variety of flooring options to help you create the aesthetic you want while mitigating noise.
Soft surface flooring, like our carpet tiles, offers exceptional sound absorption and is ideal for areas that require quiet for focus or privacy. Looking for resilient flooring? Our 4.5 mm LVT (standard with Sound Choice™ backing) and nora® rubber offer a significant reduction in impact sound. Put our flooring to work for you and see what a difference it makes.
Acoustic Benefits of Our Flooring
Whether it’s moving a chair, speaking loudly or walking across the floor, you create vibrations that become sound waves. When sound waves strike an object, they can either pass through it, be partially absorbed by it or reflect off it. Everything from the ceiling to the furniture to the flooring determines the noise level of a space.
Transmission
The Impact Insulation Class (IIC) rating is a measurement of sound transmission from the floor to a room beneath it. The higher the rating, the less sound gets through. But when you compare products, look beyond the number. The subfloor, ceiling assembly and presence of an underlayment during testing impact the rating from one manufacturer to another. Of course, the specifics of your structure also determine performance.
Absorption
How well flooring absorbs sound also determines acoustic comfort. Soft surface flooring like carpet offers the greatest sound absorption qualities, so for those areas that must be quiet, it’s your best option. Performance from one product to another varies here as well. Face construction, backing type, underlayments—all of these impact a product’s rating so be sure you’re comparing apples to apples when considering carpet tiles for your space.
Impact Sound
Impact Sound Improvement tests how well a flooring can mitigate noises like sliding chairs or footsteps within a space. The results indicate how much impact noise is reduced in decibels. It’s important to note that a 10dB difference is a doubling or halving of sound intensity. For example, our LVT with Sound Choice™ backing reduced impact sound by 16dB in laboratory tests compared to a hard surface floor that only offered a reduction of 1-6dB. That 10dB difference means that Interface LVT with Sound Choice reduces impact sound within a room by more than half.
Acoustic Benefits of Our Flooring
Whether it’s moving a chair, speaking loudly or walking across the floor, you create vibrations that become sound waves. When sound waves strike an object, they can either pass through it, be partially absorbed by it or reflect off it. Everything from the ceiling to the furniture to the flooring determines the noise level of a space.
Transmission
The Impact Insulation Class (IIC) rating is a measurement of sound transmission from the floor to a room beneath it. The higher the rating, the less sound gets through. But when you compare products, look beyond the number. The subfloor, ceiling assembly and presence of an underlayment during testing impact the rating from one manufacturer to another. Of course, the specifics of your structure also determine performance.
Absorption
How well flooring absorbs sound also determines acoustic comfort. Soft surface flooring like carpet offers the greatest sound absorption qualities, so for those areas that must be quiet, it’s your best option. Performance from one product to another varies here as well. Face construction, backing type, underlayments—all of these impact a product’s rating so be sure you’re comparing apples to apples when considering carpet tiles for your space.
Impact Sound
Impact Sound Improvement tests how well a flooring can mitigate noises like sliding chairs or footsteps within a space. The results indicate how much impact noise is reduced in decibels. It’s important to note that a 10dB difference is a doubling or halving of sound intensity. For example, our LVT with Sound Choice™ backing reduced impact sound by 16dB in laboratory tests compared to a hard surface floor that only offered a reduction of 1-6dB. That 10dB difference means that Interface LVT with Sound Choice reduces impact sound within a room by more than half.
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