Impact sound insulating performance of access floors

Access floor are raised floor systems consisting of modular panels supported by posts at a certain height to create a gap below the floor surface. Electrical wires and pipes can be conveniently placed inside the gap in order to avoid exposed installations and to simplify operations involving the inspection, repair, changing or adding of system elements. This paper presents the results of two measurement campaigns carried out using the procedures given by EN ISO 140-6 and 140-12 standards. A stage of measurement has been performed on different access floor configurations, obtained by changing different floor elements, such as panels, surface finishes and damping materials under the posts base, in order to optimize their acoustic performance. Impact sound insulating properties of access floors combined with false ceilings were also tested and are reported in the paper.