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The Premium Timber Floor Soundproofing System is designed to reduce both impact and airborne noise and is ideal for applications where greater noise control is required. This system involves taking the flooring back to the timber joists and completely upgrading the floor construction by means of Green Glue Joist Tape, cement based floorboard and our Soundproofing Mat. This system can be easily upgraded if further reduction is required by replacing the 5kg soundproofing mat with 10kg soundproofing mat. The 18mm SilentBoard can also be upgraded to 22mm SilentBoard.
Installation Guide
- This system is designed to be a complete overhaul of your existing floor and requires that the floor be stripped right back to bare joists. Skirtings need to be removed as well as door architraves. This system is more involved than our basic system so some building experience would be useful.
- Check the existing timbers for damage and splitting, repair as necessary.
- If there is currently none present fill the cavity of the joists with 100mm RW3 ensuring that the Insulation sits below the top of the floor joists. If there is currently insulation establish whether this will need replacing or supplementing.
- Apply Green Glue Joist Tape on top of the floor joists using a Tape and Joint Roller.
- Lay 18mm or 22mm SilentBoard on top of the floor joists, leaving a 5mm gap around the perimeter of the room.
- If required cut SilentBoards using a circular saw fixed with a vacuum extractor and a PCD saw blade. This method will cut boards easily and mitigate dust. Boards are laid with board text facing up.
- Secure the SilentBoard with 12 x 50mm Fibre Cement Board Screws placed at a minimum of 12mm from the square edge and 5mm from the side of the joist. Ensure screws are placed a minimum distance of 25mm from the tongue and grove edge.
- Lay the SilentBoard in a brick bond pattern. Tongue and grove joins do not need to end on a joist but all square edges should be fully supported.
- Secure subsequent boards by applying Mega Strength PU Adhesive along the length of the boards grove, before inserting the tongue of the next board.
- Once the whole floor has been installed fill the gap around the perimeter of the room with AC95 Acoustic Sealant using a caulking gun for precise application. Smooth down the sealant for a neat finish.
- You are now ready to lay your first layer of soundproofing mat. Unroll the roll of soundproofing mat and lay it loosely in place on the floor ensuring it is tight up to two walls. Fold half of the roll back and apply Advanced Acoustics Contact Adhesive to both the SilentBoard and the soundproofing mat, completely covering both surfaces.
- As soon as the adhesive is applied the roll is ready to be laid in place. Roll the Soundproofing Mat back out and use a clean sweeping brush or a roller to brush out any air gaps and ensure the mat is secured down.
- Fold back the loose half of the Soundproofing Mat and repeat the process.
- Roll out another roll of Soundproofing Mat laying the matting end to end from the first roll.
- Trim to approximate length as required using a Utility Knife. Cut the roll slightly longer than required so that you can trim to fit once the roll is laid.
- Place the loose roll up to the two walls, allowing the Soundproofing Mat to overlap onto the previously installed sheet of Soundproofing Mat. Fold half of the roll back and repeat the process of apply Contact Adhesive to the SilentBoard and the Soundproofing Mat. Once glued and brushed down you can now apply adhesive to the loose half of the roll.
- Where the two layers of soundproofing mat overlap you can now trim these with a Utility Knife, cutting through both layers. Remove the waste and re-glue down where the two rolls join. Using this method will ensure there are no gaps in the soundproofing mat.
- You can then continue to glue down the rest of the soundproofing mat ensuring you slightly overlap the mats to allow to trim them in order to get a clean joint.
- Once the whole floor is covered seal the joints with the PVC Jointing Tape.
- The second layer can now be installed directly on top.
- The second layer of matting needs to be installed perpendicular to the previous layer so as to avoid having overlapping joints.
- Use the same method to lay the second layer of soundproofing mat.
- When trimming the edges back take care not to cut though to the first layer of soundproofing mat.
- Once the whole floor is covered, again seal the joints with PVC Jointing Tape.
- Next seal the joint around the perimeter of the room between the soundproofing mat and the wall using AC95 Acoustic Sealant to ensure there are no gaps. Use a caulking gun precise application and smooth the sealant down.
- If you are fitting Carpet follow the next steps. If you are fitting LVT or Laminate jump to step 36
- You can now install the carpet gripper around the perimeter of the room, fixing it through the matting to the SilentBoards below.
- Once the gripper is in place you now need to install the Silent Floor Ultra Underlay. This needs to be installed perpendicular to the previous layer to stagger joints as well as possible.
- Apply adhesive to the Soundproofing Mat side of Silent Floor Ultra. The foam is to be faced upwards. Apply adhesive to the previously installed Soundproofing Mat, covering an area slightly larger than the size of the Silent Floor Ultra Sheet.
- Position the Silent Floor Ultra in place butting it up tightly to the gripper rod. The room isn’t square you may need to trim the Silent Floor Ultra to shape before apply adhesive.
- Repeat the process butting the Mats up tightly to each other, ensuring there are no gaps.
- When you have completed the first row use the off-cut to start the second row. This will create a brick bond layout to minimise waste and stagger joints.
- Repeat the process until the whole floor is covered.
- Seal the joints of the Silent Floor Ultra with PVC Jointing Tape.
- The floor is now ready to be carpeted.
- If LVT or laminate is to be fitted complete the following steps. Otherwise jump to step 48.
- If it is a loose laid LVT or Laminate use SilentMat18. The product should be allowed to de-stress and adopt a flat position. The product can then be fitted loose in line with the floor finish manufacturer’s instructions.
- If a bond LVT is to be fitted use SilentMat16. SilentMat16 must be bonded to the subfloor.
- Wherever possible the product should be installed so that the joints run with the direction of the main light in the installation area rather than against it. Ideally this will also be at 90 degrees to the finished floor so that the chance of coinciding joints is minimised.
- The product should be dry laid into workable areas and cut at least 50mm over the length required and allowed to relax for the acclimatisation period. After acclimatisation the underlay should then be cut using a utility knife and straight edge and a gap of around 3mm should be left around the perimeter to allow for any expansion.
- The SilentMat16 should not be in direct contact with any wall, column or skirting board that has not been isolated using a perimeter isolation strip. The product should be adhered to the subfloor using a recommended adhesive strictly in accordance with the installation instructions of the adhesive manufacturer. It is particularly important to refer to the adhesive manufacturer’s advice in respect of trowel sizes, application rates/coverage’s and open times.
- Only spread enough adhesive to cover a workable area, and after the required open time lay the product into the adhesive and smooth out from the centre using a carpet glider or hand roller to ensure that the product is fully into the adhesive and all air bubbles are released.
- The SilentMat16 should then be fully rolled into the adhesive using a 68kg articulated flooring roller to ensure full adhesion along the entire length and width of the product.
- All edges should be butt jointed ensuring that all seams and joints are smooth without any voids but not too tight. Open seams with any gaps will “telegraph” through most LVTs, so it is very important that the underlayment work is as smooth and well seamed as possible.
- Once the SilentMat16 is fully bonded to the subfloor, this time will depend on the adhesive used but usually after 24 hours, the LVT can be installed. SilentMat16 should be used with glued down LVT products of a minimum thickness of 2mm so that issues of “telegraphing” through are minimised. To provide noise improvement the product has to have a level of resilience to absorb impact energy and as such adds a degree of softness to the overall floor. This must be born in mind for areas where critical lateral lighting may be present, also please seek advice for installation areas where there may be equipment with extreme point loading.
- The LVT should be installed following the instructions of the LVT manufacturer using a suitable approved adhesive with correct notched trowel size. SilentMat16 has limited porosity so some wet set adhesives may take longer to go off. Ideally the LVT should be installed at 90° to the SilentMat16 so that the chance of coinciding joints is minimised. It is important to leave a small gap so that the finished floor does not come into contact with any part of the perimeter to avoid flanking problems.
- The gap should be filled with AC95 Acoustic Sealant.
- Due to the slightly increased floor height any doors may need to be trimmed to suit. If you are uncertain about completing this a joiner or handy man will have no problem carrying this out for you.
System Thickness - Approx 40mm.