Overcoming Field Impact Isolation Testing Failures Due to Underlayment Performance Deficiencies

There is strong demand in the renovation of apartments and condominiums for hard-surfaced flooring in upper level dwelling units. Some homeowner associations have enacted restrictions requiring that floor/ceiling assemblies meet higher field impact insulation performance standards than required by State and/or City building codes. Other homeowner associations have enacted what could be even more restrictive subjective requirements that any changes to upper level flooring not result in a disturbance in the dwelling unit below. Typically neither approach specifically addresses the issue of problems arising from altering the lower dwelling unit's ceilings. This paper presents iterative field performance test results for several recently renovated condominiums in luxury multi-family residential buildings that used innovative techniques to achieve high-end homeowner association impact performance requirements.