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matthew_jarjoura

Soundproofing Tile flooring question

10 years ago

Hello All,

I'm looking for some advice on what to do about soundproofing my new tile floor. My contractor has started laying the "underlayment membrane" down and was telling me it should be good enough for sound insulation. (I live in a condo, so I do not want the person below me to be overwhelmed by my presence)



He's installing a product called Schlüter DITRA that seems pretty common for making sure the floor is even. It's a wood frame construction building, but the floor has about 2" of poured concrete above the sub-floor.

All the soundproofing material I looked at is its own membrane, so I'm confused why this DITRA might not be enough.


http://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/faq/ditra-ditraxl-sound-control-membrane

Any products I should be looking at instead?


Thanks,

Matt

Comments (6)

  • 10 years ago

    Schluter DITRA is a thin waterproofing membrane that also decouples the tile from the substrate so it is less likely to crack. It is definitely not sound proofing or sound insulation and would offer little reduction of structure and air borne sound but the tile will help. It is orange so I assume that is what is being installied.

    Schluter also makes DITRA-SOUND which is a heavy polyethylene mat with a fleece surface on each side. It should reduce structure borne sound transmission like foot traffic but will do little to reduce the transfer of air borne sound however the tile will help with that.

  • 10 years ago

    Modern codes require a minimum level of sound separation between apartments and that should be designed into the ceiling below. To reduce footfall sound transfer from hard flooring a resilient underlayment is needed. Its difficult to determine how much more resilient DITRA-SOUND would be but it is not much thicker than DITRA so it would be the better choice. But that would be moot if you have already installed DITRA.

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    I'd see if your condo association has any rules/regulations/guidelines in place.

    I do some work in Manhattan and most places I've worked have very specific guidelines. Most simply specify a minimum IIC rating, usually between 50-60. Some actually specify materials. 50 is usually the minimum for basic residential, most condos/apartments are in the 55-60 range.

    The Schluter link you provided says that a Ditra floor has an IIC of 38. When I need a sound control membrane, I usually look at Nobel SIS. I don't recall the exact IIC, but I'm thinking 62. Ditra won't get me anywhere for sound control. Nobel SIS will.

    Way back when I was looking, I never found an IIC for Ditra-SOUND, even after emailing the company. Back then they listed a generic "IIC greater than 50" which does me no good at all. I'll take a listed "62" over a "greater than 50" every day of the week.

    SIS is a thin membrane and it's also a crack and waterproofing membrane. At 3/64" thick, it's a little thinner than Ditra.

    For added info, there are two sound transmission acronyms:

    SSC is for the transmission of airborne sound; conversation, television, or music, etc.

    IIC is for impact noises. Footfall, high heels, etc, through a floor and into the room below.

  • 10 years ago
    Can it be used on top of the ditra?
  • PRO
    10 years ago

    No, they accomplish different tasks and not used together