Noisy floors are the bane of every hotel guest’s stay. If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel and heard and felt people using corridors, then you know how it can cheapen the experience and make you dread going to bed.

Thankfully, with the right acoustic flooring, you can isolate sound and vibration in corridors, communal spaces and guest rooms.

There are two ways to do this: you can install an acoustic underlay under the finished flooring or a timber floating floor.

Timber floating floors

Timber floating floors are ideal for hotels because they are installable over existing floorboards and concrete subfloors.

The TVs Raised Adjustable Acoustic Floor System is an excellent option for rooms above ground level on timber. It uses easy levelling cambers that adjust for uneven floors to provide a level surface for the boarding/timber. The void is suitable for all services, including chunky pipes and ducts that run through your hotel.

For ground level, the TVs RESi FF System is suitable for concrete and timber floors, designed to create a timber floating floor or slab. It offers air gaps up to 200mm and uses isolators to significantly reduce the sound of footfall and impacts.

The benefit of floating floors is that they isolate the floor from the building structure, eliminating the chances of sound and vibration travelling through your hotel.

For example, a floating floor will stop the effects of someone running down a corridor from being felt in adjacent rooms.

Floating floors are significantly better than acoustic underlays because they isolate sound and vibration. While an acoustic underlay will help reduce noise, it won’t solve the problem of acoustic transfer between building components.

Acoustic underlays

If a floating floor isn’t possible, acoustic underlays can improve sound and vibration levels from footfall.

Acoustic underlay comprises a foam layer sandwiched with two layers of mass-loaded vinyl or rubber, ranging from 5mm to 12mm thick.

Acoustic underlays are suitable for carpet, hardwood and laminate flooring, reducing noise transfer between rooms and floors by absorbing shock and creating a sound barrier. The thicker and spongier the underlay, the better.

However, while acoustic underlays provide some sound and shock absorption, they are still attached to the subfloor, so they don’t isolate impacts.

Overall, floating floors are superior to acoustic underlays for hotels, but both have a place depending on your acoustic goals. Contact us for advice about your hotel’s acoustic flooring requirements, and we’ll be glad to help.