Sometimes we receive questions like this by phone or by email. In these cases, there are ways to measure the floor impact sound pressure level by using the standard sound source decided by JIS. We can measure the amount of sound which is actually coming from the upper floor.
When measuring the floor impact sound pressure level, we measure the light floor impact sound pressure level or the heavy floor impact sound pressure level with a measurement method decided by the Architectural Institute of Japan (JIS), and evaluate the result in an applied class related to the floor impact sound pressure level by the architectural institute. This applied class separates a special grade, 1st grade, 2nd grade and 3rd grade, and 1st grade indicates the edesirable efficiency level recommended by the architectural institutef, for example.
When measuring the sound volume from the above floor, since we donft know when the sound occurs we can setup an unmanned measurement machine which can measure sound for a long period of time. Since the measurement method for life noise such as footsteps coming from the upper floor has not been provided by the architectural institute, It is difficult to be able to evaluate the measurement result as is, in the applied class related to room noise by the architectural institute (the noise from facilities or machineries that belong to the building, or the traffic noise from outside are able to be evaluated).
The sound of a chair dragging or hearing footsteps, which makes vibration on the surface of a floor and causes audible noise to rooms on the lower floor, this is called floor impact sound. The measurement we use to investigate this standard of impact source to see how loud the sound is in the room on the lower floor, using a floor impact sound pressure level measurement.
We measure in conformity to (or in accordance with) the standards below: JIS A 1418-1:2000 "Measurement of floor impact sound insulation of buildings - Part 1: Method using standard light impact source" and JIS A 1418-1:2000 "Measurement of floor impact sound insulation of buildings - Part 2: Method using standard heavy impact sources"
When conducting a measurement, we setup a standard light impact source (tapping machine) and a standard heavy impact source (bang machine) on the floor of the upper floor, and measure the sound pressure level in the room on the lower floor with a sound level meter. The result of the measurement will be averaged depending on the frequency is considered to be the floor impact sound pressure level. This measurement result can be evaluated in an applied class related to differential of the floor impact noise level by the Architectural Institute of Japan.
The cost for this measurement will depend on the area being measured, the number of places and the amount of time to take the measurement. For example, if implementing a measurement in Tokyo 23 Wards, to some places for both light floor impact sound pressure level and heavy floor impact sound pressure level, the cost would be ¥300,000 or more including a report. Please contact our acoustic solution division (81-3-3634-5300) for more details.
