Abstract
Subjective evaluations have been carried out to determine whether timber-based, inter-tenancy floor/ ceiling systems can be produced – using existing industry skills and techniques – which are as subjectively satisfactory as concrete slab based floors Listeners’ choices made during controlled A/B comparisons indicated that loudness – suitably extended to include the infrasonic frequency range – is better than standard metrics for ranking floors for their impact insulation. However, since the ranking changed with the type of impact, a simple, single-figure performance description may not be adequate for indicating the overall performance as required in building specifications or building codes.