If you are looking for acoustic flooring, chances are you are anticipating issues with noise pollution.
Like acoustic decks and cradles, acoustic battens are a specialist solution designed specifically to minimise floor sound transmission and make installing flooring easy and simple.
Coming in three main varieties with unlimited custom options, which acoustic batten is right for your project?
What are acoustic battens?
Designed for both new build and refurbishment projects, acoustic battens are a type of acoustic flooring suitable for floors of all types – including timber, steel, and concrete.
They are specifically crafted to provide acoustic insulation between floors, ensuring noise pollution is minimised in multi-storey constructions, for both impact and airborne sounds. Examples of suitable multi-storey projects include, but are not limited to:
- Theatres and music halls
- Nightclubs and social spaces
- Duplexes and townhouses
- Student accommodation
- Banks of apartments or flats
- Hotels and hostels
- Shopping centres or malls
Thanks to their simple yet effective structure and installation process, acoustic battens remain a popular acoustic flooring option across the country, allowing buildings or spaces stacked on top of one another to remain interruption-free and to function as one private space, no matter how close they are to another property.
What type of acoustic batten is best?
Acoustic battens come in three standard varieties: 50C, 80T, and 80C.
When ordering your acoustic batten, the coding denotes many things, including the depth and the type of flooring each batten is suitable for – so, 80T denotes 80mm depth and timber-specific subfloors, while 50C refers to 50mm depth and concrete-specific subfloors, etc.
Despite their difference in depth and subfloor usage, each acoustic batten is constructed from the same parts – namely, a 10mm bonded resilient layer of open-cell, recycled polyurethane foam, followed by a timber batten of differing depths, depending on your needs.
Acoustic battens offer an immense reduction in impact sounds and have a high compressive strength – making them ideal for construction projects of all kinds. They also allow for voids to be created beneath finished flooring during construction, permitting the easy installation of services, including underfloor heating.
50C
As the coding represents, a 50C acoustic batten system is designed for concrete sub-floors and is made up of a 40mm timber batten and a 10mm pre-bonded resilient foam layer.
They are suitable for new build or refurbishment projects, helping housing developers meet the government’s net-zero strategy: Build Back Greener.
80T
80T acoustic flooring battens contain a 70mm timber batten and a 10mm layer of resilient, recycled polyurethane.
These battens are primarily designed for timber sub-floors and, like other acoustic battens, can be overlaid with an 18mm (minimum) tongue-and-groove chipboard, plywood, or hardwood, before the installation of other finished flooring.
80C
80C acoustic battens include a 70mm timber batten and a 10mm topping of high compressive strength, open-cell polyurethane.
No matter which acoustic batten specification you opt for, detailed and specific installation instructions are included – as incorrect installation, for example penetrating the foam layer, can result in a loss of acoustic protection.
If you are unsure or not confident about installing acoustic flooring, like battens, some providers offer installation services as well as bespoke manufacturing.
Need a custom acoustic flooring option?
Acoustic battens are generally supplied in widths of 50mm or 80mm and lengths of 50mm to 250mm.
However, if you need alternative acoustic battens, some suppliers offer custom width and length options, suitable for projects of any specification.
Do acoustic battens meet sound transmission regulations?
All acoustic battens worth their salt should be independently tested by a UKAS-accredited laboratory.
Similarly, they should meet both Robust Details E-FT-1, E-FT2, E-FT-3 or E-FS-2 (usually in Scotland) and/ or Approved Document Part E in England and Wales.
If the acoustic battens you find don’t meet these minimum criteria, we would suggest you shop around – any detraction from expected standards will likely result in reduced sound insulation, which will affect the standard of any completed build.
Find specialist acoustic flooring for every project
If you are looking for acoustic flooring options, including acoustic battens, consider JCW Acoustic Flooring.
With standard or custom battens made to your exact specifications, a choice of professional installation, and quality verification from third-party laboratories – no matter where you are in the UK, they can help.