Subjective ratings of heavy-weight floor impact sounds in wood frame construction

The subjective ratings of heavy-weight floor impact sounds in wood frame construction were examined. Heavy-weight floor impact sounds were recorded in a mock-up building, which had four floors and two rooms each floor. The different insulation treatments were installed in the floors of each room and walls separating rooms. The stimuli consisted of 48 sounds (4 types × 2 receiver positions × 6 rooms) recorded in the mock-up building, which had 49-78 dB in the single number rating index (Li_i,Fmax,r). Low pass filter with cutoff frequency 1.5 kHz was applied to remove electrical noise components in higher frequency range. The pink noise was produced from 8 loud speakers at every each 45 degree at the 1.75 m from subject and at the height of subject's ear positions. The results showed that sound insulations in higher frequency octave bands are more effective to decrease annoyance than those in lower frequency octave bands for the heavy-weight impact sound.