Description
Made of a specially-formulated rubber compound, U-Boat Floor Floaters are our proprietary U-shaped channels used to support framing members and float (isolate and decouple) them from the surrounding structure. With the help of U-Boats, a floated room features greatly improved transmission loss (isolation) and low frequency definition (translated: a tight, floated room will always sound better!).
U-Boats are the industry’s most affordable floating solution and are much easier to use than those exorbitant “pucks” that have been used in the past.
Applications
- Decouples Floor Beams From Supporting Structure
- Reduces Structural Vibrations
- New Formulation With Improved Isolation
How much weight will U-Boats support?
U-Boats have been placed under floors supporting quite a bit of weight. However, testing for compressive tolerances is expensive and to keep U-Boat costs down, we have never verified performance. We have discussed the properties of U-Boats with rubber experts and we have been assured that: ”The framing member will fail before the U-Boat will fail.” This is good enough for us!
What is the proper spacing for U-Boats?
This is a very common question.
Guidelines for U-Boat spacing is as follows:
When Joist Spacing is 24” o.c.*, U-Boat spacing should be 16” o.c. along the joist minimum and not to exceed 24” o.c.
When Joist Spacing is between 12”-16” o.c., U-Boat spacing should be 16” o.c. along the joist minimum and not to exceed 32” o.c.
Most (>99%) of applications will work fine with 16” o.c. spacing of U-Boats along the joist. Spacing further apart will improve low frequency isolation below 40 Hz. However, spacing should never exceed 32” o.c.
*o.c. refers to “on center” and represents measuring from the mid-point of a joist or U-Boat to the mid-point of an adjacent joist or U-Boat.
