AU2012200581A1 - Layered flooring assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

C:WRPonb\DCC\STIM126921_1 DOC-2/02/20 12 LAYERED FLOORING ASSEMBLY 5 A layered flooring assembly for location on a substrate surface, the layered flooring assembly including a top surface layer and an intermediary layer, located between the top surface layer and the substrate surface, wherein the intermediary layer is composed of polyester fibres

Description

Australian Patents Act 1990 - Regulation 3.2 ORIGINAL COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title Layered flooring assembly The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: P1/00/01 1 C I All C:\NRPartbh\DCCIWXf\412615l.DOC-l/2/2oI2 LAYERED FLOORING ASSEMBLY The present invention relates to a layered flooring assembly and in particular to a layered 5 flooring assembly including a layer of polyester fibre sheeting. Background Due to increases in housing density resulting from increases in the world's population 10 combined with urbanisation, there is an increased desire to use building materials particular in city environments that provide significant sound attenuation to provide a better quality of life for residents. The present invention seeks to provide a layered flooring assembly that is inexpensive and 15 which provides significant sound absorption. Summary According to one aspect the present invention provides a layered flooring assembly for 20 location on a substrate surface, the layered flooring assembly including a top surface layer and an intermediary layer located between the top surface layer and the substrate surface wherein the intermediary layer is composed of polyester fibres. In one form the intermediary layer is composed of thermally bonded polyester fibre 25 sheeting or needle punched polyester fibre sheeting. In one form the intermediary layer has a thickness of between about 2 mm to about 25 mm. In one form, the thickness of the intermediary layer is between about 3 mm and about 9 mm. In a further form, the thickness of the intermediary layer is about 6mm. 30 In one form the density of the intermediary layer is between about 20 kg/m 3 and about 240kg/m 3 . In one form the density of the intermediary layer is about 140 kg/m 3

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C:NWonbl\DCCWXH\412685_.DOC-I2/2012 -2 In one form the substrate surface is composed of any one of, or a combination of: a concrete slab, wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting and/or fibre cement sheeting. 5 In one form the top surface layer is composed of any one of, or a combination of: wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, floating floor boards, particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting, fibre cement sheeting, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or stone tiles. 10 In one form the top surface layer is composed of particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting or fibre cement sheeting and a further layer is located on top of the top surface layer of the layered floor assembly wherein the further layer is composed of any one of, or a combination of: floor boards, wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, 15 bamboo floor boards, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or stone tiles. In one form the further layer is composed of ceramic tiles or stone tiles and an adhesive is provided to bond the further layer to the top surface layer. 20 According to another aspect the present invention provides a use of polyester fibre sheeting as an intermediary layer in a layered flooring assembly. In one form polyester fibre sheeting is composed of thermally bonded polyester fibre sheeting or needle punched polyester fibre sheeting. 25 In one form the polyester fibres sheeting provides the layered flooring assembly with any one of, or a combination of, the following: increased sound absorption; increased water repellence; increased thermal insulation; and/or a vapour barrier. 30 Detailed Description of Embodiments C.\PortbDCC\WXHM 126B85 I.DOC-1/02/2012 -3 The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention, and modifications and/or changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, the embodiments being illustrative and not restrictive. 5 In the context of this specification, the word "comprising" means "including principally but not necessarily solely" or "having" or "including", and not "consisting only of'. Variations of the word "comprising", such as "comprise" and "comprises" have correspondingly varied meanings. 10 It was surprisingly found that when polyester fibre sheeting, such as thermally bonded polyester fibre sheeting or needle punched polyester fibre sheeting, was used as an intermediary layer in a layered flooring assembly that the resulting assembly had significantly increased sound absorption that if the layered flooring assembly was produced without the intermediary layer of polyester fibre sheeting. 15 In addition, it was also found that a layered flooring assembly including the layer of polyester fibre sheeting also included increased water repellence properties; increased thermal insulation, increased impact absorption and also provided a vapour barrier. 20 The thickness of the polyester fibres sheeting that is used within the layered flooring assembly can range in thickness from between 2 mm up to about 25 mm. Although, it has been found that for the layered flooring assemblies for most common building applications, a thickness of about 4mm to 8mm is preferred. 25 The density of the polyester fibre sheeting is desired to be quite low such as in the range of about 20 kg/m 3 to about 240kg/m 3 . It is preferred that the density of the polyester fibre sheeting is in the range of about 140 kg/m 3 . The layered flooring assembly is typically designed to be placed on to a substrate surface 30 which may form part of an existing building structure or which may be a new base for a floor assembly in a building. The substrate surface may be composed of any typical C:\NRPonblDCC\WXH\4126885_1 DOC-/02/2012 -4 composition which can be used as a solid foundation for a flooring assembly and may be composed of concrete such as a concrete slab or screed, fibre cement sheeting, or other hard setting composition. Alternatively, the substrate surface may be composed of wood, or the like, and be in the form of for example, wooden floor boards, engineered composite 5 floor boards, bamboo floor boards, particle board sheeting and plywood sheeting. According to certain embodiments, the layered flooring assembly includes a top surface layer with the polyester fibre sheeting acting as an intermediary layer positioned on top of the substrate surface and located between the top surface layer and the substrate surface. 10 The top surface may be composed of any type of surface that is used as a flooring surface and can include for example one of, or a combination of: wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, floating floor boards, particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting, fibre cement sheeting, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or 15 stone tiles. In one embodiment the top surface layer is composed of a material that acts as an underlay for a fragile flooring material such as a floating wooden flooring or stone or ceramic tile. In this embodiment, the top surface layer is a material such as for example particle board 20 sheeting, plywood sheeting or fibre cement sheeting and then a further layer is located on top of the top surface layer of the layered floor assembly wherein the further layer is composed of any one of, or a combination of: floor boards, wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or stone tiles. 25 In this embodiment, the further layer may be bonded to the top surface layer by means of an adhesive, or screed of concrete and the like. In an alternative embodiment, the adhesive or screed may be applied directly to the upper 30 surface of the polyester fibre sheeting upon which a top surface layer such as floating C:\NJRPonbJ\DCC\WXH\4126BB5_ LDOC-IM2/2o2 -5 wooden flooring, or stone or ceramic tiles may be directly bonded to form the layered flooring assembly. The present invention will become better understood from the following examples of 5 preferred but non-limiting embodiments thereof: Examples Field sound transmission tests of various floor assemblies incorporating a layer of 6mm 10 thick polyester fibre sheeting in the form of needle punched polyester sheeting in the form of an intermediary layer acoustic underlay were conducted to determine the sound transmission performance of each assembly. The tests were carried out on the floor/ceiling partition separating the living/dining room of 15 two adjoining apartments within a residential apartment building, with the upper (source) apartment having sections of the previously installed flooring removed, and the lower (receiver) apartment being fully furnished. For comparison, tests were conducted a solid timber floor system, a tiled floor system and 20 a floating timber floor system and tests were carried out on samples, of around 1.15m x 1.1 5m, for each floor system. A summary of the relevant sound transmission test results are presented in Table 1. 25 30 C:\WPortb\DCC\WXH\41268851. DOC-1/02/2O12 -6 Table I Floor/Ceiling Impact Sound Transmission Test Results Measured "Field" Sound Floor System Tested Transmission Performance AL,, ALnT,w L'nTw+CI L'nT. 1) 114mm bare concrete slab & skim coat 76 (-11) 73 (-11) N/A N/A render ceiling below (comparative) 2) 19mm timber floor boards; over 19mm plywood; over 6mm needle punched 59(3) 56 (3) -17 -17 polyester fibre sheeting over concrete slab 3) 6mm ceramic floor tiles; over 2mm tile adhesive; over 12mm Fibre Cement sheeting; over 6mm needle punched 5 (2) 52 (2) -21 -21 polyester fibre sheeting over concrete slab 4) 8mm Floating engineered timber/bamboo flooring; 6mm needle punched polyester fibre sheeting over 57 (1) 54 (1) -19 -19 concrete slab Note: 1) The AL, (& ALn-T) is the difference between the measured L., (&Ln,T) of the bare concrete slab, and the measured L., (&L-r,,) of the relevant floor system sample on the concrete slab. 5 Acoustic Terminology L'n-rw : Weighted, standardised impact sound pressure level, which is a single number rating of the sound level in a floor/ceiling assembly in terms of its ability to control 10 structure-borne sound in a receiving room when excited by a standard impact testing machine, as measured under field conditions. The lower the L'NT, the better the acoustic performance. Ln,w+CI : Combined weighted, normalized impact sound pressure level plus spectrum 15 adaptation term, used to rate the impact sound insulation performance of floor/ceiling systems. The lower the Ln,w+CI, the better the acoustic performance. The above impact sound transmission performance results indicate the needle punched polyester fibre sheeting layer provides a high level of improvement in impact sound 20 transmission performance when used with a substrate surface such as a concrete slab. Additionally, we advise that use the needle punched polyester fibre sheeting layer provides C:\NRPortbl\DCC\WXW 126Sg5 I.DOC-I/2/2012 -7 good acoustic amenity for neighbouring occupants (below) within residential apartment buildings with concrete slab floor construction. Table 2 Floor/Ceiling Impact Sound Transmission Test Results Measured "Field" Sound Floor System Tested Transmission Performance L'nTw L'nT,w,+CI 1) 180mm bare concrete slab & 13mm Std plasterboard with 150mm cavity 59 47 below (comparative) 2) 19mm timber floor boards; over 6mm needle punched polyester fibre sheeting 39 40 over concrete slab 3) 6mm ceramic floor tiles; over 2mm tile adhesive; over 6mm needle punched 35 37 polyester fibre sheeting over concrete slab 4) 8mm Floating engineered timber/bamboo flooring; 6mm needle 40 41 punched polyester fibre sheeting over concrete slab 5 Upon review of the floor impact noise ratings shown in Table 2 in conjunction with the detailed results across the frequency range, the following observations and trends are noted: 10 * The 6mm needle punched polyester fibre sheeting provides excellent reduction of floor impact noise when installed on a concrete floor with a rigid tile underlay * When compared to a bare concrete floor, improvements of up to 24 points in L'T.. ratings were measured 15 Many modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (14)

1. A layered flooring assembly for location on a substrate surface, the layered flooring assembly including a top surface layer and an intermediary layer, located between 5 the top surface layer and the substrate surface, wherein the intermediary layer is composed of polyester fibres.

2. A layered flooring assembly according to claim I wherein the intermediary layer is composed of thermally bonded polyester fibre sheeting or needle punched polyester 10 fibre sheeting.

3. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the intermediary layer has a vertically orientated thickness of between about 2 mm to about 25 mm. 15

4. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 3 wherein the vertically orientated thickness of the intermediary layer is between about 3 mm and about 9 mm.

5. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 3 wherein the vertically orientated 20 thickness of the intermediary layer is about 6mm.

6. A layered flooring assembly according to any one of claims I to 5 wherein the density of the intermediary layer is between about 20 kg/m 3 and about 240 kg/m 3 . 25

7. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 6 wherein the density of the intermediary layer is about 140 kg/m 3 .

8. A layered flooring assembly according to any one of claims I to 7 wherein the substrate surface is composed of any one of or a combination of a concrete slab, 30 wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting and/or fibre cement sheeting. C \NPonbDCCWXH412685_l.DOC-02/O12 -9

9. A layered flooring assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the top surface layer is composed of any one of, or a combination of: wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, floating floor boards, 5 particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting, fibre cement sheeting, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or stone tiles.

10. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 9 wherein the top surface layer is composed of particle board sheeting, plywood sheeting or fibre cement sheeting 10 and a further layer is located on top of the top surface layer of the layered floor assembly wherein the further layer is composed of any one of, or a combination of: floor boards, wooden floor boards, engineered composite floor boards, bamboo floor boards, carpet, carpet tiles, ceramic tiles and/or stone tiles. 15

11. A layered flooring assembly according to claim 10 wherein the further layer is composed of ceramic tiles or stone tiles and an adhesive is provided to bond the further layer to the top surface layer.

12. Use of polyester fibre sheeting as an intermediary layer in a layered flooring 20 assembly.

13. Use according to claim 12 wherein the polyester fibre sheeting is composed of thermally bonded polyester fibre sheeting or needle punched polyester fibre sheeting. 25

14. Use according to claim 12 or claim 13 wherein the polyester fibres sheeting provides the layered flooring assembly with any one of, or a combination of, the following: increased sound absorption; increased water repellence; increased thermal insulation; and/or a vapour barrier. 30