Rector's Equatio dB concrete floor receives Qualitel validation

The performance of the Equatio dB floor has just been validated by a Technical Solutions Examples Sheet (FEST) under the Qualitel Acoustic Standard.
The outcome of more than three years of Research & Development, this document recognizes Rector's Equatio dB floor as an exemplary solution meeting the acoustic requirements of the Qualitel, Habitat & Environnement, NF Habitat and NF Habitat HQE certifications.

Acoustic performance recognized by Qualitel

Drawn up by the independent association Qualitel, which is committed to the quality and performance of housing, the Qualitel Acoustic Standard is the reference document for assessing the acoustic quality of housing in France. It sets the required performance levels (DnT,A=53 dB and L'nT,w=55 dB) for obtaining the Qualitel, Habitat & Environnement and NF Habitat certifications, with or without the HQE mark.

This technical document is accompanied by Technical Solutions Examples Sheets (FEST) grouping complete configurations that meet the requirements of the Standard.

In 2018, Technical Solutions Examples Sheet (FEST) no. QA12-C, relating to ?beam-and-light-block floors?, was revised by Qualitel and now includes Rector's Equatio dB floor.

Four configurations* in terraced single-family houses (two ground floors and two intermediate floors) and two configurations in multi-family housing built with the Equatio dB floor have thus been validated.

Each configuration can be adapted into several variants depending on the floor coverings, load-bearing walls, ceilings, linings, etc.

As a guarantee of the Equatio dB floor's performance, the FEST also reveals the competitive advantage of this solution:
• in grouped single-family houses, the configurations with the Equatio dB floor are the only ones compatible with any type of floor covering (screed on thermal insulation or mineral wool, screed on thin acoustic underlay, resilient flooring and tiles on Soukaro, depending on the configuration).

Combined with hollow concrete blocks on the facade, Equatio dB is also the only floor requiring only thermal insulation lining, rather than thermo-acoustic lining, of the facade walls. This unique configuration thus makes it possible to achieve the acoustic performance required by the Qualitel Acoustic Standard while reducing construction costs.

• in multi-family housing, combined with a suspended ceiling with mineral wool placed in the plenum, the Equatio dB floor is the only solution compatible with resilient flooring with ?Lw ? 19 dB.

The outcome of three years of Research & Development
?The FEST obtained for the Equatio dB floor is the result of a Research & Development study on acoustics begun more than three years ago,? says Emmanuel Boichon, R&D / Quality Director at Rector.

?We began by launching laboratory tests to characterize the intrinsic performance of our floors. These tests showed that the span direction of the beams had no impact on acoustics. Moreover, it emerged that the performance of floor coverings and false ceilings was the same on our beam floors as on solid slab floors,? he adds.

The results obtained in the laboratory were then verified on a 1 scale mock-up. ?Following the in-situ measurements, we found that the thermal breaks, with thermo-acoustic linings, had no impact on acoustic performance ,? says Emmanuel Boichon.

Based on the laboratory results and the measurements taken on the mock-up, Rector carried out numerical modeling with the CSTB. ?Once we understood how our floors behaved intrinsically and within a building, we modeled them by combining them with different linings and floor coverings to record their performance,? recalls Emmanuel Boichon.

In total, nearly 300 floor / lining / floor covering configurations were modeled. The assemblies that comply with regulatory requirements were gathered in a Solutions Booklet published by Rector. The modeled predictions were then measured again and confirmed on several real construction sites.