“Conservatively, there are an estimated 10 million houses in North America with springy floors or other structural problems” http://www.ridgwaystructuralsystems.com. We have found that the springy floors were caused by improper design or construction practices. The improper design is specially true for engineered wood floors because of lack of proper design method and knowledge.
This report is focused on the development of a new design guide to demonstrate that floor vibration problems can be solved through proper design and construction practices. The design guide is aimed at assisting those who are involved in wood-framed floor design, construction, and product development, in better controlling feelable vibrations and in achieving optimum value engineered (OVE) floor systems.
The scope of this design guide is limited to: wood-framed floors, or light-weight floors with a fundamental natural frequency above 10 Hz; controlling feelable vibrations, but not “drum effect” vibrations induced by normal walking; ensuring human comfort.
The design guide first explains the fundamental physics behind the vibrations induced in wood-framed floors by normal walking and the human response to vibrations. The general theory of vibrations relevant to the vibrations induced in wood-framed floors by normal walking is included in Appendix I. Then a mechanics-based new design method and its verifications are presented. Working examples are provided along with the design tool, i.e. an ”Excel spread sheet” that incorporated the design method and the working examples to assist readers in using the new design method effectively. Various remedy techniques are provided along with a case analysis of unsatisfied floors. Finally, the design guide includes a systems analysis of the effects of various construction practices on floor multi-performance attributes, ease of installation and cost effectiveness. This assists the user in adopting a systems approach for designing an optimum value floor system when developing practices for controlling floor vibrations.
The knowledge, experience and understanding of floor vibration control compiled in this design guide is based on over ten years of research, with contributions from various floor researchers, practitioners, product manufacturers and home owners that Forintek has encountered in the course of conducting various floor studies.
This design guide is not the end of the process. Rather, it is considered to be part of an ongoing process to provide practitioners and researchers with state-of-the-art information to control floor vibration, as our knowledge of floor vibration and noise control, floor construction products and techniques evolve over time.