Measurement of Walking Noise on Floor Coverings

Walking on floors in buildings generates noise in the room where the walking takes place. Manufacturers of floor coverings are interested in stating characteristic walking noise levels for their products. Recently, the European standard EN 16205 introduced such a measurement procedure. It is based on the former French standard NF S 31-074, but tries to solve the prevailing 'self-noise' problem of the walking noise source used (the ISO tapping machine) in a simpler and theoretically more correct way. To evaluate the EN method, a round-robin test with 17 European laboratories was carried out. The measurement methods of NF S 31-074 and EN 16205 and the round-robin test are presented here. It was found that EN 16205 works quite well with louder floorings like laminate and PVC. Soft and quiet floorings like carpets are more difficult to measure because their noise contribution disappears behind the noise of the ISO tapping machine.