STYRO Graypor is an energy efficient, cost effective, innovative, grey colored EPS insulation material introduced by BASF – Germany recently. It’s Infrared absorbers and reflectors prevent the heat dissipation caused by radiation. Graypor has higher insulation values in comparison to white EPS. Neopor®’s unique shock absorption property withstands hurricanes and earthquakes. Neopor® is an evolutionary product of conventional white EPS.

Especially when it comes to the renovation of old buildings, where the height available for structuring the floor is usually limited. Impact-sound insulating panels made of Graypor having an enhanced thermal insulation capability, in comparison to Styropor, offer improved insulation against heat as well as impact-sound muffling.

Leveling Layers for Pipes

As a matter of principle, leveling layers are necessary whenever pipes are to be laid on the exposed floor. Here, it should be noted that the leveling layer has to extend beyond the fasteners of the pipes. Panels made of Neopor can be used to make leveling layers in an environmentally sound manner, especially since the light-weight panels made of Graypor also offer excellent thermal insulation. This is especially advantageous in the case of screed adjacent to unheated rooms.

Avoid Gaps

The impact-sound insulating layers made of Graypor have to be continuous. Gaps caused by pipes and the like considerably reduce the effectiveness.

The Installation of Sound-Impact Insulation

Clean Surface

The surface of the exposed floor has to be smooth and free of dirt such as mortar and concrete residues or the like. Uneven exposed floor surfaces should be leveled before the sound-impact insulating panels made of Graypor are laid.

Sound-Impact and Thermal Insulation

If Graypor impact-sound insulating panels are employed together with Graypor thermal insulating panels, the impact-sound insulating panels should be laid as the first layer.
Exceptions to this are warranted if the Graypor thermal insulating panels have the function of a leveling layer, for example, for installation lines.

How Impact Sound Insulation Functions?

Thinner Floor with Graypor

The impact sound muffling effect of singles shell floors, for instance, a solid floor, increases as a function of its weight and flexural strength. Adequate impact sound insulation could be achieved by installing floors that are thicker and heavier. This approach, however, would not be cost-efficient.

In contrast, however, it has proven its worth to install a second shell, that is to say, an additional layer, on the impact sound insulating panels (made, for example, of Graypor), at an appropriate distance from the floor. This second shell, the so-called floating floor screed, effectively prevents structure-borne sound from penetrating into the floor structure and into the surrounding construction elements.

Types of Sound in Building Construction:

• The air-borne sound is propagated in the air.
• Structure-borne sound is propagated in solid bodies.
• Impact sound is generated in the form of structure-borne sound as a result of walking, moving chairs and other such activities on the floors or stairs and is partially emanated as airborne sound into rooms underneath.

Floating Floor Screed

When professionally installed, floating floor screed enhances impact sound insulation on floors effectively and permanently.

Floating floor screed is applied onto an insulating layer (for instance, impact sound insulating panels made of Neopor).An important aspect is that the floating floor screed should consistently be kept separated from all adjacent and penetrating construction elements such as installation lines, radiator supports and the like since otherwise the impact-sound muffling effect will be considerably impaired.

It is often the case with floating floor screed that sound bridges are created because the requisite leveling compound is applied improperly onto the screed. By the same token, hard baseboards, door frames and the like must not come into contact with the screed and with a hard floor covering such as ceramic tiles, stoneware or wood.
The extent to which floating sub-flooring reduces the transmission of impact sounds is expressed in terms of the impact sound improvement parameter.

System Variants of the Impact Sound Insulation made of Graypor

The application type T entails a higher level of compressibility. As a result, the screed is more stressed than with application type TK. In order to limit the stress to the screed and also to cover the entire spectrum of possible traffic and utilization loads, various stiffness classes (s’) have been selected for the impact sound insulating panels made of Graypor for application type TK.

As a function of the various requirements encountered in actual building practice, the following system variants have been developed for the Neopor-impact-sound insulation application.

Impact-sound insulating panels made of Graypor are suitable for applications involving traffic loads of up to 5 kPa.