Flooring at Bard’s Crossing Retirement Community Exceeds Expectations of Residents
Retirement communities by their very nature are expected to be quiet places. So when Wensmann Homes, the builders of Bard’s Crossing, planned an 83,000 sq. ft. retirement community condominium in a suburb of St. Paul, MN, they designed the floor/ceiling assembly to more than meet the expectations of potential residents.
The floor/ceiling design utilized two layers of Type “X” gypsum board, resilient channel, 1” of Hacker FIRM-FILL® 2010 gypsum concrete, and a sandwich configuration of QTrbm and QTscu resilient soundproofing mat.
Mike Vallez, project manager of design and construction for Wensmann Homes, explains the choice of sound insulation. “QTrbm produced the highest IIC ratings of anything we’ve used. We were extremely satisfied with the results.” The open web assembly (see assembly drawing on reverse) produced IIC field ratings of 64 with wood, 55 with ceramic tile, and 56 with vinyl. Vallez had worked on four previous projects with Wensmann Homes, and says the QTrbm sound control results were by far the best. “When people are buying condos, they don’t want to hear the neighbors walking all over the place. So we made an investment in sound control,” says Vallez.
A licensed applicator of Hacker Industries, Inc., had similar things to say about QTrbm. The gypsum concrete and underlayment contractor installed QTrbm for five to ten cents less than other materials because of QT’s ease of installation. Besides saving money on labor costs, Hacker Industries also liked the way the product performed, noting, “QTrbm provides better noise deadening than other sound insulation products.”
John LoVerde of Veneklasen Associates, who performed the sound testing on the Bard’s Crossing project, is familiar with QT and its performance in various assemblies. John encounters QT on nearly a fifth of the jobs he tests. LoVerde says, “Designers want the materials they spec to be reliable today, tomorrow and everyday thereafter.” He prefers materials like QT that have the flexibility to perform at a high level with a variety of assemblies, and under a full range of floor toppings.
In a small corner of Minnesota, QT yielded big results—saving money, saving time and achieving some of the highest sound control ratings in multi-story residential housing.
Products Installed
- 83,000 SF — 6mm QTrbm
- 83,000 SF — 5mm QTscu