Floating Floors Simplified

By Heather McCune, Editorial Director
January 1, 2005
Professional Builder

	For most applications, 16 inch on center spacing of U-Boats along the joist is recommended to improve noise transmission loss and low frequency definition in home theaters.

Freestanding, floating floors improves the sound quality in home theaters, however installation of these floors has been time consuming and expensive. U-Boat Floor Floaters from Auralex Acoustics can help shorten the build cycle and reduce the cost of your next floating floor.

Made of a specially-formulated rubber compound, U-Boats are designed to support framing members and isolate and decouple them from the surrounding structure. U-Boats are 2 1/8" wide by 1 1/2" high by 2" long. Siding thickness is 5/16" and the base is 1/2". To determine the quantity needed for a job, multiply the total square footage of the area to be floated by two-thirds. Most applications work well with 16" on center spacing of U-Boats along the joist. If the floor is massive (three plus layers of 3/4" plywood on 2 x 6s or larger) 12 inch centers work best.