Over the last several decades, there has been an increased awareness of the detrimental effects of noise in the built– environment. Design guidelines and standards have been developed to effectively address some of the root causes of excessive noise inside buildings.

These guideline documents typically provide design targets for reverberation time (or how lively a space can be) minimum noise isolation between rooms, maximum background noise from HVAC equipment, and impact noise transmitted to adjacent rooms. However, none of these guidelines address noise from floor impacts in the same room as the listener, such as from people walking in hard heeled shoes or objects falling to the floor.

The lack of specific design guidelines related to the various floor impact noises within a room is due to both a lack of research in this area and the absence of a comprehensive testing standard. As part of a larger research initiative, nora systems, Inc. sought to expand current evidence and support the development of a new testing standard for floor impacts within a room.