Fitness facilities can be a great addition to any building. But with heavy weights, cardio machines and fitness classes, the noise and vibration that come with a gym can quickly become disruptive to people on the level below, above or on the other side of the wall.
That’s why gym impact isolation should be considered during the design stage, not after occupants begin complaining about noise.
Why Gym Noise Is Different
In any large building, there’s going to be a lot of noise, from people conversing to music playing or people walking. Much of this is standard airborne and impact sound, and can be mitigated with standard building assemblies providing suitable Sound Transmission Class (STC) and Impact Insulation Class (IIC) ratings.
But heavy and hard impact sounds from fitness activities are different, so when you have a gym where people are dropping heavy weights, slamming medicine balls or running on a treadmill, that can introduce much higher levels of energy into the structure. This creates vibration that can travel through structural elements and be felt or heard in other parts of the building, including many levels above or below.
Common activities and equipment that can create this type of high-energy fitness impact noise include:
- Free weights and weight drops
- Treadmills and cardio equipment
- Group fitness and jumping
- Functional training
Location Matters: What’s Around the Gym?
When you’re placing a gym in a residential or mixed-use building with spaces such as hotel rooms, offices or retail nearby, considering how to acoustically isolate the facility without causing disruption is key.
If you’re adding a gym to a residential building, for example, consider the sleep, relaxation and everyday comfort of residents and how sound and vibration from the gym could affect surrounding spaces. If you’re adding a gym to a hotel, you’ll most likely want to consider guests and their expectations around noise levels, especially when the fitness facility operates early in the morning or later at night. For offices, repetitive impact and vibration can become distracting, making acoustic performance an important consideration for the people working nearby. For retail or commercial spaces, neighbouring businesses may have different acoustic expectations and operating hours that also need to be taken into consideration.
While no two fitness facilities are the same, knowing what surrounds your gym can help establish appropriate acoustic expectations from the beginning.
Why Gym Vibration Isolation Should Start Before Construction
Early planning for acoustic needs can help create a space that works for everyone in the long run. Some key elements to consider ahead of time include:
- Gym location and layout
- Expected equipment and activities
- Structural system and depressions to allow for flush flooring transitions
- Sensitive spaces above, below or beside the gym
- Required acoustic performance
- Appropriate isolation systems
Solving vibration and noise complaints after flooring, equipment and surrounding spaces have already been completed can make finding an effective solution much more complicated.
That’s why planning ahead to install gym vibration isolation flooring can be a great preemptive approach. Rather than simply serving as a finished surface, the right flooring system can be engineered to help isolate vibration and noise before they become a concern.
Gym Vibration Isolation Flooring From Pliteq Acoustics
Different areas of a fitness facility can create very different acoustic/ vibration challenges, which is why choosing a flooring system that matches how the space will actually be used is important.
Pliteq’s GenieMat® Fitness Flooring line is designed to reduce structure-borne sound and vibration transmission in fitness environments, helping protect both the building structure and the equipment within the space.
Depending on the activities and equipment in your facility, Pliteq Acoustics offers several solutions. GenieMat® FIT is designed for cardio areas, group fitness spaces and spinning studios, while GenieMat® xFIT is engineered for higher-impact activities such as HIIT, CrossFit® and Olympic lifting, including extreme weight drops. GenieMat TMIP and GenieMat WSI isolators can also provide localized isolation for challenging fitness equipment.
Knowing the activities the space will support and planning for sound and vibration isolation before construction can help you create a fitness facility that performs for the people using it without unnecessarily disrupting the people living, working or relaxing nearby. If you’re ready to get your gym acoustically ready for business, connect with Pliteq Acoustics to discuss what options are best for your space.