Gym on First Floor.

[TekEngr]

Client wants the gym on first floor of 2 storey steel building (semi equipped gym). Gym size is 12mx18m.
Main frame structure is consist of hot rolled columns and beams and peimary member of floor is cold form steel joist (back to back Cee sections) @ spacing of 300mm center to center and as a cladding i am planing to use first layer 0.7mm steel plain sheet with 2 layers of cement board (18mm + 18mm) above floor joist.
So my question is that how we can control the noise and shock abosrbtion in above stated type of floor ?
Gym mat can solve this issue or any other suggestions? Any one have experience with this type of floor gyms?

Regard's

 

[Lomarandil]

Is a (possibly composite) concrete floor an option? I'd imagine that would fare much better.

----
just call me Lo.

 

[TekEngr]

Unfortunately, for some reason i can't go with concrete option.

 

[phamENG]

In my part of the world 1st floor and ground floor are the same, so I'm guessing you mean 1st floor above ground (second floor in the the States)?

Control of sound is usually the architect's area on projects I've worked on, but they typically accomplish it by decoupling and damping. Decoupling reduces the contact between the ceiling of the room below and the floor structure above (often with an independently framed ceiling - sometimes drop ceilings will work). Damping minimizes the vibrations that are allowed to pass through where decoupling is not possible (there are specialized caulks and rubber gasket interfaces to help with this).

 

[KootK]

I'm not sure this can be made to work well accoustically without a concrete deck frankly. The best you might be able do is install a floating floor system in above your structural deck that affects so e measure of vibration isolation from the top.

What kind of gym? Weights? Cardio classes? Court activities?

 

[TekEngr]

@KootK.
Fitness gym with weights.

 

[JLNJ]

I designed a gym recently on an elevated floor and my main worry was the vibration analysis. The natural frequency of the floor was fairly close to the driving frequency of normal gym activities.

Fortunately we had the ability to add mass (we specified a topped hollow core plank) to change the floor's response. It still kept me up a few nights.

It sounds like your choices are limited. Try to push it back on the architect.

 

[BridgeSmith]

Minimizing the higher-pitched sounds shouldn't be too difficult. A poured in place rubber-type (urethane?) floor surface will mitigate most of it (it's also a very comfortable and durable surface). The low density fiberboard panels they sell at big box stores as sound deadening sheathing, as a layer of the suspended ceiling below, would likely all but eliminate 'rings and dings'.

The dull thud of someone dropping a dumbbell on the floor, etc. is a bit more difficult to mitigate. For that you need isolation and then mass, which typically means something resilient (high-density foam, wood framing, etc.) over a concrete deck.

That said, as others have noted, if there's an architect involved, they should be the ones that handle this.

Rod Smith, P.E., The artist formerly known as HotRod10