Finnforest UK


FLOOR PERFORMANCE

GENERAL FLOOR PERFORMANCE

The performance of a floor is a subjective matter, expectations differ significantly between individuals.  The main performance criteria being the quietness and amount of deflection.  Minimum standards are governed by current legislation but may not give the personal expected performance.  The most important factor influencing floor performance is stiffness.  Improving stiffness decreases deflection, bounce and vibration.


IMPROVING FLOOR PERFORMANCE


Stiffness         The ability of a material to resist deflection under load.
Vibration         Resonance of material.  In floors mainly due to induced loads like walking.

Another factor in performance is the mass of the floor.  Increasing the mass improves the impact sound properties of floors.  However, a floor with low stiffness and a high mass can lead to vibration problems.

FINNFRAME FLOOR DESIGN
Finnframe floor design is based on three elements according to EC5 design methods.

  Strength under maximum ultimate limit state design loads.
  Deflection under serviceability limit state loads.
  Floor vibration control by: - limiting the deflection under 1kN point load.
                                                 - limiting the lowest natural frequency to eliminate resonance.

FLOOR PERFORMANCE CLASSES
Finnframe floor design has 3 performance classes:

FINNFRAME STANDARD CLASS
  Meets the performance requirements according to UK Building Regulations.

FINNFRAME STANDARD 12 CLASS
  Meets the requirements of the Building Regulations and the requirements of the NHBC Standards
     chapter 6.4.

FINNFRAME IMPROVED CLASS
  Enhanced floor performance requirements over Finnframe Standard Class.  The improved class
     introduces vibration and bounce checks as well as long term creep deflections under Eurocode 5.
    These checks are introduced to accommodate the longer spans Finnframe products can achieve
    over standard timber.


Static deflection under instantaneous load (dead and live load combined).
Static deflection under instantaneous deflection and deflection due to creep deformation.
Static deflection under 1kN point load.