Soundproofing a wood or tile floor

I have been getting a lot of requests lately to write an article on soundproofing a wood or tile floor in an upper apartment or condo unit. The solutions are pretty simple if you're installing wall-to-wall carpeting, but things get a little more complicated when you're dealing with hardwoods, ceramic or vinyl flooring. To begin with, when a manufacturers STC (Sound Transmission Class) claims appear to be too high always read the fine print. Generally they mean that you can only reach this high STC value in conjunction with a myriad of other products that must to be added to your floor or ceiling assembly. For example, if you're looking at ¼"cork as a floor underlayment and the manufacturer claims that it will give you 55-57 STC, keep in mind that this value will onl View the rest of this article