---
title: "Sound insulation"
description: "Airborne and impact sound insulation across its full life cycle: laboratory characterisation (ISO 10140 and companions), in-situ prediction (EN 12354), field verification with single-number ratings (ISO 16283, ISO 717), and the dynamic stiffness that feeds floating-floor design."
---

Sound insulation has a life cycle with three stages, and a page of this
section owns each of them. An element (a wall build-up, a floating floor, a
window) is first characterised **in the laboratory**, where suppressed
flanking isolates its direct transmission. That laboratory data feeds a
**prediction** of how a whole building will perform, flanking paths included.
The finished building is then **verified in the field**, where the measured
values carry the single-number ratings that regulations quote. Each stage
answers a different question, and each has its own standards family. A fourth
page, on dynamic stiffness, is not a stage of its own but the supporting
material measurement that the prediction stage consumes.

[Laboratory Insulation Measurement](/phonometry/guides/insulation-lab/) covers
the first stage: the ISO 10140 sound reduction index and normalized impact
level, the sound-intensity alternative of ISO 15186, the small-mock-up
floor-covering improvement of ISO 16251-1 and laboratory flanking transmission
per ISO 10848.

[Predicting Sound Insulation (EN 12354)](/phonometry/guides/insulation-prediction/)
covers the second: the airborne and impact flanking models of EN 12354-1/2
with their junction vibration reduction indices, and the façade insulation and
outdoor radiation of EN 12354-3/4. Its floating-floor improvement term
consumes the dynamic stiffness measured per
[EN 29052-1](/phonometry/guides/dynamic-stiffness/), which is why that
measurement page lives in this section.

[Field Insulation Measurement and Ratings](/phonometry/guides/insulation-field/)
covers the third: field airborne, impact and façade insulation per
ISO 16283-1/2/3, the weighted single-number ratings and spectrum adaptation
terms of ISO 717-1/2, the ISO 12999-1 uncertainty that qualifies a rating, and
the quick ISO 10052 survey method.

Two neighbouring sections complete the picture: the room-side quantities
(reverberation time, absorption) live in
[Room acoustics](/phonometry/guides/sections/room-acoustics/), and the
structure-borne noise of building *equipment*, predicted by the closely
related EN 12354-5, lives in
[Structure-borne sources](/phonometry/guides/sections/structure-borne/).

## Pages in this section

- [Field Insulation Measurement and Ratings](/phonometry/guides/insulation-field/):
  ISO 16283-1/2/3 measurement, ISO 717-1/2 ratings, ISO 12999-1 uncertainty
  and the ISO 10052 survey method.
- [Laboratory Insulation Measurement](/phonometry/guides/insulation-lab/):
  ISO 10140 characterisation, ISO 15186 intensity insulation, ISO 16251-1
  floor coverings and ISO 10848 flanking.
- [Predicting Sound Insulation (EN 12354)](/phonometry/guides/insulation-prediction/):
  flanking transmission (EN 12354-1/2), façade insulation and outdoor
  radiation (EN 12354-3/4).
- [Dynamic stiffness of resilient materials (EN 29052-1)](/phonometry/guides/dynamic-stiffness/):
  the load-plate resonance measurement and the floating-floor natural
  frequency.
