Whisper Wool™ Three-Part Specification
Part I - General
General
A: Construction:
Whisper Wool™ is manufactured by means of preparing wool fiber and processing those fibers through a needle punch machine. Fibers are intermingled together and the needle punch process forces the fibers to lock to and around ambient fibers. Density and thickness are controlled via fiber rate and needle speed. There are no additives used for bonding fibers together.
B: Moisture Barrier:
A second process after Whisper Wool construction is laminating. A 2-3 mil. continuous plastic film is bonded to one side of the wool membrane. Heat and pressure are used to bond the plastic film to the wool fiber. No other adhesives or chemicals are added in the process.
C. Warranty:
Nature's Acoustics, Inc. Whisper Wool™ warranty includes, but is not limited to, material defects. The warranty also guarantees against harm to the installed flooring material used in conjunction with Whisper Wool™.
Part II - Products
Products
A. Materials:
All material shall be new, of good quality and without defects that would lessen the quality of the product.
B. Underlay:
1. Whisper Wool comes in individual roll dimensions of:
Width = 3.0 ft.
Length = 33 ft., 4 in.
Thickness = 1/8 in. (0.125")
Area = 100 sq. ft.
2.When the roll is removed from its individual plastic tube packaging and laid down onto the subfloor for unrolling, the material's orientation, in reference to the wool facing down and the film facing up, is correct.
3. The material unrolls effortlessly and remains lying flay for ease of installation.
4. Impact sound transmission is significantly reduced by the material's ability to decouple the installed floating floor panel from the subfloor.
C. Performance Tests
1. Flame Spread Index: ASTM E84-03b FSI = 35
Smoke Developed Index: ASTM E84-03b SDI = 50
2. Sound Ratings: ASTM E492-90, E989-89 IIC = 60, STC = 54
3. R Value: ASTM C-158 R= 0.65
D. Nail-down Applications
Whisper Wool™ is designed for all types of floating floor systems. However, it can also be used for hardwood nail-down application. Nail puncture is no problem due to the moisture-free environment prepared for hardwood use. Sound ratings, in reference to the above test results, will be negatively affected due to the anchoring compression of nail down systems.
Part III - Execution
Execution
A. Whisper Wool™ can be used over concrete, gypcrete or wooden sub floors. The wool side faces down and the moisture barrier faces up.
B. To cover a floor space, the material will be unrolled and adjoining material edges will be butted up beside each row of material. Do not overlap wool material. A gap between the material is allowable up to ¼" inch. Use poly tape to cover the seams when using on a concrete sub floor that is on or below grade. Concrete subfloors for high-rise buildings have no concrete moisture issues and seaming with tape is optional. Seaming the material over wood floors is not necessary because there should not be any water tight concerns.
C. Refer to our “Installation Guidelines for Whisper Wool™ from our website for detailed installation instructions.
D. Follow the instruction guidelines from the floating floor manufacturer when installing the selected floating floor system.
For a printable version of this spec sheet, please click here.