Vibration Insulation for Fitness Equipment

How to insulate vibrations from fitness equipment
With some fitness equipment, impact noise is being produced while exercising, weights are repeatedly being pulled up and dropped. This produces enough energy to cause lots of severe impact noise. Other fitness equipment that can also cause impact noise are exercise bikes and treadmills.

Insulation to reduce impact noise from fitness equipment
A customer who owns a fitness center struggled with impact noise issues and inquired us to get help. The upstairs neighbours of the apartments above the fitness center complained about the booming sounds during his opening hours.

In order to isolate the fitness equipment from the floor, Regufoam is applied underneath the feet of these sports devices. In this case we advised the customer to use Regufoam D220, with a thickness of 25 mm. The Regufoam sheets were cut to size, using a sharp knife, and a little bigger than the feet of the fitness equipment devices (see image).

The feet of these fitness devices are flat, allowing the pressure to be distributed equally across the pieces of Regufoam. For larger and heavier fitness equipment than shown in the image we would advice to use the more rigid Regufoam vibration insulation,  D300.

How to soundproof impact noise caused by dumbbells
Training with dumbbells can cause impact noise. Often weights are often (too) forcefully dropped on the floor or in a rack, resulting in a booming sound elsewhere in a building. The owner of the gym came up with a creative solution: to obligate the use of Regufoam sheets. These sheets were made available to solve this problem. The dumbbells are now placed on the sheets instead of the floor.

A word from our customer
"I didn't hear anything, which means that there was no or at least very little noise. I just received three more dampers, thank you very much! Tonight, I will place them under the machine with screw-on feet. Then, all the fitness equipment will be decoupled. The big room in the back is now provided with posters that ask the visitors to make use of the purple sheets under their dumbbells. Personally, I do not notice any vibration from the floor. Before, the floor in my office would vibrate when somebody was using the fitness equipment or dropped a dumbbell."

Points of attention
In this example the gym's owner made use of the purple Regufoam D220. This type has a density of 220 kg/m³ and is sturdy enough to decouple (most) fitness equipment types, without undermining their stability. The right type depends on the weight of the fitness equipment. Heavier types of fitness equipment may require using a Regufoam with a higher density, type D300 with a thickness of 25mm (also for dumbbells). Regufoam with higher densities can carry heavier loads.

Questions?
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