Pre-consumer (also called “post-industrial”) recycling refers to the reuse of industrial by-products, as distinguished from material that has been in consumer use. The iron-ore slag used to make mineral wool insulation and the fly ash used to make concrete are examples of post-industrial recycled materials. While post-consumer recycled content is preferable, a product that uses pre-consumer content or recycles a seldom-used waste product, especially in an area where recycled products are hard to find, can be considered green.
Excluded from this category, by FTC definitions, is the use of scrap within the same manufacturing process from which it was generated—material that would typically have gone back into the manufacturing process anyway.
QuietWalk
Quiet Walk™ underlayment for laminate flooring is designed to smooth out subfloor imperfections and provide ambient and impact sound control.
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Just how low the VOC level needs to be for a given product to qualify for inclusion in GreenSpec depends on the product category. For most products, we require certification to California’s health-based emissions standard, CDPH Std Method v1.1 standard (also referred to as California Section 01350), which tests a product’s resultant VOC concentrations in the space after a given period of time. For wet-applied products like paints, caulks, and adhesives, we still also look for VOC content instead of, or in addition to, verified low emissions; this is because emissions testing doesn’t adequately test initial offgassing, and VOC content is currently the only widely available proxy.
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Background noise, whether from indoor or outdoor sources, adds to stress and discomfort, and poor acoustical design inside can exacerbate problems from background noise and reverberation of sounds. Products that absorb sound and prevent sound transmission can be considered green, although there are so many such products available that we also look for especially innovative products, as well as products with additional green attributes such as recycled content and strong energy performance. We also look for sound-masking systems with exceptional performance characteristics.
Quiet Walk™ underlayment for laminate flooring is designed to smooth out subfloor imperfections and provide ambient and impact sound control. It is manufactured from 95% post-industrial recycled synthetic fibers and polyethylene film bound with an inert hot-melt adhesive. Quiet Walk has passed the ASTM E1333 offgas test with no detected level of formaldehyde. The product has an attached vapor barrier and is 1/8" thick, providing an insulation value of R-0.5 (R-4 per inch). Quiet Walk is marketed as an upgrade to poly foam with a cost less than 1/2 that of cork or rubber. Quiet Walk is available in 100 and 360 square-foot rolls and distributed in both Canada and the US.
06 16 29: Acoustical Underlayment
Acoustical underlayment—which is distinct from flooring underlayment—helps prevent sound transmission through a structure. Use of a sound-deadening sheathing can reduce the need to further control sound transmission with carpeting or rugs, or thicker floor assemblies.
09 60 14: Flooring Underlayment
Using underlayment products beneath wood, tile, resilient flooring, or carpet and carpet cushion provides a level surface and helps insulate floors from sound transmission and, to a limited extent, heat loss.
Cork rolls and sheets can provide resilience to the floor system with significantly less thickness than fiberboard products or a gypsum-cement poured-in-place slab. And use of a sound-deadening underlayment below a hard-surface floor can reduce the need to further control sound transmission with carpeting or rugs.
Plywood is often required as an underlayment for resilient flooring, ceramic tiles, and carpeting; and exterior-grade particleboard can also be used is some applications. Some products combine the functions of subfloor and underlayment in one product, minimizing resource use. Lauan or other tropical wood based products should be avoided unless FSC-certified.
Environmentally preferable materials for flooring underlayment listed by GreenSpec include natural cork, strawboard, products that are inherently moisture- and mold-resistant, and products with recycled content. Preference is given to no-added-formaldehyde (NAF) products, but no-added-urea-formaldehyde (NAUF) particleboards and plywoods also have very low formaldehyde emissions.
LEED Credits
EQc4.1: Low-Emitting Materials—Adhesives&Sealants
IEQc4.1: Low-Emitting Materials—Adhesives and Sealants
MRc4: Recycled Content
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Manufacturer Information
MP Global Products LLC
2500 Old Hadar Rd.
P.O. Box 2283
Norfolk, NE
Toll-Free: 888-379-9695
www.mpglobalproducts.com
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