Tag: for consultants

Press Release: Ecore & Pliteq Lawsuit Settled

Ecore, a company that transforms reclaimed waste into unique performance surfaces, has successfully settled a lawsuit against Paul Downey and Pliteq, a business that sells building products for commercial sound control. The lawsuit arose as a result of Pliteq buying Ecore products through third parties and selling those products as its own manufactured product. “We discovered that Paul Downey and Pliteq were having third parties buy our products and having them shipped to a warehouse in Allentown, Pa.,” said Arthur Dodge, III, President and CEO of Ecore. “We learned from an employee of that warehouse that Pliteq was instructing the warehouse to take the Ecore labels off of our products and replace the Ecore labels with labels identifying the products as being manufactured by Pliteq.” Pliteq was simultaneously representing on the Pliteq Web site that the material was manufactured by it in Lancaster, Pa. Once Ecore learned of the relabeling activity, the company initiated a lawsuit against both Downey and Pliteq. A federal judge issued an immediate order requiring Downey and Pliteq to stop the activity of identifying the Ecore manufactured product as being made by Pliteq, which Pliteq agreed to. Ecore’s lawsuit continued and, shortly before trial, Ecore and Pliteq settled. Downey and Pliteq agreed to never engage in the activity of relabeling or representing any of Ecore’s products, including Ecore’s manufactured sound control underlayment, as their own products or implying that Ecore’s products were manufactured by them. “We are pleased to put this matter behind us and ensure (more…)

Need to reach a certain IIC rating? Read this before you contact an acoustic consultant.

This is something that comes up every day in my line of work: IIC [and STC] ratings of floor-ceiling assemblies.  I get calls from homeowners, architects, contractors, developers, product distributors- pretty much anyone involved in flooring whether they’re on the design side, sales side, or construction side.  Almost always, it goes the same way: Customer: I need to reach IIC — (usually it’s a 50 to reach code minimum, but sometimes it’s a 60). Which underlayment should I use? This is where I try my hardest not to sound disinterested or condescending, because I really don’t feel that way- it just requires a conscious effort not to sound robotic when you’ve gotten used to asking the same questions.  Chances are, other acoustic consultants may have a similar experience, so here’s some sound advice to prepare yourself with before you contact an acoustic consultant. IIC and STC ratings are dependent on entire assemblies, not any single element. This means that you’ll need to have all of the details of your floor-ceiling assembly before you can expect real advice from an acoustician.  Ideally you’ll have an architectural drawing calling out each element and it’s thickness in the assembly, but if not, I usually email a list like this for them to fill out: – Floor Finish – Underlayment – Subfloor system (concrete slab?  wood joist?  truss?  spacings, thicknesses, gauges, etc.) – Batt insulation in the ceiling cavity? – Resilient channels? – Ceiling details (material, number of layers, thicknesses?) The science of predicting (more…)