Hitting mats, floors and the thud you feel through the house

A swing can be felt in another room because the thump travels through the building, not through the air. A mat softens what your club meets, but it's only the top of a longer chain.

Why the house carries it

One source says sound mostly leaves a room by "mechanical" routes, not through the air¹. Mechanical here means vibration. The force of a shot, a heavy step or a club hitting the ground goes into the floor, along the joists and into the walls.

The same source adds that a wall, ceiling or floor can act as a sounding board. When the vibration meets one, it "is amplified and heard in the second space"¹. That's why someone in the room below can hear a dull thump even when your room sounds fine.

Acoustic foam doesn't help much here. The source rates foam as "less effective against this transmitted vibration"¹. If your problem is a thud, don't spend on wall foam first.

What actually helps, in principle

The same page says the transmission "can be stopped by breaking the connection between the room that contains the noise source and the outside world"¹. The name for this is decoupling. In a simulator room it means a floor or layer that doesn't pass shake straight into the structure.

Decoupling inside floors, walls or ceilings is building work. Don't treat it as a weekend job. Ask a qualified builder or an acoustic consultant, and never cut into floors or joists on a guess.

What a mat can and can't tell you

A hitting mat is the part you touch. The sources saved here give no measured results for mats and noise, so ask for them. Ask whether the maker gives any test figure for impact sound, and who ran the test.

Also check how the mat fits your launch system. Many simulators use a sensor mat "containing several infrared sensors and microchips"². If yours does, put nothing under it or around it that the maker's guide doesn't allow. The guide is the place to check.

Floor ratings, in plain English

Floor makers and builders use a number called impact insulation class, or IIC. It rates how well a building floor cuts impact sounds such as footsteps, and "a larger number means more attenuation"³. Attenuation just means the sound gets weaker on its way through.

Three cautions before you lean on a figure:

• The rating comes from a tapping machine, and it covers sound only from 100 to 3150 Hz. Real footsteps also make sound below 100 Hz, so the IIC "may not accurately describe the complete noise attenuation profile of a floor"³.
• A rating measured in a lab is not what you'll get at home. For a finished building the figure is "typically several points lower"³.
• A floor rating is for a floor, not a mat. Don't read a floor number as a promise about the mat on top.

No source I've saved tests golf impact on floors, so treat any such comparison as a question for the seller.

Questions to ask

• Does the maker publish impact-sound results for the mat or base layer?
• Does the guide allow it under or around my sensor mat?
• Is any of the work structural? If so, who is qualified to do it?
• Is the maker's mat guide clear on where the hitting area ends?

Anyone testing a new mat should stay clear of the hitting area. Swing a real club in the space first, since a guide's measurements won't match every room. Bare walls and windows are never a target, and hard surfaces near the hitting area need covering as the maker's guide says.

For how loud things get next door, read simulator noise and the neighbours.