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Recycled Rubber Underlayment Building Projects

There is growing interest in sustainable architecture or green buildings and builders and designers opt for more environmentally friendly material for construction and decorating. For example, recycled rubber is a common choice as an underlayment for roofs and flooring. The U.S. Green Building Council provides support for sustainable building projects and property owners investing in environmental design.

  1. Underlayment

    • Underlaying involves the padding of floors and roofs with an under layer of suitable material. This is usually done for soundproofing purposes, as the underlayment prevent sounds, such as the television, radio or footsteps, from being heard in other rooms either above or below. In the case of flooring, underlayment provides added comfort for walking or exercising on wooden or tiled floors, while roofing underlayment is used as a waterproofing measure.

    Recycled Rubber

    • Recycled rubber is a reliable and eco-friendly source of underlayment material. The average recycled rubber underlayment contains approximately 90 percent of recycled content, usually from used tires. Increased usage keeps tires and other rubber products from piling up in landfills. Using recycled rubber products is also energy efficient as it takes considerably less energy to produce compared to virgin rubber.

    LEED projects

    • The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a point system set up by the U.S. Green Building Council that awards building projects depending on their eco-friendly construction, for instance, the use of recyclable material. Projects involving the use of recycled rubber underlaying earn points under the category of materials and resources. points increase in accordance with what percentage of the total building materials is recycled content.

    NRC Project

    • The National Research Council (NRC) conducted a project to determine the effectiveness of recycled rubber underlayment at limiting sounds of medium to high frequency under hardwood, ceramic and laminated floors. The recycled rubber product was called QuietDown and was produced by the Green Products Company. The project found that the underlayment reduced a variety of sounds including falling pots, speech and footsteps with hard-sole shoes.

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