What is STC?
Sound Transmission Class (STC) A single number rating based on a laboratory test of a wall, floor or ceiling partition indicating how well sound is reduced from one side of the partition to the other. For example, if a wall has a rating of STC 45, it will give potential users of this wall design an indication of how well this partition will perform against a sound source such as a saw (105 dB), noted below. It is important to remember that STC is a basic indicator of performance. It does not indicate how well the partition performs at all frequencies a sound or noise source is comprised of. So in a very basic sense, a STC-45 wall will reduce the sound level of the saw from 105 dB to 60 dB. To really see how much sound or noise a partition will reduce, we need to look at the full spectrum of frequencies that the noise is made of and determine how the partition filters these frequencies through it. A partition’s ability to reduce noise is measured in decibels (dB) and these dB losses (ca
