An elastic floor and wall mounting solution using Getzner Sylomer was recommended for the Four Suns luxury residential complex in Moscow to address the vibrations caused by two underground rail lines running below the building.

Constructed between 2006 and 2010 by the Office Stroy general construction company, the residential complex, which offers a total area of 110,000 square metres, is situated on a common baseplate shared with four 8-10 storey buildings. Both the foundations for the baseplate and the residential buildings were constructed from monolithic reinforced solid-concrete plate.

The traffic passing along the Kalininskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya underground rail lines that run directly beneath the buildings, caused vibrations that could be detected on the surface.

The Getzner Solution

In 2006, Ecocity – the ecological fund for developing the urban environment – conducted an investigation of the building site, and recommended an elastic mounting solution using Getzner Sylomer to insulate the building against vibration. The Sylomer solution was applied beneath the foundations of the residential block and to the surfaces of the foundation walls. The elasticated layer beneath the baseplate comprised of 37mm thick Sylomer while the walls had 25mm thick Sylomer.

Ecocity also predicted the anticipated vibration levels using the finite element method. Getzner used the forecast results to calculate the requirements of the vibration insulation materials, which allowed the experts to determine the ideal material for the elastic mounting of the residential complex.

“This special forecast method was developed by Sergey Kurnavin of Ecocity over a period of 20 years. It is unique in the world,” stated Andreas Stoleth, project manager at Getzner.

Using concrete measurement results and the proposed technical solutions, Getzner was able to determine the most suitable vibration insulation for the luxury complex. The vibration experts produced a material especially to combat these challenges.

“We can adapt both the thickness and parameters of the materials to the individual case, which allows us to devise very economical solutions,” explained Stoleth, highlighting Getzner's unique selling proposition.

Getzner is not only a developer and producer of vibration reduction materials, but also serves as a construction advisor on projects. For this project, the specialists also took charge of onsite project management during the construction phase.

After constructing the building shell, Ecocity once again performed a series of tests. By using Sylomer, the construction specialists reached an effective level of protection against vibration. All areas subjected to investigation complied fully with the standards set by the Russian Federation.