Honolulu Condo Flooring Rules by Building
Oahu AOAO flooring requirements
Honolulu Condo Flooring Rules by Building
Before you install vinyl plank, laminate, tile or hardwood in a Honolulu condo, your AOAO almost certainly has something to say about it — usually a minimum sound rating for the underlayment beneath it, sometimes a weight limit, occasionally a flat ban on hard surfaces outside the kitchen and bathroom.
The problem is finding it. We read the governing documents of fifty Oahu buildings. Six publish an exact number you can buy to. Most of the rest do have a rule — it just lives in a document that is not on the open web, or in an appendix the house rules point at without including, or in a scanned PDF that no search engine can read.
So this page does two things. First, it gives you the exact requirement for the buildings that publish one, quoted from the document. Second — and for most readers this is the useful half — it tells you which document holds your building's rule and who has it, so the call you make is the right one.
The six buildings that publish an exact requirement
Hawaiki Tower — FIIC 55 in living areas, FIIC 45 in kitchen and bath
“In Zone 1 the minimum Field Impact Isolation noise threshold is set at FIIC-55.” Zone 1 is “the bedrooms, living room, dining room and the halls adjacent to these areas.”
“In Zone 2 areas a minimum impact noise threshold is set at a Field Impact Isolation rating FIIC-45.” Zone 2 is “the entry area, kitchen and bathrooms.”
Zone 3 — exterior lanais with no enclosed living area below — “there are no restrictions to floor coverings.”
Note the F. Hawaiki requires FIIC, a field test of your actual installed floor, not the IIC number on an underlayment's spec sheet. A product rated IIC 55 in a laboratory can test lower once it is on your slab. The rules also put the cost of testing an off-list assembly on the owner.
Keola La'i — IIC 70, measured after installation
“An Impact Insulation Class (IIC) rating of seventy (70) or greater is required after flooring installation.”
The strictest requirement we found on Oahu, and the wording matters more than the number: IIC 70 after installation is an outcome you must achieve, not a product you can buy. The rules are explicit that approval is not a safe harbour — “It is the Owner's responsibility to ensure that a sound rating of IIC 70 is achieved after flooring installation.”
Ilikai Apartment Building — IIC 62 or STC 59, with approved products named
“Underlayment flooring testing data - IIC 62 or STC 59 or better”
Ilikai is the only building in fifty that names acceptable products outright rather than leaving owners to interpret a number.
Where the rule lives is the catch. It is not in the House Rules, which say nothing about flooring. It is in the contractor packet. An owner who read only the house rules would conclude their building has no requirement.
Island Colony — IIC 65, and a weight limit that rules out stone
“Ceramic tile or hardwood flooring is required to have an under layer of soundproofing with the minimum sound rating of IIC 65 (a sample must be submitted with your request).”
Island Colony also caps the weight of the finished floor, which no acoustic rating gets you around:
| Floor covering | Weight | Allowed? |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet with padding | 2–3 psf | Allowed |
| ½" thick wood flooring | 3 psf | Allowed |
| Ceramic tile to 5/16", thin-set | 4–5 psf | Allowed |
| ½" marble on ½" mortar bed | 7 psf | Not allowed |
| ½" granite on ½" mortar bed | 8 psf | Not allowed |
Waikiki Banyan — IIC 65, plus a 5 psf load limit
“Wood and Tile shall have proper, per code, underlayer of sound proofing/buffer with minimum sound range of IIC 65 or better.”
“Floor covering shall note exceed 5 psf. per building live load limitations, as such think marble and/or granite flooring with mortar setting bed is not allowed.”
(The typographic errors are in the original.)
Honolulu Park Place — IIC 65 on the spec sheet
“The Impact Insulation Class (IIC) of the requested flooring, underlayment and method of construction selected must have a minimum rating of IIC-65 listed in its specifications.”
Unlike Hawaiki and Keola La'i, this one is satisfied by the published specification of the assembly you buy — no field test required. Installing without approval “shall constitute a violation.”
Nobody agrees, and that is the point
Six buildings, six different requirements, measured four different ways:
| Building | Requirement | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Keola La'i | IIC 70 | Field outcome after installation |
| Island Colony | IIC 65 + weight cap | Product spec plus a physical sample |
| Waikiki Banyan | IIC 65 + 5 psf | Product spec |
| Honolulu Park Place | IIC 65 | Product spec sheet |
| Ilikai | IIC 62 / STC 59 | Submitted test data |
| Hawaiki Tower | FIIC 55 / FIIC 45 | Field test, zoned by room |
No two are the same, and none of them is the “IIC 50” figure often quoted as a standard. An underlayment that satisfies Hawaiki's kitchen will fail Keola La'i's living room. If you are buying for a Honolulu condo, the only number that matters is your building's.
Where to find your building's rule
A blank in the requirement column means we could not read it, not that it does not exist.
| Building | Units | Where the rule lives | Status | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kukui Plaza | 908 | House Rules Handbook, Part 7 §D(2) — a rule with no number: flooring must not “result in additional noise to the occupants below” | Found | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Makaha Valley Towers | 586 | Residents' Handbook, Declaration and Bylaws all read — the only flooring rules are for lanai and entry floors | Found — no interior rule | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Mott-Smith Laniloa | 428 | Hard surfaces permitted only in entries, kitchens, bathrooms and lanais; the floor plan showing where is held at the manager's office | Third-party copy only | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Royal Kuhio | 385 | Rules and Regulations, amended 1996 — no flooring clause, but the current documents are behind an owner login | Found — public copy is stale | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Century Center | 298 | House Rules rev. 12/01 — no flooring clause found, but the document is over twenty years old | Found — none in this revision | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Yacht Harbor Towers | 459 | House Rules §XVIII.U → the Association's flooring specifications and sound transmission criteria, held at the General Manager's office | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Sky Ala Moana | 390 | House Rules §IX.1 → the Declaration; requires IIC and STC standards to be met and documented, sets no threshold | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Ko'olani | 372 | Community Rules §13 → Design Guidelines, Appendix A (not published) | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Waihonua at Kewalo | 341 | Homeowners Manual → Declaration §18.2.2E and Bylaws §9.4C; written approval required | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Nauru Tower | 304 | House Rules §K.2.a → the Nauru Tower Remodeling Policy, which “shall prevail” | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Allure Waikiki | 301 | Project Rules → the Architectural Guidelines; an Application for Approval goes to the Architectural Committee | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Poha Kea Point | 255 | Community House Rules → Phase Architectural Standards | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Park Lane Ala Moana | 219 | House Rules §IX.1 → the Declaration and Bylaws; names IIC and STC but sets no threshold | Deferred | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Moana Pacific | 720 | Association document page | Gated | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Discovery Bay | 666 | House Rules 2015 and Bylaws | Unreadable scan | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Queen Emma Gardens | 589 | House Rules 2018, in the association's public document folder | Unreadable scan | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Marco Polo | 568 | Governing documents, owner portal | Gated | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Waikiki Sunset | 435 | Governing documents, owner login | Gated | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Honolulu Tower | 396 | Association website | Gated — expired certificate | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Waikiki Landmark | 353 | Association website | Gated — expired certificate | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Hokua at 1288 Ala Moana | 253 | House Rules 2011 | Unreadable scan | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Colony Surf | 176 | House Rules | Unreadable scan | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Admiral Thomas | 149 | Association website | Gated — expired certificate | 22 Aug 2026 |
We also checked sixteen further Honolulu buildings and could not find a public governing document for any of them: Ala Moana Hotel Condominium, The Central Ala Moana, Pacifica Honolulu, Kapiolani Residence, Ka La'i Waikiki, Ae'o, Chateau Waikiki, Ke Kilohana, Harbor Square, Iolani Court Plaza, Anaha, Craigside, Imperial Plaza, One Ala Moana, Hale Kaheka and Harbor Court. That does not mean they have no flooring rule. It means the rule is not on the open web, and the section below is how to get it.
What the status words mean
- Found — we read the document and quoted it.
- Deferred — the rules exist and point at a second document that is not public. Your rule is real; it is in that document. Ask for it by name.
- Gated — the document exists but sits behind a login, a portal, or a website error.
- Unreadable scan — the document is public, and it is a photograph of paper. No search engine, and no AI assistant, can read it. Neither could we.
- Third-party copy only — the only copy online sits on a site with no connection to your association. We will not send you there; ask your management office for the current one.
How to get the rule when it is not published
1. Ask for the document by name. “Please send me the flooring specification referenced in House Rule XVIII.U” gets a different answer from “what are the flooring rules?”
2. Ask your managing agent, not the front desk. The State of Hawaii publishes a register naming the managing agent — or “self managed” — for every registered association, kept by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Look your building up there and you will have the right company on the first call.
3. Get the answer in writing before you buy. Several of these buildings state plainly that board approval is not a guarantee your floor passes. Yours may be one of them.
One more thing worth knowing. Three of the buildings above have association websites that will not open without a browser security warning, because their certificates have expired. If your building's site throws a warning at you, you are not doing anything wrong and the site is not necessarily unsafe — but it does mean the management office is the faster route to your documents.
Getting it right the first time
We stock underlayment across the range these buildings require, and we are in Honolulu, so you are not waiting on mainland freight to start a job. If you know your building's number, we can match it.
If you do not, call us with your building name and we will tell you what we know — including when the answer is that you need to ask your AOAO.
Call (808) 210-4807