Sound Checking in new houses

[RJDecember]

I have recently moved into a new house and am having problems with the sound level between my house and our neighbours. I can hear them talking, laughing, I can hear if they are hoovering, if something falls on the floor, if they are playing music, I could sing along! Both myself and our neighbours arranged a meeting with the foreman who brought along the sound check report (which he could only show us and not give to us), it states that we have a level 54db. I was told the the minimum requirement is 48d. The foreman, although he could hear the sounds we spoke about said he stands by the report,\that they meet the building regulations and that's his final word. I rang the h.o of the builders and asked for a photocopy of the report which they declined to give me as they had paid for it so it was their property. I Has anyone any suggestions on what I can do here??

 

[Ash]

Having long endured noise (def: unwanted sound) in our house I can sympathise with your situation. I can't offer much help, I'm afraid beyond the advice to get a sound level check done yourself. Maybe your neighbour would share the cost. However, if the level is lower than the minimum specified by building regulations, it doesn't really help your cause beyond being an independent reading and not one "paid for " by the building company.
I would check for yourself too what the building regulations actually say about minimum requirements regarding sound transference and not just take the builders word for it.
Measuring sound is a tricky business and in fact, the measurement tends to be an aggregate over a period of time, say one hour or twelve hours, meaning the peaks of the noises you hear e.g. laughing, hoovering, etc wont really register when combined with the quiet times in the same period. However, we know that it is these very peaks of noise which cause the problem.
There is insufficient legislation or regulations on noise in this country. Noise is a serious problem, one that few care about until it directly affects them.
Good luck anyway. Noise is such a nuisance.

 

[Carpenter]

Obviously the builder had good reason to get a report done, I've heard of such reports but I've never seen one- acoustic experts are a rare breed indeed. Which makes the builders "report" all the more unusual. I think your only bet is to commission your own independant report and seek the advice of an architect or engineer to establish the root of the problem- obviously there is a weak point in the construction detail which is causing you your problems

 

[Tarquin]

I lived

 

[canman]

Hi,

Think you need to check out the building regulations of 1997. These would be in force for your house.
http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/0/a137e0322d60e09780256f5d00504a79/$FILE/30177%20BR%20Sound%20E.pdf

These are technical and difficult to fully comprehend.
You could ring your county council, and ask for the department in charge of Building standards. There will be someone there whose responsibility is Sound within that department. Remember these are people who should be enforcing the standards. This could save your time and money.

A report from a chartered surveyor does cost money. If you got one already, I would check why they did not pick up on this originally?
We were lucky that when doing this originally, ours did. He would not allow us to proceed until this was clarified. This did hold up the sale but suppose it was worth it.

Our Surveyor did say that this sort of problem is getting more common due to the prevalence of timber frame houses.

However, I do sympathise with you as this must be awfully annoying

 

[Decani]

If you choose to get your own report done, it would be worth asking other residents so that they might like to chip in for costs.