OTish: Flats and noise.

I'm looking for a flat. However, I currently live in a terrace and am cursed with noisy neighbours, and would like to avoid having to suffer such c***s again. I occasionally have to work overnight and so noise in the daytime would be an issue too, so it's not just a case of avoiding neighbours with a penchant for all night drum and bass, as a hoover or washer can be bloody noisy and it's a bit unreasonable to expect all the neighbours to creep around on my behalf all day. I'd also like to be able to listen to music without driving them up the wall.

So, are there any regulations on noise insulation between flats? A lot of places seem to be large houses converted into multiple flats, rather than purpose built blocks, which may or may not be better (older house = thicker walls but less insulation between floors, I would expect). Should I be looking out for places converted over to flats after a certain date?

Reply to
Doki
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I don't know when the regulations last changed but I would avoid any conversion done before c. 1990? regardless of the age of the building.

More recent conversions will have to comply with more recent regs not just for noise but also fire safety.

Purpose built flats pre 1950 should be fairly solid.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

You'd be far better off buying a detached property in the middle of the country - and then the birds would interfere with your sleep Doki, or think of you as a c*nt for playing your music and disturbing them!

BRG

Reply to
BRG

What you need is an OAP's home.

Reply to
George

No, they're all insomniacs with faulty hearing aids who fall asleep in the afternoon with the telly turned up to max on "Trisha"

Owain

Reply to
Owain

I'm about £250k short of being able to do that. I'm used to living in the country which is why noisy neighbours are such a pain in the arse to me - I can sleep through barn owls screeching, passing trains and small earthquakes but 12 hours of loud music a day can be rather upsetting.

Reply to
Doki

Agreed., If other people's noise drives you mad a flat is not the answer. You potentially have to listen to flats above, beneath, to the sides and diagonally, plus anyone 4 floors up who's a noisy soandso. You are probably not "cursed" with noisy neighbours. just normal people doing normal things.

Reply to
Mogga

On the plus side, they tend to have the heating up really high, so if you're in the flat upstairs you don't need to run your own boiler at all

- been there, done that :-)

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon

Afraid not. They're students, and drum and bass for 13 hours at a time isn't unusual (ie, 9pm until 10am), loud enough to be heard up the street, along with a shitload of people in the house.

Reply to
Doki

With an aim of 50% of 18 yo going to uni I think they are probably the norm in some areas.

If they're genuinely noisy then you need to introduce yourself to the environmental noise nusiance man at the council.

Reply to
Mogga

TBH I expect it would be unrealistic to expect action from the council within a timeframe that's useful to me - I move out in a month or so, until I return for finals. Most of the street are students but this lot are a particular pain in the arse. It's a row of terraces and people next door on either side sound like they're in your house. I hardly expect neighbours in a flat to be as bad as the lot we have next door, but a knackered washer or one of the bigger dysons can be very noisy IME.

As for the people going to uni, I reckon something towards 50% either are there purely for the beer / to put off getting a job / because their parents want them to / because they can't think of anything better to do...

Reply to
Doki

I'm not so sure my Bristol flat was a victorian building converted about

1980 IIRC. Good thick rubble stone walls, lots of mass, no sound passed through them. It was a top floor flat so no one above but I never heard my neighbour to the side and only very occasionally from below. I deliberately left my music running at moderate/loud level when visiting below, couldn't hear it. This is the flat that I mentioned in a recent post that their ceiling was not directly attached to my floor joists but there wasn't anything in the void other than air.

If I was looking I'd go for something converted or built within the last

10 years or in earlier conversions a hefty building, stone walls etc. IMHO anything from late 50's to late 80's is likely to be made of cardboard with minimal sound insulation.
Reply to
Dave Liquorice

On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:10:36 -0000, a particular chimpanzee, "Doki" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

Sound insulation has been required by the Building Regulations to new dwellings since at least 1985. It has been required to conversions since 1991. Prior to this date, it may have been dealt with by a condition to the Planning Permission, but I don't know if this was universal across the country. Enforcement would have only come about after the work was done and a complaint was made.

Under the Building Regulations, up until 2003 (2004 for new dwellings), the work had to meet a number of 'deemed to satisfy' constructions. If it was constructed in accordance with these details it complied, irrespective of whether there was excessive sound transmission or not. Since 2003, all conversions have to be tested upon completion, and it's the level of sound transmission that matters. For new dwellings, the date is 2004, and there is an option of building it in accordance with 'robust details' in lieu of testing. The above dates relate to the date the Building Regulations application was submitted, so work could be carried out even years after 2003 and still come under the old requirements.

This all assumes that the work has ever had a Building Regulations application for it. There are plenty of unauthorised flat conversions out there, especially down back streets on smaller houses.

If it were me, I'd check, a) the work did have a Building Regulations application, b) it was inspected and a Building Regulations completion certificate issued, and c) if the work was done in the last few years, that the building was subject to a sound insulation test (and has passed) or if it's a new-build, there was a notification from 'Robust Details' that their standard details applied.

You've a better chance of getting the sound insulation right in a new-build than a conversion. No doubt there'll be twenty replies along the lines of, "I moved into a new flat and I could hear the neighbour's cat farting", but on the whole, I'm correct. The internal walls within a house are usually only 4" brick or timber studs with lath-&-plaster over; not good for sound insulation when used to separate one flat from another.

Reply to
Hugo Nebula

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