Determining “reasonable” levels of sound insulation in domestic properties for use in building regulations

Abstract

The Scottish Building Regulations, similar to other countries regulations, provide standards for the protection of occupants health. Minimum sound insulation standards are provided to control noise passing through walls and floors from neighboring properties. In Scotland, the minimum standard should provide adequate protection for a “reasonable” person from “normal” living activities. This paper presents the findings of a research study undertaken by Edinburgh Napier University, to assess the level of sound insulation that test subjects would deem to be “reasonable” for a range of noise sources passing through a variety of construction types. The study undertaken within the Universities auralization suite assessed the responses involving over 100 participants subjected to common domestic noise sources passing through separating structures. The participants were given the ability to adjust the source noise level for each source type to determine the level of noise from their neighbor they would consider “reasonable” to tolerate. The participants determinations were correlated to the equivalent sound insulation for each source and construction assessed. The paper will present the setup in the test suite, and the results of the study will be presented in a range of acoustic parameters, DnT,w, STC, R’ w and be assessed against a range of countries current standards.