How to walk to reduce footstep noise in multi-story residential buildings

Abstract

Loud footsteps from upstairs cause disturbance to downstairs neighbours in multi-story residential buildings. In this experiment, we examined how participants walk when asked to walk quietly and evaluated the efficiency of their quiet walking patterns. Changes in vertical impact loading rates during the early stance phase, walking speed, and lower limb muscle activity when asked to walk quietly were evaluated from twenty-six young participants. Study data show that participants who struck the ground with the rearfoot reduced the impact loading rate by 44.6% with 29.3% slower walking speed than normal walking. Those who struck with the fore- or mid-foot reduced the impact loading by 69.2% with a 23.4% decrease in speed. Quiet walking with the non-rearfoot strike pattern reduced the impact loading by 48.7%, even when asked to walk as fast as normal walking. The results support the non-rearfoot strike pattern as an efficient walking strategy for lowering footstep impact. Practitioner summary: Data of this study show that voluntary gait alteration, such as adopting a non-rearfoot strike pattern, can reduce footstep impact. The study results propose that implementing such changes could be beneficial in addressing floor noise issues of multi-story residential buildings. Abbreviations: RFS: Rearfoot strike; NRFS: non-rearfoot strike; COP: Center of pressure; NW: Normal walking; QWs: Quiet walking at a preferred slower speed; QWn: Quiet walking at the speed of normal walking; EMG: Electromyography; BW: Body weight; iNEMG: integrated normalized EMG.