Noise from neighbours and the sound insulation of party walls in houses

Abstract

Nine-hundred-and-seventeen residents in a sample of attached houses constructed since 1970 were interviewed in the course of a national survey dealing with nuisance occasioned by noise from neighbours. The airborne sound insulation of the party walls, measured prior to occupation, ranged from zero to 120 dB AAD. Two-thirds of the respondents heard noise from their neighbours and even at performance levels meeting or exceeding the minimum requirements of the Building Regulations nearly 50% did so. Of the total sample, some 18% were seriously bothered by neighbours' noise. Highly significant relationships were found between physical performance rated in dB AAD (Aggregate Adverse Deviation) and a variety of subjective responses. These include reports of hearing neighbours' noise, of being bothered by it, hearing neighbours' conversation, and, in particular, the direct rating of sound insulation quality by respondents, which last appears to provide the most reliable and consistent indication of the likelihood of experiencing nuisance from neighbours' noise. These results provide, for the first time, empirical validation of the U.K. performance rating procedure. In addition, the survey findings emphasize the importance of impact noises, not included in the standardized performance measurements, but which contribute substantially to nuisance, particularly between houses where airborne sound insulation is comparatively good. Other findings indicate that occupants were very satisfied with their general environment and only slightly less so with their homes. Poor sound insulation was a prominent criticism of the dwellings, being ranked third among spontaneous adverse comments and first in a ranking of nine commonly encountered building defects. These results indicate the importance of sound insulation to occupants of recently built houses, placing this aspect of design and construction within a wider context. The overall results of the survey provide a practical guide to estimating the consequences, in terms of occupants' attitudes to noise from neighbours, of raising or lowering standards of sound insulation performance between houses.