problem with neighbours new bathroom - please read and HELP!

[danlightbulb]

Hi all

Would really appreciate help on this. I will start from the beginning:

My next door neighbour, semi detached house, got a grant for an extension from the council, for his disabled father.

The work involved building a ground floor bedroom, and converting a downstairs room to a shower / toilet room for the father to use. The shower room is on the other side of the party wall between our houses.

I recieved a copy of the plans from the council, and also a party wall agreement to sign. Upon looking at the plans and noticing that the toilet had been placed against the party wall, I phoned the council to express concern that we would be able to hear the toilet.

The chap from the council told me that he would sort it out by putting sound insulation against the party wall.

Anyway, 4 months later the work is complete and we can hear everything. The pull cord lightswitch goes click clunk. The shower makes a decent low level hum, the toilet makes a flushing and filling noise and we can hear someone taking a leak clear as the day. You might imagine that i'm not too pleased, although I don't want to annoy my neighbour as I do get on with him quite well.

I contacted the council and the chap is coming to our house tomorrow to listen for himself, I have also discussed this with my neighbour and he seemed a little anoyed, although I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with me for bringing it up or just generally annoyed.

I would really appreciate any advice/info you guys have got to help me!

Regards
Dan

 

[jbonding]

Hi all

Would really appreciate help on this. I will start from the beginning:

My next door neighbour, semi detached house, got a grant for an extension from the council, for his disabled father.

The work involved building a ground floor bedroom, and converting a downstairs room to a shower / toilet room for the father to use. The shower room is on the other side of the party wall between our houses.

I recieved a copy of the plans from the council, and also a party wall agreement to sign. Upon looking at the plans and noticing that the toilet had been placed against the party wall, I phoned the council to express concern that we would be able to hear the toilet.

The chap from the council told me that he would sort it out by putting sound insulation against the party wall.

Anyway, 4 months later the work is complete and we can hear everything. The pull cord lightswitch goes click clunk. The shower makes a decent low level hum, the toilet makes a flushing and filling noise and we can hear someone taking a leak clear as the day. You might imagine that i'm not too pleased, although I don't want to annoy my neighbour as I do get on with him quite well.

I contacted the council and the chap is coming to our house tomorrow to listen for himself, I have also discussed this with my neighbour and he seemed a little anoyed, although I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with me for bringing it up or just generally annoyed.

I would really appreciate any advice/info you guys have got to help me!
Regards
Dan

You could maybe ask the neighbour to hold it in till tomorrow so the guy from the council doesnt have to wait about

 

[securespark]

I think your only leg to stand on is the assurance you received from the planning dept that the builders would use sound insulation. Did you get this in writing?

 

[pickles]

Part of the building regs relate to soundproofing. I don't know the exact details but it sounds as if the works aren't compliant. You should be able to get the council to do something about it, but, if they are like most councils you will have to kep your boot up their arses to get anything done

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Dan:

One of the more knowledgeable web sites I've found on the internet when it comes to noise transmission through buildings is this one from the UK:

http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/help.htm

Read the section entitled "Transmission Loss in Detail".

If there is nothing more than a wood stud wall between your two homes, then that won't stop much sound even with accoustical insulation between the wood studs.

You see, sound propogates through walls by an extremely simple method; the sound wave hits the wall and makes it move. The movement of the wall re-creates the sound wave on the other side of it.

You hear the recreated sound wave, not the original.

It's this simple method of sound transmission that gives rise to something called THE MASS LAW in Accoustics.

The Mass Law says that for every doubling of the mass of the wall per square foot or for every doubling of the frequency of the sound waves hitting the wall, the sound pressure level on the opposite side of the wall is reduced by 6 decibels, or 1/4 of it's initial value.

And that makes sense if you think of the way sound travels through walls. The heavier the wall, the more inertia it has, so the less it's going to move in response to a sound wave hitting it. Consequently, the lower the amplitude of the sound wave that heavier wall will reproduce.

Also, the heavier the wall, the more inertia it has, and the less able it is to change it's direction of motion quickly. Consequently, the higher the frequency of the sound hitting a heavier the wall, the less the wall will respond to the sound waves, and the lower the amplitude of the sound waves it reproduces.

If you read the section entitled "Transmission Loss in Detail", you'll have a good understanding of how increasing the mass of the wall (by adding layers of plasterboard if practical) would help stop noise transmission through the wall.

Also, you might just want to phone up the guys at Custom Audio Design and get their advice as well.

 

[Moz]

ring your council "Building Control Officer"
an tell him to visit , you should NOT be hearing these kinds of noise ....

 

[danlightbulb]

Just to update you guys - thanks for your advice so far.

We had the representitive from the council round who listened to the noise. He acknowledged that we originally requested sound proofing and claims that it was the contracted builder who failed to deliver. He has promised to get it fixed by dry lining the wall and sound proofing on my neighbours side.

Just as a side note, we did phone the building regs dept, their answer was that there was no call for sound insulation as part of the regs! I didn't bother quoting part E (which i got hold of for 'trump card' purposes!). Thats the second time i've contacted the building regs section and both times they have been utterly useless.

Thanks again guys.