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Why do flats never seem to have decent soundproofing?

Roswell

Is it even possible to soundproof effectively so you can't hear someone above you or below you?

I can hear the man in the flat beneath me banging doors and moving things around, it gets on my nerves.

In another flat I had I could hear when the man downstairs coughed. Yes, really, coughed! I noticed he did it sometimes when I was walking around the flat quite a bit, doing chores.

Parents

  • Flats are always built to the minimum building standards to maximise profit.    Adding extra material to dampen and absorb sound is considered a waste of money so they don't bother.    It's also technically difficult to guarantee noise reduction because it travels through the structure of the building and is frequency dependent.   

    Layers of alternating heavy and light materials work well - heavy material are difficult for the sound energy to get vibrating and isolating layers of light materials that can't transmit energy to the next layer - Lead & polystyrene are ideal but impractical. Plasterboard and Celotex are more sensible.

    Windows are a problem too - they're rigidly mounted in a wall so they act like a panel speaker for energy travelling in the wall.   Adding mass (triple glazing) makes it more difficult for the energy to get them vibrating.

    I hate the noise that people make - I think that humans are strongly territorial animals so people impinging on our territory is a cause of stress - 100m is too close for me.

Reply

  • Flats are always built to the minimum building standards to maximise profit.    Adding extra material to dampen and absorb sound is considered a waste of money so they don't bother.    It's also technically difficult to guarantee noise reduction because it travels through the structure of the building and is frequency dependent.   

    Layers of alternating heavy and light materials work well - heavy material are difficult for the sound energy to get vibrating and isolating layers of light materials that can't transmit energy to the next layer - Lead & polystyrene are ideal but impractical. Plasterboard and Celotex are more sensible.

    Windows are a problem too - they're rigidly mounted in a wall so they act like a panel speaker for energy travelling in the wall.   Adding mass (triple glazing) makes it more difficult for the energy to get them vibrating.

    I hate the noise that people make - I think that humans are strongly territorial animals so people impinging on our territory is a cause of stress - 100m is too close for me.

Children
  • in reply to Plastic

    But if we had specific accomodation built for autism then we would not need to try and convert housing to meet our needs. Soundproofing would be standard as would being in a quiet location if possible. it is a dream, I admit but one that we should push for. In my area we have lots of new builds for the retired community so why not homes for autism?