Why do flats never seem to have decent soundproofing?

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.

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  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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?

    Funnily enough I've been wondering the same thing - I've moved several times to get away from noisy neighbours and moved into this house specifically because the living room is farthest away from the neighbour and it's a bungalow, so I've got it as quiet as I can reasonably expect. 

    The problem has been that the houses are on a cul-de-sac, have no front garden and have a parallel parking space outside the front door. That was ok when I moved in as I had a car. But once the car went I've had the world and his wife parking there filling my kitchen (immediately next to the slim pavement and parking spot) filled with fumes and noise; plus it's rural and a lot of my neighbours work on the farms, leaving at 3 or 4 am for milking. Two of them were intending to use my parking space till I complained to the Housing Association.

    The upshot was I learned about the Housing Associations 'Duty of Care' and they're now looking at soundproofing measures.

    But, it then occurred to me - if they are now passing laws that help us live in non-suitable accommodation then why aren't they also passing laws that compel HAs to actually build *suitable* accommodation in the first place.

    After the war they built 'temporary' 2-bed pre-fabs that were quick and cheap - 50/60 years later they had to pretty much prise people out of them as they were considered below standard but their popularity was they were DETACHED - ahhh, the dream of next to no noise from neighbours - why can't they build small collections of small detached houses for us?

    Is there a 'movement' or group pressing for this ?

  • It's all down to the cost of the land.    Stacking houses on top of each other takes no more land so flats are very, very profitable for developers.

    If enough stupid people buy those flats rather than buying a house, they will simply build more flats.

    Detached bungalows are the least profitable of all builds.

  • It all comes down to cost unfortunately. It's cheaper to build flats or semis. Government departments aren't interested in whole life costs, it comes down to capital expenditure. Thinking outside the box isn't encouraged, especially if it involves the use of money from other budgets. (I'm suggesting here that building nicer homes in better surroundings, with provision of services, potentially lead to less need for state intervention later on, which is more expensive than the % more needed to create better buildings. But that is a big stab in the dark and governments don't like that, they need evidence) 

  • Hello,

    I could not agree more about the post war housing prefab solution. I have written to my MP and the housing minister, Heather Wheeler so I would suggest that if more of us on the spectrum could do that then maybe we could make a change? I do wish the NAS would do more to highlight this issue. I think it would be important that any potential suitable housing is built with our input with regards to our needs. I do not do facebook or any social media so maybe others would be willing to start something online please? A garden shed would be more suitable than my current home.

Reply
  • Hello,

    I could not agree more about the post war housing prefab solution. I have written to my MP and the housing minister, Heather Wheeler so I would suggest that if more of us on the spectrum could do that then maybe we could make a change? I do wish the NAS would do more to highlight this issue. I think it would be important that any potential suitable housing is built with our input with regards to our needs. I do not do facebook or any social media so maybe others would be willing to start something online please? A garden shed would be more suitable than my current home.

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