Noise

When considering installing a hardwood floor in your home, it is vital that you take into consideration your neighbours and the issue of noise. For owners of houses or ground floor flats, where you have nobody living directly underneath you, your choice of hardwood floor will have no impact on the quality of life of your neighbours and you are free to choose what ever floor takes your fancy.

For those that live in flats or apartment blocks there are building regulations, lease agreements and simple consideration for others that can influence your choice of floor. As a general rule, if you have anyone living underneath you then you have a duty to ensure that you minimise the amount of noise that is transmitted through the floor.

The only way that this can be done is by floating an engineered hardwood floor on top of a specified acoustic underlay, and the type of underlay you use will depend on your individual circumstances.

Building Regulations Approved Document E (2003) sets out values for sound insulation that must be achieved to demonstrate compliance with the requirements. This document however refers solely to newly built dwellings or those that are being converted into flats. Existing dwellings or conversions are not covered by this document, and the fitting of hardwood floors are considered to be an 'improvement' to the flat or dwelling. The requirements for Impact Sound Insulation as a maximum value are 62 decibels for purpose built dwellings and 64 decibels for conversions (please refer to the decibel scale below).

If you live in a purpose built dwelling that has a management committee or resident's management committee, it is worth checking with them before going ahead and fitting a hardwood floor. They may have approved products for sound insulation that you must use to comply with their own requirements.

People living in converted flats are governed by the terms of their lease agreement, which will usually state something to the effect 'floorboards must be covered with carpets at all times'. This clause was inserted to prevent people from removing their carpets and sanding and varnishing their floorboards. Walking on uncovered floorboards offers no impact sound insulation whatsoever, and is far too noisy for the neighbours downstairs. A properly installed floating engineered floor on an acoustic underlay can be just as good as a carpet - and in some cases, even better.

The Decibel Scale

The table to the right shows the decibel rating for different common sounds and noises. What’s interesting here is that this is a logarithmic scale; each 10dB added makes the sound TEN TIMES as loud. So, 90dB is quite loud, but 100dB is ten times louder, and 110dB is 100 times louder, etc.