New build awful sound proofing - Help

[taranatar]

Hey everyone,

I recently moved into a new build terrace house but the whole experience has been totally ruined by the bad sound transmission. Its a 3 story house with the master / on suite on the top floor. The party walls are plasterboard dot and dabbed onto the wall and seem to offer no deadening whatsoever. Just today our baby was making noises / talking in the ground floor lounge and even up in the master it sounded like he was in the room with us.

I've noticed that the sound isn't coming in through the floors but seems to be coming straight up from the lounge to the master bouncing up the party wall. Also the bathrooms don't seem to be insulated at all as the whole house can hear if someone has a shower or flushes the toilet.

I also get the neighbours telly/music/talking coming through the party walls.

My partner and I are just really fed up we moved from a terrace that was built in 2003 and apart from the occasional door slamming we never heard a thing either side.

Gutted!

[nem39esis]

I have a similar problem, not been happy with the sound insulation in my new build either. Bathrooms you can hear through the walls, living room below bedroom you can hear everything. I complained to Bellway about the sound through party wall and they agreed to do a sound test, id push for this. Id also ask them what types of plasterboard they used for walls etc as different types have different insulation properties, have a look at British Gypsum website, it may be the case that theyve used the wrong boards. First point of call is to write to the developer, if no luck go to NHBC. Sooner the better

[cadlife]

Hi, you will find that the reason why you can hear noises from room to room more clearly in a new build compared to an older house is sometimes due to older properties having solid masonary walls between bedroom/bathrooms etc, while new homes generally just have hollow studwork. As previous post says there are different boards used, wet rooms will have a moisture resistant board and your party walls may have a sound board on them. There will most likely be a sound coat on the blockwork between you and your neiighbour plus the dividing wall if standard build will have the blockwork laid facedown giving you double thickness between the properties. In theory your dividing wall between properties should be alot better than older properties which can have very thin dividing walls.

[NewHomeExpert]

The sound reducing plasterboard is called "soundBloc"

The noise from bathrooms is because the SVP pipe duct has not been properly sound insulated.

The days of laying a SPW block flat are over. The regulations mean that a cavity is required with two 100mm skins built in a dense 7n concrete blockwork using butterfly wall ties.

The only way to check is a sound test.

[Raffles]

I have exactly the same problem, after a test was conducted within the party wall it was confirmed that there is nothing in between the cavity or the sound screen put on top. The builder who made our house was YUILL. They pushed for the sound test and they used a company whom they have a long term contract with, I wasn't shocked to find that the walls passed the test under Regulation E. I have no doubt that the test was fixed as I too can hear my neighbours having a normal conversation through the party wall, just as if we were in the same room. If you must get a sound test make sure the company is independant as the builders only want to conduct the test knowing that they will get out of fixing your home. I now have to find a way of resolving the problem myself.

[NewHomeExpert]

There are lots of reasons why a party wall would fail a sound test.
All of them would be quite expensive to rectify.

Not only expensive but potentially very incovenient for the owners of the homes on either side.

If a 'traditionally-built' block party wall allows sound to transmit, just think how bad it would be in a timber frame terraced home of apartment!

Builders are not required to carry out sound tests.
They can use the 'Robust Details' instead.
These are specific designs and specifications that will achive an accepatble level of sound insulation to meet the regulations.

However, as we know, having good designs and details does not guarantee quality or even that an inspection will be made before work is covered up.

A sound test is the only way to prove the party wall fails to meet sound insualtion standards.
Obviously, the tester must be fully independant of the builder.

[Raffles]

You mentioned an independant company, YUILL used a company which they already have a regular contract of work with. Would this still be classed as an independant company? At the end of the day I can only take their word for it!!

Also my husband and I were looking into getting something blown into the cavity wall to see whether that would make a difference, can you recommend anything i.e. rockwool etc??

[NewHomeExpert]

Do not do anything yet!
This is an NHBC claim.
Anything you do could and probably would invalidate this.

It is also doubtful that filling the cavity would make much difference and may make it worse for certain frequencies!

A company hired by another company is independant of the hirer. But....... if the hired company gets a lot of work it may be more inclined to "help" their best customer if they have a problem. Believe me I know this does go on.

Hire your own different sound test company.