noisy upper flat

spezial

I am thinking of buying a ground or first floor flat, but I am worried that the upper floor flat will make noise like dragging chairs, wearing heels, etc. Is there a solution for this? Like an extra sound insulation? Or can I complain and have it solved? Any experience? The block of flats is newish, but I am worried about the generally low quality of buildings in UK. Any opinion?

anselld

A newish block will be required to meet the building regulations on sound insulation.

The only effective solution is a suspended ceiling with acoustic insulation and sound insulation board. Not cheap to do and you lose about 6 inched of ceiling height.

Pixie5740

Are you worried about the billy goats gruff trip trapping over your bridge?

spezial

is there a way to verify if upper neighbours noise will be heard in the ground floor?

macman

Yes-ask the estate agent to run about upstairs while you listen down below.

KnittaPlease

In high heels.

sniggings

spezial wrote: »

I am thinking of buying a ground or first floor flat, but I am worried that the upper floor flat will make noise like dragging chairs, wearing heels, etc. Is there a solution for this? Like an extra sound insulation? Or can I complain and have it solved? Any experience? The block of flats is newish, but I am worried about the generally low quality of buildings in UK. Any opinion?

Do not buy a lower floor flat.

The regs only go so far, get a heel striker or wooden floors above and you'll be living in hell.

The down side is alot worse than the up side, you could be lucky and get a considerate upstairs neighbour but is it worth the risk.

Unless you can't walk up stairs then buy a top floor.

spezial

yeah, that's what I wanted, but those idiot agents don't mention if it's top floor!

rosie383

And you can't ask because ... ?

Surely if you are at the stage of 'thinking of buying' the flat, you should at least have viewed it, or had more information by now. Perhaps you meant to say 'I'm thinking of viewing a flat'.

spezial

would it be wise to have it professionally inspected to make sure that I won't hear anything even if the child above jumps or something?

audigex

rosie383 wrote: »

And you can't ask because ... ?

Surely if you are at the stage of 'thinking of buying' the flat, you should at least have viewed it, or had more information by now. Perhaps you meant to say 'I'm thinking of viewing a flat'.

He's thinking of buying a flat in general, he's just not got a specific one in mind, as far as I can tell ;-)

spezial wrote: »

would it be wise to have it professionally inspected to make sure that I won't hear anything even if the child above jumps or something?

As someone who's lived in quite a few different flats I can say for certain, don't bother: you WILL hear it. Newer high quality flats will tend to be quieter than older or cheaper ones, but no flat is soundproofed enough that you won't hear someone sprinting flat out across laminate flooring. And even if their agreement doesn't allow laminate, there's still a risk.

Kids, high heels, music, jumping, moving furniture, couples getting home from a hot date... there are a lot of different ways noise will be made

Flats also change hands quickly, so just because there's a quiet couple upstairs now doesn't mean there always will be.

Getting the top floor can help, but remember that you'll always have to either be thinking about those below, or risking the residents association asking you to keep it down...

If you buy a flat, accept that neighbours are part of the compromise. That's a big part of the reason flats are cheaper than even small houses.

Even if you can't hear people running around upstairs, with flats you have so many neighbours in close proximity that I promise you you WILL hear some of them.