Acoustic testing in New Build - an explanation about Building Regulations part E

Is your new build home noisy?

Building acoustics for new builds is covered in the Building Regulations Part E.
Builders either have the opportunity to build properties to exact specifications according to the Robust Details which will make them automatically comply or they can build to their own specification and get an Acoustic check carried out.

Most developers carry out the latter process because it is cheaper which means at some stage, a field test will have likely been carried out either on your property or a neighbouring property on your site. The person doing the test has to perform the check on every property type at different levels. 

These checks comprise of 2 types: Airborne and Impact. The tests are only applicable with houses that adjoin such as a semi detached house or town house and apartments. 

• Airborne

This is applicable to both apartments and houses that have a party wall and involves placing speakers in the 'source' room and playing white noise which is recorded in the neighbouring room adjacent.  Further calculations are carried out to identify the background noise in each room and then a single number will be produced to determine whether the property is a pass or fail. 

The higher number the better with airborne, but needs to be a minimum of 45dB. This is not a particularly high-standard when compared to regulations in Europe. Scotland has different regulations and requires >56db just for a point of reference

• Impact

This differs to airborne because it is only carried out in apartments and rather than speakers projecting white noise, a ’tapping machine’ is placed on the floor of the apartment above and the noise is recorded below.  
After similarly recording and discounting background noise, the impact test should be  no more than 62dB.

The important aspect to consider when it comes to impact noise testing which makes it difficult to carry out once you have moved in, is that it has to be done on bare flooring, i.e. flooring that has not been covered in tiling or wooden laminate etc. It is possible to do it once you have moved in if the flooring is carpet as long as it can be removed to expose the floorboards underneath.