Advice on buying a brand new home > Snagging and defects

Downstairs noise travelling through windows

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MacedoI:
Firstly let me introduce myself. My name is Ivo and I just purchased one apartment from Barratt Homes.

Secondly apologies in advance if this is not the right section on the forum to post this.

We moved in less than a month ago and we’ve noticed that we can hear downstairs conversations. Not every word but murmurs. Same with music. We don't think the downstairs neighbours are loud at all, we suspect something else might be wrong.

Surprisingly, the sound seems to be coming from the windows or it's frames.
Ah, worth mentioning that this is happening mainly in the  living room where most of the walls are basically either windows/balcony or glass.

We asked around and few people claim they are experiencing the same thing. One of them actually mentioned that Barratt filled up the frames of his flat with sand?!
Anyway the development is relatively new so someone from Barratt is coming over tomorrow.

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and whether or not the developer manage to help at all.

Cheers,
Ivo

New Home Expert:
I've never heard of filling presumably PVCu frames with sand!

I think what you have is "flanking" sound. 
If you are living in a timber frame block fire-stopping (fire socks) around every frame and horizontally, both sides of each floor level are required, not just for sound, but for fire.

I suspect there are gaps in this or it is missing or has fallen away.

If the block is traditional masonry brick and block inner skin, it would need to have cavity insulation to meet standards. again this should help with sound insulation but could be missing on the mainly window wall.

MacedoI:
Hi. Thanks for the feedback.
The frames are not pvc but metal. And the frames are hollow.
Someone from Barratt came over and he pointed out that metal frames can be less efficient when it comes to block noise. They said they will look into it.

I don't think this is timber block. It's a pretty much standard brick block.

You are probably right re the problem being about flanking sound travelling to the flat. Also, when we hear it, most of the times if you go to the balcony you most likely not hear anything, just inside.

Would you say it's easy to determine whether or not there are gaps or insulation missing on the window frames?

It's still under the NHBC warranty and the developer representative is coming over today to evaluate the situation. Not sure how he'll do that - there'll be no noise if there's nobody downstairs.

In any case it's just odd and we are a bit afraid they just won't fix it.

New Home Expert:
You could have an air tightness test and also an acoustic test carried out to determine where the fault lies.

MacedoI:
Thanks for the advice.
Should I get Barratt to run these tests or can I get them don via a third party company?
In which case any recommendations are welcome.

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