New Home Owners And Snagging Forum
Advice on buying a brand new home => Snagging and defects => Topic started by: square_ on May 24, 2018, 08:10:47 pm
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Good evening.
I'm writing here seeking advice regarding some problems of a new build flat that my partner and I recently purchased.
Floating floor problem:
The flat has been built using a floating floor system with an acoustic absorbent layer underneath. The main issue is that the floor is really bouncy and uneven!
When we walk around the flat, the furniture rattles and moves under our weight (~50Kg); not considering the washing machine that creates so much vibration that we can feel them 6 meters away (and shakes the nearby fridge considerably).
The developer's surveyor and the builders say that it's normal and nowadays all the floating floor system are like this, but in my experience, I've never felt something so weak.
Also, it's already creaking in some areas.
Is it normal for a floating floor system behave like this?
Sound insulation problem:
The flat it's in a building adjacent to a pub. For the part E regulation, the two buildings need to be separated?
The main issue is that we can hear the pub music from every wall of the pub side, even though we are on the 4th floor and the pub is only on the ground floor.
Our guess is that being the building connected on the ground floor, the sounds vibrations get transmitted through the building walls carrying the music to all the flats.
We asked for a sound test between the pub and the flats but none was done.
There something that we can do?
I hope that this explanation makes sense 🙂
Thanks in advance for any reply.
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Floating floors by their nature do "bounce" more than a solid concrete floor.
However, what you are describing seems excessive and I believe there may be gaps under the absorbent layer which make the effect worse. The structural floor must be perfectly flat, Most PCC floor beans are cambered so this may be causing the bounce to be worse especially at the outdide walls of each room.
As your builder is trying to fob you off, I suggest you write to your warranty provider as this is most definitely not "normal"
Sound Transference between the ground floor pub and your building could be through walls that are not sound isolated. However, I believe the issue is more about the level of noise coming from the pub itself.
I would contact your local council and ask that an environmental health officer visit at night to take sound levels in your flat and the building and also visit the pub.
The warranty company should carry out a sound acoustic test to check that the building regulations have been complied with. But... it is unlikely it will be done when the pub music is at its worst.