Impact noise and hard flooring: what the association can require

A neighbour swaps carpet for hard flooring. Overnight, the flat below hears everything.

This is one of the most frequent and worst-handled conflicts in condo life. A flat changes hands, the carpet goes, hard flooring replaces it — and the neighbour below discovers footsteps, chairs and dropped objects they never used to hear.

It is not a question of tolerance but of physics: soft coverings absorb impact noise, hard ones transmit it to the structure. Changing the covering therefore alters the acoustic insulation of the flat below, which asked for nothing.

The principle: do not worsen the existing situation

Many sets of building rules contain a clause forbidding any reduction of existing acoustic insulation, or requiring a covering at least as performant as the original. That is the first document to open: see the building rules.

Independently of the rules, settled case law sanctions worsening a neighbour’s acoustic situation through private works. The flooring is not the problem: the absence of acoustic treatment beneath it is.

What makes the technical difference

• A suitable acoustic underlay, laid over the whole surface without interruption.
• Perimeter strips at the edges, to avoid direct contact between covering and walls.
• Treating thresholds and doorways, routinely forgotten.
• For tiles, a screed or a decoupling system.
• No through-fixings between the covering and the slab.

The second point most often ruins an otherwise correct installation: floating flooring in contact with the walls transmits straight into the structure, whatever the underlay quality.

What the board can do

The board does not arbitrate between two owners, but it can act on three fronts: restate the rule before works, document reports, and alert the manager when the situation persists.

• Include the acoustic constraint in the note handed to any owner announcing works.
• Ask, before works, what covering and underlay are planned.
• Log complaints with dates, times and the flats concerned.
• Restate that the subject is settled before laying, never after.

The first is by far the most effective: an informed owner fits an underlay for a marginal extra cost; the same owner challenged afterwards must lift a new floor. See works inside a flat and board communication.

When the floor is already down

The route is that of any neighbour disturbance: written record, a dated log of the nuisance over several weeks, direct discussion, then the manager if needed. A professional acoustic measurement can be commissioned, but it is expensive and only makes sense with a documented history.

See neighbour disturbance and, if it drags on, what legal action involves.

The common-area cases

Some noise has nothing to do with floor coverings: vibrating pipework, the lift, ventilation, slamming doors. Those belong to the association and are treated as equipment faults.

An adjusted door closer and refixed pipework cost very little and remove a daily nuisance: see the annual walk-through.

The problem is never the flooring: it is the three millimetres of underlay nobody asked about before it went down.

Document reports with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony lets residents report a nuisance with a date and the flat concerned, and lets the board keep the full history of exchanges. Create your free space.