eliot398
2012-08-28 14:33:28
- #1
Hello everyone,
I have a question about soundproofing and hope that you might be able to help a little. First of all, a big thank you in advance!
Through our developer, we built an "almost" turnkey HDHH, with only the floor coverings and tiling as owner-provided work. The architect and structural engineering were provided by the developer.
The interior and exterior walls are made of aerated concrete. The exterior walls (without plaster) are 36.5 cm thick, but the interior walls on the upper floor are only 11.5 cm thick plus exterior plaster. On the upper floor, this results in about 13-14 cm including the plaster. On the upper floor, there are 2 children's bedrooms, the parents' bedroom, and the bathroom. The upper floor is extremely noisy / lacks sound insulation; if one child wakes up at night and cries, the other child usually wakes up too, and it becomes extremely stressful. We only use the toilet and shower in the morning or when the children are still awake. Our construction contract does not address soundproofing; it only states that the same bricks are used inside the house as those used for the exterior wall.
Fortunately, we do not hear our neighbors at all.
Of course, we checked and signed off the architect’s plans before construction began, but we were not advised at all about soundproofing and thus did not consider it. We have now withheld the final payment of about €2,000 and pointed out to the developer what we understand to be a deficiency. The developer replied that for single-family/semi-detached houses, i.e., non-multi-family houses, no soundproofing measures are required and immediately demanded the withheld amount of around €2,000 from us. "The soundproofing proof has been provided," it says in his last letter?!
I also "googled" the whole topic and found many pages on it, but the matters mostly referred to multi-family houses, for which there is a VDI Guideline 4100 that should be used as a basis for the general rules of technology...?! Does this guideline not apply to single-family houses, i.e., to a house with only one dwelling unit?
We feel pretty cheated because we paid a lot of money and now have to live with such thin and sound-permeable walls. Retrofitting adequate soundproofing measures would certainly cost more than the amount we withheld.
As a next step, I would like to commission an independent expert but do not know if it is even worth it since I can find nothing in the contract with the developer regarding soundproofing. Does anyone know a good expert in the Mannheim/Darmstadt area?
One last thing:
In our development area, this developer built about 17 houses; when talking to other homeowners, you find out that they have thicker walls on the upper floor everywhere and no one complains about too much noise on the upper floor.
Thank you very much for your hopefully numerous input and feedback regarding my problem.
Best regards Eliot
I have a question about soundproofing and hope that you might be able to help a little. First of all, a big thank you in advance!
Through our developer, we built an "almost" turnkey HDHH, with only the floor coverings and tiling as owner-provided work. The architect and structural engineering were provided by the developer.
The interior and exterior walls are made of aerated concrete. The exterior walls (without plaster) are 36.5 cm thick, but the interior walls on the upper floor are only 11.5 cm thick plus exterior plaster. On the upper floor, this results in about 13-14 cm including the plaster. On the upper floor, there are 2 children's bedrooms, the parents' bedroom, and the bathroom. The upper floor is extremely noisy / lacks sound insulation; if one child wakes up at night and cries, the other child usually wakes up too, and it becomes extremely stressful. We only use the toilet and shower in the morning or when the children are still awake. Our construction contract does not address soundproofing; it only states that the same bricks are used inside the house as those used for the exterior wall.
Fortunately, we do not hear our neighbors at all.
Of course, we checked and signed off the architect’s plans before construction began, but we were not advised at all about soundproofing and thus did not consider it. We have now withheld the final payment of about €2,000 and pointed out to the developer what we understand to be a deficiency. The developer replied that for single-family/semi-detached houses, i.e., non-multi-family houses, no soundproofing measures are required and immediately demanded the withheld amount of around €2,000 from us. "The soundproofing proof has been provided," it says in his last letter?!
I also "googled" the whole topic and found many pages on it, but the matters mostly referred to multi-family houses, for which there is a VDI Guideline 4100 that should be used as a basis for the general rules of technology...?! Does this guideline not apply to single-family houses, i.e., to a house with only one dwelling unit?
We feel pretty cheated because we paid a lot of money and now have to live with such thin and sound-permeable walls. Retrofitting adequate soundproofing measures would certainly cost more than the amount we withheld.
As a next step, I would like to commission an independent expert but do not know if it is even worth it since I can find nothing in the contract with the developer regarding soundproofing. Does anyone know a good expert in the Mannheim/Darmstadt area?
One last thing:
In our development area, this developer built about 17 houses; when talking to other homeowners, you find out that they have thicker walls on the upper floor everywhere and no one complains about too much noise on the upper floor.
Thank you very much for your hopefully numerous input and feedback regarding my problem.
Best regards Eliot