Can anyone explain about joists in house and sound transference?

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lanie

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Have a problem with noise from next door ( 3 bed semi) , at the minute mostly loud impact noise like cupboards and doors slamming. You would really think it was our own doors/cupboards closing. I also noticed that when we close our 3rd bedroom door the door frame/wall/area around our hotpress and bathroom doors ?? seems to shake and move a little.
Someone suggested that there may be a problem with the joists of house ie. that they weren't insulated properly around or that there may be gaps in the brick work. Can anyone explain more about how the joists work to me as I'm a total novice about these things and if there is anything a joiner could do to help improve or minimise this problem.
Thanks
 
Regards the doors banging and sound transference, it is sending me crazy being off over the xmas holidays. I have been doing some research and am wondering if taking up the carpet all upstairs and adding insulation between the floor joists as well as build an independent wall along the party wall (but not touching it) and filling the gap with some sort of insulation and adding plasterboards dabbed with green glue would be some sort of solution?
Or to build a suspended/floating ceiling and the new wall along the party wall. Don't know so much about the ceiling... I'd imagine you'd be better working at the upstairs floor.
Can anyone help me please?
 
I'd be careful about undertaking expensive remedial works without having fully identified the problem. Your list suggests to me that you are being driven by desperation (understandable) rather than by a careful and skilled appraisal of the situation.

Chances are that your neighbour is also affected by the sounds emanating from your part of the structure. This might be a real case to invoke the adage that a problem shared is a problem halved. Why not have a chat with your neighbour? It might be that you agree to get specialist advice, and share the cost of remedial work.

I have assumed, because you didn't mention any possibilities in that area, that the builder is long gone. If the building is relatively new, you might have a remedy there.
 
Next door neighbours are renting. These are the 2nd set since June 07. They are a young couple prob only about 18 with a baby and I think they are prob housing executive, and I don't think they care all that much.
I have also heard from others homebond don't really respond about noise insulation.
 
lanie said:
Next door neighbours are renting. These are the 2nd set since June 07. They are a young couple prob only about 18 with a baby and I think they are prob housing executive, and I don't think they care all that much.
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That might not help you much. It is possible that if you contact the owner, you might get a co-operative response. I wouldn't bet on it, but it is worth asking.

I have also heard from others homebond don't really respond about noise insulation.
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If it is a relatively recent build and the builder is still in business, you might not have to rely on Homebond.
 
The builder is still in business but they seem to be pretty unprofessional from our dealings with them previously.
They were supposed to sort our back garden out, seed it etc as part of the snagging. We got our solicitor to send them a letter to say they were supposed to sort it it but they replied with their solicitors saying that wasn't part of the deal. We were told it and feel that it was part of the written contract but couldn't face pushing them again. Everything about the house since we moved in has got us down but it is mostly a result if the poor noise insulation.
I feel now that if they couldn't even sort that out there would be no chance of them sorting the noise insulation.
 
lanie said:
The builder is still in business but they seem to be pretty unprofessional from our dealings with them previously.
They were supposed to sort our back garden out, seed it etc as part of the snagging. We got our solicitor to send them a letter to say they were supposed to sort it it but they replied with their solicitors saying that wasn't part of the deal. We were told it and feel that it was part of the written contract but couldn't face pushing them again. Everything about the house since we moved in has got us down but it is mostly a result if the poor noise insulation.
I feel now that if they couldn't even sort that out there would be no chance of them sorting the noise insulation.
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Take a deep breath. Now, ask yourself if you are prepared to spend thousands of euros because tackling the builder is an unpleasant experience. That's what I am reading from what you said.

Don't deal with the builder. Use a solicitor to deal with the matter for you. If the solicitor takes the same view that I have, that the builder is liable, then just let the process go ahead. Just be careful of how the solicitor rates the strength of your case, and don't confuse "it looks as if..." with "it is...". Beyond that, for your own peace of mind, don't get involved with the details.

[Just as a note: a solicitor's letter has no special status; it is a letter written by a solicitor, nothing else. Similarly for a response by the other party's solicitor. It's just correspondence. In general, solicitors simply say what their clients what said -- usually stripped of emotional tone, and dressed up in lawspeak. The solicitor's role becomes more meaningful if the buttons are pressed to bring the dispute to court.]

There are circumstances where it might be the wisest thing to abandon a claim, but the fact that your opponent can behave unpleasantly or unreasonably is not in itself such a circumstance.
 
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