Flooring Disputes in Flats: How Incorrect Floor Installation Can Lead to Noise Complaints

Every homeowner or tenant wants to make a home their own. For some, that means retaining the basic fabric of the property and making largely cosmetic changes, perhaps going as far as painting walls and woodwork. Others will want to go further and do more significant refurbishment work.

If you are a leaseholder of a flat or apartment, however, you need to check the terms of your lease before making any alterations. One area that is particularly in dispute is changing floor coverings due to the potential for noise issues.

To be able to change something like a floor finish in a leasehold property, most occupiers will need to request permission to make an alteration or change to the management agent for the building. This is known as a Licence to Alter (LTA).

An LTA will need to be granted by the freeholder to permit more significant alterations, which may be prohibited by the lease. The reason why LTAs exist is to protect freeholders, management companies and managing agents, who have a responsibility to ensure that leaseholder alterations do not adversely affect the freehold interest or other leaseholders.

One common alteration that is prohibited without an LTA is replacing a carpet with a hard floorcovering such as engineered timber, laminate of luxury vinyl tiles (LVT). This is sometimes referred to as a “keep carpeted” clause within the lease.

Hence why, when leaseholders rip up their carpets and replace them with hard floorcoverings without consent, they are not only risking a legal dispute with the managing agent but also potential complaints from neighbours. Both could be very costly, with the outcome being that the leaseholder undertaking the renovation work may have to return the floor to its original carpeted state or carry out remediation work to ensure impact noise is within acceptable levels.

Proceed with Caution… Leases can be Vague

Provided you are granted a Licence to Alter or permission from the managing agent, it is important to ensure you know your obligations. If you do get permission to replace the carpet with a hard floor covering, make sure you are aware of the performance requirements you will need to achieve – and how to demonstrate the acceptable acoustic standard has been met.

A major issue is that the wording in leases can be vague. For example, the lease may state that you have to prove that the acoustic performance has not been reduced as a result of the floor replacement works being carried out. In this instance, you would need to conduct acoustic testing first, before starting any work, and then test again when the work is complete to check that the performance has not reduced.

In other leases, a specific acoustic figure will need to be met. Here, you would need to ensure that the proposed subfloor design will enable this target to be achieved by consulting with an acoustic insulation specialist. The floor system will also have to be tested after it has been installed to make sure it satisfies the dB rating requested in the lease agreement.

Take care with a lease that simply asks for “suitable acoustic treatment” as this phrase is open to interpretation. In these cases, an acoustic insulation specialist is ideally placed to achieve what is best for all concerned by enabling a bespoke floor design and build to be applied.

Why Can Noise Become a Problem in Separating Floors?

The reason why leases demand an LTA and contain “keep carpeted” clauses is to ensure leaseholders living in properties below do not experience high levels of impact noise. Carpets usually provide cushioning and density to reduce sound transmission, which is not the case with hard floor coverings unless additional acoustic insulation is incorporated into the subfloor.

Impact noise is a common problem in flats because of the way individual properties are stacked on top of one another. In any connected property, there will always be the opportunity for sound to transmit through shared structural elements – that usually means the separating walls in terraces and semi-detached houses, but in flats and apartments, it also includes the floors and ceilings.

Impact noise in flats results from footsteps on floor coverings, items being dropped on the floor and furniture being moved. Sound travels through hard materials that are in contact through vibration. This means the key to tackling impact noise in floors is to decouple the floor surface from the floor structure and/or use resilient layers to break sound paths.

But it is not only impact noise that will travel through separating floors and ceilings. Airborne noise can also be an issue. This is sound which moves through the air and, in the case of domestic properties, it is usually generated from everyday activities such as the sound from a TV, music or people talking. It can be reduced in separating floor and wall structures by incorporating dense materials, including mineral wool sound absorber slabs.

Which Products Deal With Noise in Separating Floors?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to providing acoustic insulation in separating floors because they will all be constructed in a slightly different way. There are, however, a number of products which are commonly used in combination to treat floors constructed either by using timber joists and concrete/masonry.

One such product is Hush Mat 15. This is a high-performing acoustic floor mat with a uniquely engineered high-mass composition designed to ensure superior impact sound reduction. When used in the right applications, Hush Mat 15 can be used on floors over lath and plaster ceilings and resiliently fixed plasterboard ceilings to ensure compliance with all UK Building Regulations.

An example of how Hush Mat 15 can be used to cut sound transmission in separating floors where a carpet is being replaced with hardwood flooring is a project undertaken by Hush Acoustics in Kensington, central London. Here, before and after sound testing was carried out as part of a refurbishment project to ensure the terms of the lease would be met and no sound transmission issues would result from the floor covering change.

In many projects, however, other acoustic insulation products may be more compatible with the subfloor construction and achieve better performance versus Hush Mat 15. These include using acoustic floor panels as part of a subfloor construction such as Hush Panel 28, Hush Ply 32, Hush Panel 37 or, for situations where significantly increased mass is required, Hush Cem Panel 28. There are also solutions like Hushlay Plus Soundmatting 15 and Hush FFR Resilient Underlay 6mm which perform a similar role to Hush Mat 15.

It could also be that a complete system approach is best suited to the performance goals. Hush Acoustics offers a wide variety of fully tested systems that could be deployed ‘off the shelf’ or tailored to the needs of the project.

Resolving Leaseholder Change of Floor Disputes: A Real-world Example

Highlighting the kind of issues that can arise in relation to replacing a carpet with a wooden floor in a leasehold flat is a recent call that the Hush Acoustics team received from a leaseholder in the midst of a dispute.

The dispute had arisen between two leaseholders in a Victorian property where the upstairs neighbour had replaced carpets with engineered timber flooring. The leaseholder had taken measures to reduce the potential for high levels of impact noise affecting the property below by using Hush Mat 15 to insulate the subfloor. However, the downstairs neighbour was complaining of increased noise.

Unfortunately, as no pre-work acoustic testing was conducted, there was no benchmark to know what the acceptable noise level was before the floor replacement. Hence, it was difficult to determine the extent of the issue.

This, along with vague lease wording, which stated a ‘carpet or a suitable material’ without specifying acoustic performance requirements, means that there is the potential for this dispute to escalate legally. In addition, The downstairs neighbour may be overly sensitive to noise, making it unclear whether the floor is genuinely underperforming or if perception plays a role.

Installation Errors Undermined the Acoustic Aims

A long and detailed conversation with the leaseholder revealed a number of installation concerns relating to Hush Mat 15. This highlights how important it is to ensure acoustic insulation products are installed exactly in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations.

These included the incorrect installation pattern for Hush Mat 15, which should be laid in a brick bond pattern, and no taping of the joints to ensure a secure fit and prevent air gaps. The floor had also been installed tight against the walls instead of leaving a 3-5mm gap for acoustic sealant, potentially allowing flanking transmission.

In addition, the bonding method was not necessarily the best approach. The engineered timber had been glued directly onto the Hush Mat 15, which is acceptable acoustically, but other floating floor solutions might have provided better sound insulation.

Hush Recommendations to Resolve this Issue

A series of actions were recommended to the client:

Clarification on Proper Installation
In this case, a staggered (brick bond) installation should be adopted, with joints tapes using a compatible acoustically insulating product, and acoustic sealing at the perimeter. It was also recommended that checks be made regarding flanking transmission and ensuring a gap between the floor and walls is maintained with the use of flanking strips.

Acoustic Testing Recommendation
Even though pre-testing was not done, a post-installation acoustic test was recommended to establish an objective performance measure. If results showed acceptable decibel levels (45-55 dB for engineered flooring), it could counter the complaint.

Alternative Solutions to Improve Sound Insulation
In the event of further action being required, Hush recommended fitting an additional floating floor system. This would consist of a 10mm acoustic felt under an 18mm chipboard to further improve impact reduction. Also, it was pointed out that flanking transmission could be addressed by ensuring the floor has gaps at the walls, and that these are sealed using foam separation strips.

Managing Noisy Neighbour Disputes in Flats

Neighbour disputes of any kind can be stressful and require very careful management to prevent them from escalating, but with noise complaints, there are additional factors.
Situations like the one we have highlighted here can arise because some people are naturally more sensitive to noise than others. So, even if the acoustic test results reveal that the floor design meets high standards, the dispute may persist.

In the end, compromise solutions such as using rugs to reduce footstep noise may need to be adopted.
In situations where an acceptable agreement cannot be reached, it may be that mediation or legal avenues will need to be pursued. This would involve the leaseholders, landlords, agents and legal representatives.

If you require any technical guidance to help you resolve a change of floorcovering dispute in your leasehold flat, or design advice to avoid the potential for issues arising, please contact our technical team on the number above.