The past few weeks has seen a spate of emails to this column about wooden floors, with questions ranging from what can be done to force neighbours to reinstate carpet, to how owners can install a wooden floor when they need the permission of worried neighbours.
One common theme is a question of which “acoustic standard” is relevant when assessing the noise transmission of a wooden floor – the laughable Australian Building Standard or the laudable Australian Association of Acoustic Consultants’ benchmark?
The answer, in my book, is neither.
You have to go back to your by-laws and strata law. Every strata building has its own set of by-laws but most new blocks, especially, adopt the Office of Fair Trading’s model by-laws. One of them states that residents may not do anything to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of another home.
Even if you don’t have that by-law, strata law says you or your tenants may not “cause a nuisance or hazard to the occupier of any other lot.”
Now, my lawyer friends tell me the legal definition of “nuisance” is different from the day-to-day use of the word and has more to do with something that is ongoing, persistent and causes harm.
But if you are losing sleep or being driven to distraction by the noise of someone walking around above you, that breaches the by-law if you have it and, arguably, the strata law, if you don’t.
Floating wooden floors can act like a drum if there’s no insulation. So can tiled floors, especially if they have under floor heating. If that problem wouldn’t exist without the newly installed floor, then you are entitled to insist that carpet be re-laid or something else be done to restore the peace and quiet in your home.
For my money, it’s not how loud the noise is, it’s how annoying it is that counts. A dripping tap may not be all that loud but it can drive you to distraction. The tap-tap-tap of high heels as the fashion victims upstairs go about their daily business probably contravenes the Geneva Convention on torture, let alone strata law.
And there’s no law that says your desire for home improvements takes precedence over someone else’s right to peace and quiet.