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[lumocolor]

I live in an apartment block on Sydney’s North Shore that was built in the mid-1970s. It has 3 levels and I live on the middle level.

The apartment owner above me removed his carpet and installed floorboards around 2 years ago. I made him aware that the concrete slab between each level was quite thin by today’s standards – only 110mm – and given the 37 year old age of the building, flooring really needed to be as sound insulating as possible. Hence, carpet was really the only cost effective option to be using.

He acknowledged my concerns and noted he was ‘a builder’ and put down floating floorboards anyway. I later learned that he used the cheapest available soundproofing there was because he was of the opinion that he only needed to install carpet that met ‘Building Council of Australia’ (BCA) standards.

After many months of informal mediation, he ended up laying down some rugs here and there. That said, the rugs dont cover the entire apartment living area so the noise comes through. I also dont agree with rugs as a solution – rugs are temporary: they can be moved and I will have to go through the whole process again should he sell his apartment one day. I will also then need to justify why 10+ or whatever years later I am pursuing an owner over what the former owner did – my chances would be slim.

I then tried various routes – strata manager, Executive Committee, hiring an acoustic consultant to see if I can put insulation in my ceiling – but those efforts did not come to anything.

I then commenced legal action against the upstairs neighbour for breaches of noise by-laws (the standard model by-laws for noise and floor coverings).

The first step was the compulsory mediation step with the NSW Office of Fair Trading. A long story short: we came to an agreement that if I offer him the cost of replacing the floorboards he will voluntarily make the changes.

I have been pushing him to install carpet but he says he doesn’t like the look of carpet. The “mediator” is starting to take his side and starting to imply I am being unreasonable when I say carpet is the only option I am happy to pay for. I am thinking that look I have already offered to pay to fix up something he shouldn’t have done in the first place!

He says he was looking at “carpet tiles” but wasn’t too convinced by the look. I started thinking what about if he installed vinyl flooring that looked like floating floorboards – at least that would have less impact noise than floating floorboards proper?

There is also the question of what to do with the current floorboards and the underlay he has installed. Does one put the new underlay and flooring on top or does one rip it all out and just put down the new underlay and flooring?

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