ᐅ Loud Staircase Noise from Neighbor’s House – Is the Staircase Properly Decoupled?
Created on: 20 Sep 2022 10:29
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BaugreenhornB
Baugreenhorn20 Sep 2022 10:29Hello dear forum community,
I have a question:
We have been living in our new house (semi-detached) for a few weeks now.
When our neighbor walks up or down the stairs, you can hear it quite clearly in our half. The same happens the other way around.
According to the builder, everything is (as always) "fine" – which we strongly doubt given our shared history.
Now, the stair construction is supposed to be decoupled from the wall by a plastic sleeve (see photos). However, it seems to me that this sleeve just rests around the suspension and the metal is still in contact with metal (so no actual decoupling has been done).
Does anyone have experience with stair constructions like this? How can you check if it’s done correctly or if what we have is right?
Thank you very much for your answers!
I have a question:
We have been living in our new house (semi-detached) for a few weeks now.
When our neighbor walks up or down the stairs, you can hear it quite clearly in our half. The same happens the other way around.
According to the builder, everything is (as always) "fine" – which we strongly doubt given our shared history.
Now, the stair construction is supposed to be decoupled from the wall by a plastic sleeve (see photos). However, it seems to me that this sleeve just rests around the suspension and the metal is still in contact with metal (so no actual decoupling has been done).
Does anyone have experience with stair constructions like this? How can you check if it’s done correctly or if what we have is right?
Thank you very much for your answers!
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Baugreenhorn20 Sep 2022 11:55Yes, I agree. I would really like to see how the mounting actually looks. But what is the purpose of this sleeve? It only covers the mounting. Unfortunately, you can’t expect a proper answer from the builder.
I'm not an expert either, but I assume the decoupling refers to the area between the wooden step and the metal. Does each step rest on such a sleeve?
The fact is, it doesn't work. However it is supposed to be done, this approach apparently isn't effective. Enforcing this as a defect will probably be difficult.
The fact is, it doesn't work. However it is supposed to be done, this approach apparently isn't effective. Enforcing this as a defect will probably be difficult.
Baugreenhorn schrieb:
Currently, the stair construction should be decoupled from the wall using a plastic sleeve (see photos). However, it seems to me that this sleeve is just placed around the support and there is still metal-to-metal contact (meaning no proper decoupling has been done). Funny enough, your builder should make a "Dear children, please do not try this at home" tutorial video about this "lifehack." There is a special product from Schöck for this purpose (probably he didn’t want to pay the pharmacy prices). Check here: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/laermprobleme-neubau-doppelhaushaelfte-baumaengel-beim-schallschutz.35659/ and https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/maengelbeseitigung-und-schallbruecken.36571/, where you'll find relevant reading material related to your issue.
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It’s amazing what ideas people come up with, especially those who should professionally know more about physics. Our staircase in the semi-detached house was not allowed to be attached to the party wall (nor were sockets or similar installations permitted there!).
So our staircase has a gap to the party wall and is "only" attached to the other walls, which works quite well if you want it to. From the upper floor, I can hear the staircase a little, but from the other semi-detached house not at all (really zero, but that’s because I live downstairs on the right, and the staircase is upstairs on the left ;-) ).
In building class 2, if I’m not mistaken, semi-detached houses fall under this category, and the sound insulation requirements are not as strict as for multi-family houses. However, there is some standard, and I don’t think it is met with this rather creative construction. Of course, this also depends on how the party wall was constructed (single- or double-leaf, properly separated with sound insulation wool (fire protection) in between, or nicely built bridging sound transmission with leftover food residues, etc.).
So our staircase has a gap to the party wall and is "only" attached to the other walls, which works quite well if you want it to. From the upper floor, I can hear the staircase a little, but from the other semi-detached house not at all (really zero, but that’s because I live downstairs on the right, and the staircase is upstairs on the left ;-) ).
In building class 2, if I’m not mistaken, semi-detached houses fall under this category, and the sound insulation requirements are not as strict as for multi-family houses. However, there is some standard, and I don’t think it is met with this rather creative construction. Of course, this also depends on how the party wall was constructed (single- or double-leaf, properly separated with sound insulation wool (fire protection) in between, or nicely built bridging sound transmission with leftover food residues, etc.).
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