ᐅ Sound insulation regulations for extensively renovated older residential buildings

Hello everyone,

I am interested in noise regulations related to extensively renovated old buildings.

I own an apartment on the ground floor in a “high-quality renovated apartment.” Unfortunately, the wastewater pipe from the neighbor above runs directly along the wall in the protected living and bedroom areas.

Showering and flushing the toilet sound clearly like rain hitting a car roof.

Since I work night shifts, I am woken up between 4 and 5 a.m. by the noise of showering, and throughout the day I frequently hear thudding sounds.

Does anyone have more information on this?

During the viewing, we were told (unfortunately only verbally) that the technical installations would not be connected to those of the neighbors above.

Now that we have bought the apartment, we are naturally discovering this issue.

I would appreciate any information that could help me.

My intention is to understand whether a wastewater pipe is allowed to run directly through a protected area. It is located behind drywall panels. Although it is an old building, the entire house was extensively renovated from top to bottom.

Also, I want to know how loud such noise is permitted to be and whether it is considered acceptable.

Yes, unfortunately, he is allowed to do that. There are no regulations regarding this.

This is always a contentious issue. Some courts hold the view that tenants can reasonably expect any structural modifications to comply with the applicable regulations for the renovation (regarding sound insulation). However, such a ruling usually has to be contested in court. Moreover, in many renovation cases, this is not technically feasible from a construction perspective.

If the listing or construction description mentions a "high-quality" renovation, consulting a construction law attorney can definitely be worthwhile.

I believe I read in the latest regulations that building service installations, including sanitary systems, heating, elevators, and similar, must not exceed a certain sound level.

So why would that be valid? @
Bookstar

And why wouldn’t there be any regulations for this? There is one: sound insulation according to DIN 4109.

I’m not allowed to post URLs here.

EDIT:
The requirement of DIN 4109 for permissible sound pressure levels in noise-sensitive rooms is LIn ≤ 30 dB(A) for noises from water installations (excluding peaks when operating fittings), and LAF,Max ≤ 30 dB(A) for noises from other building service systems. These limits are currently undisputed and are considered generally accepted technical standards, especially since the requirement for LIn regarding water installations was updated through amendment A1 to DIN 4109 in 2001.

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What I definitely know is that sound insulation within rooms inside an apartment has no standard reference values; whether I can hear a child farting on the toilet two rooms away with the door closed has no relevance, and that’s not the issue here.

I had a measurement of 40–45 dB(A) when the neighbor upstairs was taking a shower, taken right at the drywall without other background noise.

Okay, 45dB is obviously quite high. In that case, the DIN standard mentioned above might actually be helpful.