Body Corporate By-Laws
In Queensland, high-rise buildings are governed by a Body Corporate under the Community Management Act 1997. The By-Laws are legal documents that must be enforced. By-laws often include the statement:
Noise –
“The occupier of a lot must not create noise likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of a person lawfully on another lot or the common property.“
Hard Flooring
Often a Bylaw will include a section on the management of floor impact noise to achieve a specified limit. In many they set limits under ISO standards ranging from LnTw 45 to LnTw 62. Often these By-Laws are not well written with little understanding of the technical procedures and terminology defined in the standards. These hard floor by-laws are in effect an exception from the “Noise” by law, in that this hard floor by-law allows a level of audible noise. We assist Body Corporates in drafting technically correct by-Laws appropriate to their building.
As Queensland’s leading supplier of floor impact testing services, we have updated our “Guide to Floor Impact Insulation” – see the enclosed document. This guide is based on carrying out over 4,000 floor impact insulation tests in SE Queensland over the last 25 years and is provided as an educational document to answer many of the questions clients questions.
Floor impact noise from upper-level areas is the most common noise complaint in high-rise residential towers. This is recognised in Body Corporate By-Laws, where there is usually a section regarding Hard Floor Surfaces, with limits on the minimum levels of floor impact insulation.
This noise is managed through the design of the building structures, including lower ceilings, and the installation of a floor impact insulation layer under the hard floor surface. As a professional engineering office and member of the Australasian Association of Acoustical Consultants (AAAC – www.aaac.org.au), one of our specialities is the control of floor impact noise and we are pleased to assist clients with this work. We have a team trained to carry out field floor impact insulation testing and provide certification as necessary to ISO, Australian and American Standards; as well as Registered Professional Engineer Queensland (RPEQ) certification.