When a person has been enlightened to the fact that their laminate flooring creates a serious noise intrusion into the home and life of their neighbour, one would expect a decent person to take some sort of action to combat this.
Sadly the most common response is a sort of defensive denial, a placing of responsibility onto the person hearing the noise. The person hearing the noise needs to fix their hearing, stop hearing the noise, get a life, live and let live etc. The complainant becomes demonised in the situation - sometimes not just between the complainant and the noise maker, but also in the gossip ring that springs up in the community.
The noise maker retains a sense of self-righteousness and denies that their flooring is really a problem. It is the victim of their noise who is bad, wrong, defective, mad, sensitive and at fault.
Point blank refusal to bear witness to the actual noise the flooring sends into the property below, followed by an increase in the noise levels may point to denial, or it could point to something darker.
Does the knowledge that councils and legislation support laminate flooring owners and fail to protect those that live under them create a sense of freedom within some people? A will to make as much noise as they like, knowing that they are disturbing and upsetting the people downstairs?
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Noise and Heart Attack Risk
I read an interesting article this morning:
Traffic Noise Causes Heart Attacks
Whilst traffic noise and laminate flooring impact noise are two different kinds of noise, it is interesting (and rather worrying) to note the similarities - invasive, erratic, irregular and outside the control of the person being subjected to the noise.
Also, as noted in the article, "the researchers found that there was a 40 percent higher risk of a heart attack in people exposed to traffic noise exceeding 50 decibels — a relatively quiet level of noise;" The noises that I experience from the laminate flooring above me are generally louder than the traffic noise from the busy road outside. I would love to see a study done into the actual effects of laminate flooring noise on health - a study that takes the 2005 DEFRA Study a step further than simply saying "laminate flooring creates a noise problem but all we are going to do is produce a leaflet no-one is obliged to adhere to, evern if they bother to read it."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) have produced studies on the effects of noise on health. They also raise the issue of noise creating heart attack risk ~
"Acute noise exposures activate the autonomic and hormonal systems, leading to temporary changes such as increased blood pressure, increased heart rate and vasoconstriction. After prolonged exposure, susceptible individuals in the general population may develop permanent effects, such as hypertension and ischaemic heart disease associated with exposures to high sound pressure levels (for a review see Passchier-Vermeer 1993; Berglund & Lindvall 1995). The magnitude and duration of the effects are determined in part by individual characteristics, lifestyle behaviours and environmental conditions. Sounds also evoke reflex responses, particularly when they are unfamiliar and have a sudden onset." (Section 3.4 Cardiovascular and Physiological Effects)
It is not a huge leap of the imagination to suggest that people jumping, running, thumping, banging, door slamming and dancing on laminate flooring - ie force feeding random, loud, impact noises into a neighbour's property are in fact risking their neighbour's lives.
Why is there no legislation about this type of noise?
Traffic Noise Causes Heart Attacks
Whilst traffic noise and laminate flooring impact noise are two different kinds of noise, it is interesting (and rather worrying) to note the similarities - invasive, erratic, irregular and outside the control of the person being subjected to the noise.
Also, as noted in the article, "the researchers found that there was a 40 percent higher risk of a heart attack in people exposed to traffic noise exceeding 50 decibels — a relatively quiet level of noise;" The noises that I experience from the laminate flooring above me are generally louder than the traffic noise from the busy road outside. I would love to see a study done into the actual effects of laminate flooring noise on health - a study that takes the 2005 DEFRA Study a step further than simply saying "laminate flooring creates a noise problem but all we are going to do is produce a leaflet no-one is obliged to adhere to, evern if they bother to read it."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) have produced studies on the effects of noise on health. They also raise the issue of noise creating heart attack risk ~
"Acute noise exposures activate the autonomic and hormonal systems, leading to temporary changes such as increased blood pressure, increased heart rate and vasoconstriction. After prolonged exposure, susceptible individuals in the general population may develop permanent effects, such as hypertension and ischaemic heart disease associated with exposures to high sound pressure levels (for a review see Passchier-Vermeer 1993; Berglund & Lindvall 1995). The magnitude and duration of the effects are determined in part by individual characteristics, lifestyle behaviours and environmental conditions. Sounds also evoke reflex responses, particularly when they are unfamiliar and have a sudden onset." (Section 3.4 Cardiovascular and Physiological Effects)
It is not a huge leap of the imagination to suggest that people jumping, running, thumping, banging, door slamming and dancing on laminate flooring - ie force feeding random, loud, impact noises into a neighbour's property are in fact risking their neighbour's lives.
Why is there no legislation about this type of noise?
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Anti-social impact noise before dawn
Living under laminate flooring has a long list of negative influences, but one of the most frustrating, upsetting and disturbing is the intrusion into sleep. Sleep disturbance and deprivation is one of the most common forms of torture and living under laminate flooring exposes a person to this kind of torture.
The body needs good quality sleep to repair itself and the mind needs good quality sleep for relaxation and emotional health. It's not rocket science. So why local councils and the law continue to allow residents to install laminate flooring in upper flatted properties is beyond reason.
Being woken at 6am on a Sunday morning by thumping, banging and thundering feet is not the healthiest way to end a night's sleep and it is not the healthiest way to begin a new day. Quite why people feel the need to slam doors and run on their laminate flooring at 6am on a Sunday morning is beyond comprehension.
Ruptured sleep on a regular basis pushes a person to the edge.
The body needs good quality sleep to repair itself and the mind needs good quality sleep for relaxation and emotional health. It's not rocket science. So why local councils and the law continue to allow residents to install laminate flooring in upper flatted properties is beyond reason.
Being woken at 6am on a Sunday morning by thumping, banging and thundering feet is not the healthiest way to end a night's sleep and it is not the healthiest way to begin a new day. Quite why people feel the need to slam doors and run on their laminate flooring at 6am on a Sunday morning is beyond comprehension.
Ruptured sleep on a regular basis pushes a person to the edge.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Removing Shoes Is Not The Answer
Many people are told to believe that removing their shoes will improve the lives of the people living under their laminate flooring. This is a fallacy and merely indicates the ineffective policies employed by local councils.
Living underneath laminate flooring is equivalent to having one's home transformed into a drum, albeit a badly played drum.
Removing shoes merely equates to swapping the wooden drumsticks for a pair of woolly timpani mallets.
The thumping and thundering impact noises merely change tone, they do not go away.
People with laminate flooring need to take full responsibility for their noise and install high grade acoustic soundproofing and ensure the flooring is installed properly (without the laminate being in contact with the walls) or not have laminate in flatted properties at all.
Living underneath laminate flooring is equivalent to having one's home transformed into a drum, albeit a badly played drum.
Removing shoes merely equates to swapping the wooden drumsticks for a pair of woolly timpani mallets.
The thumping and thundering impact noises merely change tone, they do not go away.
People with laminate flooring need to take full responsibility for their noise and install high grade acoustic soundproofing and ensure the flooring is installed properly (without the laminate being in contact with the walls) or not have laminate in flatted properties at all.
Friday, 2 January 2009
Living with laminate flooring noise affects personality
I am a different person when I spend time away from home. I can relax, I can sleep easily, I awake feeling good about the coming day. I can focus on anything I want to knowing I will not be ripped from my own thoughts by loud, harsh noises raining down from above.
Returning to my home I feel the dread closing in, as if I am walking into a prison cell. Even if the noise is not present when I enter, I know that it will come. Almost immediately I feel myself transform into another person - a person who is anxious and fearful, jumpy and depressed. It is like a light goes out inside me knowing that I have to live here until change comes.
The noise did come and it came loud. Three hours and three pairs of outdoor shoes running around all over the property upstairs. Three hours of doors slamming, furniture grinding and random thuds and bangs. It was impossible to find a place in my home, the place that is supposed to be my sanctuary from the world, to sit without noise. Loud noise.
Currently I do not have a bedroom. I sleep in whichever room I guess will have the least disturbance. I don't always guess right.
Life, like the chairs on the laminate flooring above me, grinds on.
Returning to my home I feel the dread closing in, as if I am walking into a prison cell. Even if the noise is not present when I enter, I know that it will come. Almost immediately I feel myself transform into another person - a person who is anxious and fearful, jumpy and depressed. It is like a light goes out inside me knowing that I have to live here until change comes.
The noise did come and it came loud. Three hours and three pairs of outdoor shoes running around all over the property upstairs. Three hours of doors slamming, furniture grinding and random thuds and bangs. It was impossible to find a place in my home, the place that is supposed to be my sanctuary from the world, to sit without noise. Loud noise.
Currently I do not have a bedroom. I sleep in whichever room I guess will have the least disturbance. I don't always guess right.
Life, like the chairs on the laminate flooring above me, grinds on.
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Noise Weekend
Yesterday I wanted to spend the day organising gifts, wrapping, writing cards and relaxing with my partner. We planned to do all these things and then watch a couple of classic films we rented.
The noise began - thundering, thumping, vibrations, doors slamming and people running and jumping. I could not sit in our lounge because the noise was so bad and every time I entered the room my heart rate increased and I felt stressed. It is made worse because the owner of the flooring knows that the flooring creates noise and so it seems that we are being bullied by noise. I went to the back of the apartment and I could still hear the bangs and feel the vibrations.
Eventually it got so bad that we left our home. We went to the cinema but there was nothing that we wanted to see, we have seen all the good films recently as we have been driven out most weekends. We found a quite place to eat a meal and we found ourselves killing time so that we wouldn't get home until after 9pm when the children seem to be put to bed and the noise is less than a crescendo.
Unfortunately the noise was still going on. I had nowhere to go. No matter what room I was in I was being subjected to thumping and banging and vibrations. I went to bed feeling stressed out, anxious and depressed. Doors were being slammed after 11pm.
This morning I was roused from sleep by thumping and rattling being force fed into my home and life by someone above me. Three hours later and the noise has not subsided. It is in every room. I feel hopeless and depressed. I look outside at the weather and cannot think of anywhere that I can go to escape this noise. I feel trapped.
There are people running, jumping and banging and what sounds like wrestling above my head, my lights are actually shaking and there is nothing that I can do about it.
The noise began - thundering, thumping, vibrations, doors slamming and people running and jumping. I could not sit in our lounge because the noise was so bad and every time I entered the room my heart rate increased and I felt stressed. It is made worse because the owner of the flooring knows that the flooring creates noise and so it seems that we are being bullied by noise. I went to the back of the apartment and I could still hear the bangs and feel the vibrations.
Eventually it got so bad that we left our home. We went to the cinema but there was nothing that we wanted to see, we have seen all the good films recently as we have been driven out most weekends. We found a quite place to eat a meal and we found ourselves killing time so that we wouldn't get home until after 9pm when the children seem to be put to bed and the noise is less than a crescendo.
Unfortunately the noise was still going on. I had nowhere to go. No matter what room I was in I was being subjected to thumping and banging and vibrations. I went to bed feeling stressed out, anxious and depressed. Doors were being slammed after 11pm.
This morning I was roused from sleep by thumping and rattling being force fed into my home and life by someone above me. Three hours later and the noise has not subsided. It is in every room. I feel hopeless and depressed. I look outside at the weather and cannot think of anywhere that I can go to escape this noise. I feel trapped.
There are people running, jumping and banging and what sounds like wrestling above my head, my lights are actually shaking and there is nothing that I can do about it.
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Laminate Flooring Noise Fragments Minds
Laminate flooring, by its nature, creates a singular canvas for sound. Each board is fitted to adjacent boards so closely that noise transfers without interruption from the point of impact to the outer edges of the flooring. If laminate flooring is installed throughout an apartment it is essentially a one piece sound conductor of every impact sound that takes place upon it. This means a thump in the front lounge can be heard in a back bedroom.
Living under an apartment where laminate was installed without acoustic soundproofing, where the laminate is butted right up against the skirting/walls and where the construct of the building means the upper floor and the ceiling below are one piece means that every sound is force fed into the apartment below.
There is a myth that rugs help but it is just that - a myth.
Impact noise on laminate floors is a unique way to disturb a person's life. It is not a constant noise like a television or a stereo, it is a random noise in pattern, frequency and decibels. One never knows when a footstep is going to fall or if it will be followed by running, jumping or stamping. Once the noise begins, one never knows when the noise will end. One can try to disconnect from the noise, but the longer one is subjected to these interruptions the less possible this becomes.
Living with laminate flooring noise essentially means that ones thoughts become ruptured by other people's noise. Attention to a television programme, or concentration on reading become fragmented as time goes on. In fact that is the best description one has for the longterm effect of laminate flooring impact noise on the mind - fragmented.
Living under an apartment where laminate was installed without acoustic soundproofing, where the laminate is butted right up against the skirting/walls and where the construct of the building means the upper floor and the ceiling below are one piece means that every sound is force fed into the apartment below.
There is a myth that rugs help but it is just that - a myth.
Impact noise on laminate floors is a unique way to disturb a person's life. It is not a constant noise like a television or a stereo, it is a random noise in pattern, frequency and decibels. One never knows when a footstep is going to fall or if it will be followed by running, jumping or stamping. Once the noise begins, one never knows when the noise will end. One can try to disconnect from the noise, but the longer one is subjected to these interruptions the less possible this becomes.
Living with laminate flooring noise essentially means that ones thoughts become ruptured by other people's noise. Attention to a television programme, or concentration on reading become fragmented as time goes on. In fact that is the best description one has for the longterm effect of laminate flooring impact noise on the mind - fragmented.
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