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.

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.