Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Being Bullied By Noise?

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?