Building regulations in domestic properties

Anyone know anything ?

Trick is i had a ceiling come down and the replacement is a single sheet of gyproc and plaster skin.
What im left with is zero deadening between my upstairs neighbors and myself. The room in question is my living room, upstairs family i think treat it as an assault course. Bottom line is im going quickly insane witht he noise but i cant really complain as its not a TV or music or anything like that, but just everyday noise from walking around etc
Dropping things :evil: FFS HOW MANY FKING TIMES ??

What was up was a lathe and plaster probably 2-3" thick. The builders left the lathe in place and just nailed a single sheet of gyproc across the entire ceiling and no deadening or insultation.

So im wondering if a single sheet is legal or if the building requirement is for double sheeting.
Double sheeting covers over the gaps in a 'brick' type pattern, thus no gaps for fire to get through.
I did a bit of sheet and boarding a bit back for a company and all the rooms were 'quitexed', which is a deadening that looks pretty much like cat litter, and then double sheeted, the double as was told to me was a fire regulation.
These were tenement basements converted into flats whereas im a ground floor tenement flat. I dont know if the regs are different, but likely could be :?

Only option i see is to rip down the entire new ceiling. Install the deadening(which is installed by running baton down each joist and having some 15-18mm ply between it. You then pack as much quitex down there, i was told 2" minimum .(I used a brush to push it down)
Then re-board it putting on 2 layers, sheets overlapping.

It would be a benefit if the builder has cut a corner and it should be double sheeted and we can make them do it again properly, if that is properly. Dont fancy paying twice with the 2nd time being far more expensive.

So does anyone have any homebuild or fire regulation info ? It is Scotland, but i think UK would be best to be getting on with.
Ill be getting on to building control this week, but i would like to be forearmed

Re:

Depends on what the property is - is it officially separate flats or is it a bedsit arrangement / house of multiple occupancy etc?

Technically a floor between flats is referred to as a 'separating floor' in building regs terms and a single sheet of plasterboard would be very unlikely to meet the fire and sound resistance requirements. As the original ceiling was of lath and plaster type it sounds like an old property later converted into flats in which case a lot would depend on the year the conversion or change of use took place originally and what the regulations were at the time. Although I would have thought removing and replacing the ceiling lining of a separating floor in a flat would have been classed as notifiable works to building control and they may have insisted on some upgrading.

A typical separating floor upgrade to an existing building timber floor would typically involve installing 100mm of dense acoustic mineral wool between the joists and underlining the ceiling with at least two layers of 15mm dense (SoundBloc or similar) plasterboard with staggered (brick pattern) joints between board layers. This would sometimes need to be installed on a metal frame work to separate it from the joists to reduce impact sound where work cannot be carried out on the floor in the flat above.

I would suggest you give your local authority building control surveyor a call to discuss - I have never found them to be anything other than very very helpful - a complete contrast to the planning departments normally.

Re:

Call your local officer. They've been great down here in the UK with building regs. The regulations are also online.

The main thing is to make sure there are no 'holes' as with insulation. Do it properly.

Do you own (shared lease) or is there an overriding lease holder?

Re:

Like fluffy says, get building control to have a look. Iirc it needs to be fire protected with 2 layers and suitable insulation with a form of fire barrier between, but again it's down to age of house and conversion.

To make it quiter make it as dense as possible, loadsa safe insulation, double board with thick boards and possibly 3 skims of plaster (helps very minimal but makes it solid)

Buildings regs are available for free via interweb

Left it in the hands of the landlady to contact the original plasterer to see what he says.
Ill do a bit of research but i think building control would have nothing to do with a simple ceiling replacement.
Ive got 9' above me, so worst case scenario is something suspended.

Thanks for all the advice so far though
Blood minefield this. older, replacement, flat all with their own conflicting regulations
:facepalm:

Re:

but it costs to ring building control and it costs nothing and they'll be able to tell you.

A normal house in the uk wouldn't matter, a loft conversion would require all the fireregulation double boarding (in fact iirc when we did ours it was a single board, a gap and than another board in between the joists, but new update to the regs since then.

Being a multiple dwelling (and in scotland) makes it a different ball game, so just ring them, ignore the web for now.

Re:

we had years of issues with our flat and upstairs neighbour and consequently freeholder. As other have mentioned it depends on the ownership structure and who owns what. Can't talk about Scotland, but if helps with some of issues can say what I know.

Ours is a leasehold flat on 125 year lease with Local Authority as freeholder (ex council flat) and a council flat with tenant above. Conversion from house built circa 1840 to flats done in 1976, old regs. Legally who owns what is complicated but easiest to think the freeholder owns the bricks, roof, joists, foundations, and leaseholder owns plaster, fittings and space inside for period of the lease.

Replacement of "our" ceiling that came down below the bathroom of the flat above was done in discussion with freeholder (and owner of flat above) and a claim under the buildings insurance. It cost a fortune (£4.5k) as they reinstated the ceiling and all the old victorian moldings which they remade. Did a really good job after insisting that all had to be done properly. At first the council just wanted to stick a bit of plasterboard up and not bother with an insurance claim.

Noise problems in our front room below the front room above came down to the fact an old conversion, no "responsibility" for the council but made worse that the tenant upstairs had ripped up the carpet and bare wooden boards made the problem much worse. The leases all had clauses saying must have carpets but because she was a council tenant and an old tenancy it didn't include. Eventually she got moved after long running dispute about waterleaks, and new tenant has carpets down and is more considerate. Believe me, I understand how bad these types of problems can get.

So, what's the legal structure of ownership, you mentioned a landlady, who responsible for what, who paid the builder, why not a proper reinstatement as to what was there before. If you put an additional lower ceiling in will possibly need permission of somebody ? The discussions we had with our front room, where we did put some additional plasterboard up "on top of" the lath and plaster but that only limited effectiveness, suggested insulation really needs to be done from above by taking up floorboards and adding deadening material, which obviously can't do as not in your flat.

In our case it really did come down to understanding the legal situation and pushing the freeholder hard, the council in our case. We also sued them and finally settled one month before trial successfully, but it was a long and painful process.

hope this helps.

I understand that some developements have banned largely wooden floor/laminate floors exactly due to the noise in flats issue.

It might be worth checking your covenant if it includes this. I know it's private by the local env health can become involved in this.

In my current flat my upstairs neighbour has a solid wooden floors, clumsy flat alcoholic feet and I have been advised can be made to remove the wooden flooring. It would seem this ability varies from council to council?

I live in a modern(ish) ground floor flat and have had this issue. I made sure the wee twat upstairs (mummy bought him a flat to live in when at uni) knew I could hear everything he did. Including shagging, conversations with his girlfriend confirming sexual inexperience (summer- the windows were open), and of course his pre-pubescent yelping when playing computer games.

It all went quiet after that.

Rebuilding is the expensive, difficult and time consuming solution. A conversation with the neighbour might be a quick fix.

Scottish tenements are generally 8-10 self contained flats built in the 1890's (but can be earlier) around a communal stairwell

Most had "black" between the joists as sound deadening (all of mine did anyway) and were generally pitch pine floor boards which in some cases ran the length of the flat

I don't think there is a specific requirement for sound or fireproofing (I'd be surprised if any planning offices were forward thinking enough for it) certainly in modern houses it has to be double sheeted with fire board where appropriate but not sure about tenements Andy....