Inspection of Interfloor Noise After Apartment Completion... Strengthening Floor Impact Sound Standards

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] To address the issue of noise between floors, performance inspections will now be conducted after apartment construction is completed.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 27th that it will conduct a legislative notice on the "Regulations and Rules on Housing Construction Standards, etc." including floor impact sound performance inspections, and an administrative notice on the "Standards for Recognition and Management of Floor Impact Sound Insulation Structures in Multi-family Housing." With the revision of the Housing Act last month, performance inspections will be conducted after construction starting August 4, which is expected to reduce noise between floors.

The "Regulations on Housing Construction Standards, etc." newly set the performance inspection standards for floor impact sound insulation after multi-family housing construction at 49dB (decibels) for both lightweight impact sound and heavyweight impact sound. Lightweight impact sound refers to relatively light and hard impacts, while heavyweight impact sound refers to heavy and soft impacts causing floor impact noise.

Additionally, the floor impact sound standards to be confirmed at the project plan approval stage (before construction) have also been adjusted to the same levels: lightweight impact sound from 58dB to 49dB, and heavyweight impact sound from 50dB to 49dB. This establishes a system to verify floor impact sound insulation performance before and after multi-family housing construction.

The targets for floor impact sound performance inspections will be randomly selected, and if the standards are not met and the inspection authority recommends supplementary construction or compensation, a corrective action plan must be submitted within 10 days. The project entity must report the results of corrective actions to the inspection authority within the correction period. The Ministry is considering designating the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology as the floor impact sound performance inspection agency.

Kang Tae-seok, Director of the Housing Construction Supply Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "With this revision, we expect that conducting floor impact sound performance inspections after multi-family housing construction will encourage technological development and sound construction in the construction industry, thereby significantly reducing the noise between floors that residents actually experience."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.