An apartment complex in Jamsil, eastern Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Starting in July 2022 at the latest, all construction firms will be required to meet regulations on inter-floor noise before acquiring construction permits.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Tuesday that it will require construction firms to pass a test to determine how well each floor blocks out noise.
Since 2005, the government has been testing building flooring materials at research labs to weed out those that fail to meet strict acoustic standards.
Inter-floor noise in apartment buildings, however, comes not just from the flooring materials, but also the structure, area, and the thickness of the floors, resulting in complaints that testing only the flooring materials is not enough.
In response, the government decided to require local authorities to pick samples from apartment buildings with a capacity to hold more than 30 households scheduled for construction starting in July 2022 and test them for inter-floor noise.
The government will amend related legislation to establish a standard for prevention of inter-floor noise.
Buildings that fail to meet the requirements will be asked by local authorities to take corrective measures.
Once there is enough information to come up with a performance log, the government will designate model construction companies that have excelled in preventing inter-floor noise.
Initially starting at 2 percent, the samples will increase to compose 5 percent of all households.
The government plans to introduce various incentives – including a lower sample rate – to construction companies to promote R&D and proper construction process.
In addition, a different method will be used to measure how well floors block noise.
The current method, known as the ‘bang machine’ method, that drops a 7.3-kilogram tire from 1-meter above to the floor, will be replaced with the ‘impact ball’ method that drops a volleyball-sized ball (2.5-kilogram) from the same height.
The ‘bang machine’ method creates a noise so loud that is rarely heard in apartment buildings. The ‘impact ball’ method, however, creates a noise similar to a child’s hop.
The ‘impact ball’ method was introduced as an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard in April of this year.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
