2. 2 Sounds heard which have their origin in the neighbour’s home

Refer to Table 6

The sound heard by the largest number of persons was ‘Wireless’ mentioned by 58 %, followed by ‘people moving’ 48% and ‘Doors banging’ 41% The ‘Cistern’, ‘Children Playing in other rooms’ and ‘Movement of furniture’ were also important - 27%, 27% and 26%. ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’ was important. This was mentioned by 20%

2.3 Sounds which trouble people which have their origin in the neighbour’s home

Refer to Table 6

The proportion of people who were troubled by sounds was much smaller than the proportion who heard sounds, although in the main the sounds heard by the largest proportion of people were also those who troubled the largest proportion of people. ‘Doors banging’ which was third on the list of sounds heard was most important, affecting 15% followed by the ‘Wireless’ 10%, ‘People moving’ 8% and ‘Children playing’ 7%.

2.4 Sounds which disturb people’ s sleep which have their origin in the neighbour’s home

Refer to Table 6

The most important sound which disturbed sleep was the sound of ‘Doors banging’ which affected 11% of the sample, ‘People moving’ and ‘Wireless' were important (6% each) as was the ‘Cistern’ which affected 5%.

As in the case of sounds which had their origin in the home of the person interviewed, the continuous background sounds like ‘Wireless’, ‘People moving in other rooms’, ‘Piano or other musical instruments’ and ‘Conversation in other rooms’, although they were noticed by a large proportion were not irritating to the same extent as the violent discontinuous sounds of a mechanical nature like the ‘Cistern’ or ‘Doors banging’, or discontinuous sounds of human origin like ‘Babies crying’ or ‘Children playing’.

This may again be seen if the proportions of those troubled and disturbed be expressed as a percentage of those who heard the sounds.

2.5 A comparison of the sounds having their origin in the person’s own home and the home of the neighbour

The sounds in both cases are broadly the same with the exception of the sounds made by neighbours going to other flats. If this item is ignored it will be seen that the same sound in each case is heard by roughly the same proportion and that the proportions who are troubled and whose sleep is disturbed follows in the same order in each case.

If anything a sound having its origin in the home of the neighbour is more disturbing than the same sound in the person’s own home although the differences are very small

2.6 Time when sounds from neighbour’s home are heard

Refer to Table 7

The pattern of this analysis is similar to that of the analysis of sounds having their origin within the person’s own home; thus 9% of people heard sounds from their neighbour’s house between midnight and 5 a.m, 41% between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., 65% during the day 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 72% in the evening 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and between 10 p.m. and midnight.

In all cases the proportion of flat dwellers who heard sounds is higher than the rest and between midnight and 5 a.m. is more than twice that of those living in houses.

The sounds heard by most people between midnight and 5 a.m. is that of a ‘Baby crying’ heard by 3%. Between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. ‘People moving’, ‘Doors banging’ and the sound of the ‘Cistern’ were most important, During the day the ‘Wireless’ and ‘People moving’ were the most important sounds and this is also true of the early evening. In the late evening ‘People moving’, the ‘Wireless’, the ‘Cistern’, ‘Doors banging’ and ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’ were all important.

2.7 Comparison of the proportion of people who hear sound in houses built before and after the last war

As in the case of sounds, which have their origin in the informant’s own home, the incidence of sounds from their neighbour’s house depends in part on house construction and in part on house design.

Refer to Table 8

In the first instance it is interesting to note that 87% of those who live in post-war houses say they hear sound from their neighbour’s house compared with 80% of those who live in older houses.

House design is responsible for the difference between the proportions who hear the ‘Cistern’ in pre-war houses - 17% compared with those living in post-war houses - 37%. On the other hand the construction of the houses may be responsible for the fact that in every case more of those who live in post-war houses hear sounds from their neighbours than those who live in pre-war houses. The difference is significant for the sound of ‘Wireless’, ‘The movement of furniture’ and ‘Doors banging’.

It is possible however that there may be fewer wireless sets in old houses than new as these are often inhabited by poorer people.

70 Unclassified

2.8 Sounds which trouble and disturb the occupants of houses built before and after the last war

It was found similarly that the incidence of trouble and disturbance was higher in post-war houses than in pre-war houses and again sound from the ‘Cistern’ was an important factor.

2.9 The sounds from neighbours’ homes heard in houses and flats

Refer to Table 9

In comparing houses and flats the first point to note is that the proportion of people who hear sounds is much higher amongst those who live in flats than amongst those who live in houses - 95% compared with 78% It appears from a comparison of the proportions hearing individual sounds that the differences between the proportions of flat dwellers and house dwellers who hear structure-borne sounds is greater than the differences in the proportions who hear airborne sounds; thus in the case of the ‘Cistern’ the proportions aro 38% compared with 22% a difference of 16%, whereas in the case of ‘Babies crying’ the difference is only 6% In the case of ‘Children playing’ there is a difference of 13% of ‘People moving’ a difference of 26%, and of ‘Doors banging’ a difference of 30%. This may be compared with a difference of 14% in the case of ‘Wireless’ - sound which may be partially structurally borne - 3% in ‘Piano or other musical instruments’ and 9% in the case of ‘Conversation’.

2.10 The Sounds from neighbours’ homes which trouble people in houses and flats

Refer to Table 9

Similarly the proportion who are troubled by sounds is much higher in the case of flat dwellers - 41% compared with 26% and once again impact sounds are relatively more important to flat dwellers than to those living in houses. The most important sources of trouble to flat dwellers being ‘Doors banging’, ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’, ‘People moving’, the ‘Wireless’ and the ‘Movement of furniture’.

2.11 The Sounds from neighbours’ homes which disturb people’s sleep in houses and flats

Refer to Table 9

The proportion of the sample who are disturbed by sounds from their neighbours’ homes is very much greater in the case of flat dwellers - 34% than of those who live in houses - 19%. In both cases impact sounds are the most frequent, ‘Doors banging’ being the main cause of disturbance to 10% of those living in houses and 14% of those living in flats. 11% of flat dwellers complained of ‘People moving’ and of ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’.

If the number of persons who are “troubled” or are “disturbed” is expressed as a proportion of those who “hear” the sound some measure of its nuisance value can be obtained. From this it appears that in houses the ‘Cistern’ and ‘Doors banging’ are relatively more “troubling” in houses, whereas ‘People moving’, ‘Conversation in other rooms’ and ‘Moving furniture in other rooms’ is more “troubling” in flats. The ‘Banging of doors’ is more ‘disturbing’, in-houses than flats whereas ‘Baby crying’ ‘People moving’ ‘Piano or other musical instrument’ and ‘Furniture moving’ is relatively more disturbing in flats.

2.12 The Transmission of Sound

A question was asked of all who heard sounds from a neighbour’s house to discover whether the sounds were transmitted “by the structure" or were airborne through the window.

Refer to Table 10

Although a large number of people were unable to answer the question the results showed conclusively that most sounds came through the party wall. The only sounds of which a considerable proportion of those who heard them said that they came through the window were ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’ (where possibly the people had to pass in front of windows), ‘Children playing’, ‘Wireless’ and ‘Doors banging’.

Refer to Table 11

Flat dwellers were asked whether the sounds they heard came from the side above or below. Apart from the sound of persons walking upstairs to other flats the directions from which sounds came appeared to depend largely upon whether they were mainly airborne or structurally borne. The answers thus fell into two groups - sounds the distribution of whose origin was general - airborne sounds - and sounds whose origin was mainly from above - structurally borne sounds. The table below shows the situation.

(Note: In some cases sounds were heard from more than one direction)

A question was also asked to discover whether the particular rooms which were on the party wall in the house of the person interviewed had any effect on the extent to which people heard or were disturbed by certain sounds. The differences discovered were hardly significant, 84% of those whose bedrooms were on a party wall heard sounds compared with 78% of those whose bedrooms were not, whilst the proportions whose sleep was disturbed were the same 24%

2.13 The Sounds heard by people living in Semi-detached and Terraced Houses compared

Refer to Table 12

In this comparison there are a number of factors operating in different directions. Most people living in terraced houses have two neighbours, whereas those living in semi-detached houses have only one, so that the exposure to neighbours’ sounds should, broadly speaking, be twice as great in terraced houses as in semi-detached houses. The terraced houses were mainly old and a number of them had outside water closets.

In the case of all sounds, except that of the ‘Cistern’, the differences between the two types of house were small. The proportion of people in the semi-detached house hearing any sound was greater than the proportion of those living in the terraced house - the only exception to this being in the case of ‘Babies crying’.

In the case of the ‘Cistern’ however, the difference was quite considerable, the proportion of those living in semi-detached houses hearing the ‘Cistern’ being 33%, as against 15% of those living in terraced houses. This is likely to account for most of the difference between the proportions hearing one or more sounds in the two types of houses - 84% and 78% respectively.

2.14 The Sounds which trouble people living in Semi-detached and Terraced Houses compared

Refer to Table 12

The proportions of people living in these two types of houses who are troubled by any of these sounds are the same - 26% and 27% but there are slight differences in the case of different sounds.

2.15 The Sounds which disturb people living in Semi-detached and Terraced Houses compared

Refer to Table 12

The differences between the proportions of people living in different types of houses who are disturbed by sounds from their neighbour’s dwelling are hardly great enough to be of any importance.

2.15 A comparison of the sounds heard in Flats of different construction

Where possible the type of construction of flats was ascertained and on this basis flats were divided into two groups; those having a steel frame and those which were of the normal brick or masonry construction. The answers to the questions were analysed in these two groups.

The first point of comparison is to compare the proportions of people living in each type of flat who hear sounds from their neighbours’ houses. These are 95% of each group.

Refer to Table 13

There were some differences which were significant between the groups hearing particular sounds, and it will be noticed that ‘Children playing’ and the sound of the ‘Cistern’ is heard by a larger proportion of people living in brick and masonry flats than those living in steel frame flats, whereas the ‘Movement of furniture’ is heard more by those living in steel frame flats.

2.16 A comparison of the sounds which trouble people in Flats of different construction

Refer to Table 13

The comparison between the proportion of those living in steel frame flats and those living in masonry and brick built flats who are troubled shows that very many more of the first group are troubled than the second group - 57% compared with 35%. Almost all sounds are heard by a greater proportion of those who live in steel frame flats, but the ‘Wireless’, ‘Doors banging’ and ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’ are heard by a considerably greater proportion of those living in steel frame flats.

2.17 A comparison of the sounds which disturb the sleep of people in Flats of different construction

Refer to Table 13

The situation described in the section above is repeated here - 52% of those living in steel frame flats are disturbed compared with 26% of those living in the other types of flat. The differences in the proportions disturbed are greater in relation to ‘Doors banging’, ‘People walking upstairs to other flats’, ‘People moving’, the ‘Wireless’ and the ‘Cistern’.