Noise Across Flats: What Really Helps in Edinburgh Tenements

Two kinds of noise, two different problems

Footsteps, a chair scraping and a dropped object are impact noise. They travel as vibration through the floor structure and the walls around it. Voices, music and the television are airborne noise. They travel through the air and through whatever separates the two homes.

The Scottish Building Standards handbook describes the same split. It says impact sound is vibration from a direct strike such as footfall, carried through the structure and radiated into the room below, mainly through the ceiling and the perimeter walls. It also explains that sound reduction comes from mass, isolation, absorption, resilience and stiffness, and that good designs combine at least two of them. So a fix for one kind of noise does not automatically help the other.

Flanking: why a good floor can still disappoint

Sound does not only go straight through a floor. It also finds indirect paths along the walls, around pipes and through gaps. The handbook notes that these flanking paths can equal or exceed the direct route. The Scottish Government and Historic Environment Scotland’s guidance, Conversion of traditional buildings, adds that where flanking dominates, adding material to the floor itself is unlikely to improve things, and it lists the usual leak paths: gaps where walls meet floors, around soil and vent pipes, under skirting boards and between floorboards.

That is why the sealing and the junctions matter as much as the build-up.

What the Scottish standard actually sets

Standard 5.1 of the Scottish Building Standards sets sound insulation levels for walls and floors that separate homes. In the April 2026 domestic technical handbook, Table 5.1 gives these levels:

Two points follow. Scotland measures airborne sound without the “Ctr” term used in England, and the figures you may see quoted for England (45 dB airborne and 62 dB impact for a new flat) are not the Scottish ones. And a building counts as traditional if it was built before or around 1919 with construction that lets moisture pass through it, which describes many Edinburgh tenements. The age and construction of your building decide which levels apply.

These levels apply in full when a building is converted, which in the regulations means a change of occupation or use such as creating new dwellings or changing the number of homes. Ordinary renovation of an existing flat’s floor or ceiling is not listed as a conversion. For alterations, the Procedural Handbook says the work must meet the current standards that apply to that work, and must not make the building worse. The handbook is also clear that the standards limit sound from normal domestic activity. They do not guarantee freedom from noise. For historic buildings the handbook adds that specific prescriptive guidance is not appropriate, and that the traditional-building levels are a benchmark that may not always be reachable.

What the older tenement structure can do on its own

The conversion guide says traditional solid stone core walls, typically 400 to 800 millimetres thick and lined with lath and plaster, can usually meet the airborne levels without upgrading if they are in good condition, with no chases, voids or doorways. The guide says unaltered traditional timber separating floors can often reach the performance level without any upgrading work. It describes testing before the work as highly valuable, because it avoids over-specifying and reduces changes to historic fabric.

Floors, ceilings and what each costs you

For timber floors, the guide describes a floating floor, with an isolating batten or resilient cradle system, and a minimum laboratory performance of 10 dB (airborne) and 13 dB (impact) for the product. For ceilings, it describes a secondary ceiling in a metal frame, with a deep cavity, mineral fibre and two layers of high-density board, which also encloses and replaces the existing cornice with a new one made from a mould of the original.

Those details show the trade-offs. A raised floor affects doors, skirtings, thresholds and ceiling height. A new ceiling lining can cover an ornate ceiling or clash with the cornice. The guide also advises retaining lath and plaster ceilings where possible.

The cheap change that can make it worse

The Scottish Government’s leaflet Noise: guidance on home improvements points out that floor coverings sit outside the building regulations. It says lifting carpet and sanding or laying laminate on a timber floor can reduce its sound insulation by as much as 22 dB. For a pre-1919 timber floor the leaflet’s own table shows a smaller loss, but still a large one, when carpet with underlay is replaced by laminate. If you live below a flat that has just changed its flooring, that may be what you are hearing.

It also says loudspeakers and downlighters should not be fitted within party walls, floors or ceilings.

Warrants, neighbours and listed buildings

Building warrant. A tenement flat is a flat, not a house, so the broad building warrant concessions for work to a house do not apply to it. The concession for houses also excludes work adversely affecting a separating wall. Work to a separating floor or ceiling is a question for City of Edinburgh Building Standards before anything starts. Our building warrant guide explains how the process works.

Neighbours. Under the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, unless the title deeds say otherwise, the boundary between flats one above the other runs through the middle of the floor structure. Section 9 stops an owner doing anything that would materially impair the support or shelter given to another part of the building. We could not find an official page setting a general neighbour-consent rule for work inside your own flat, but your title deeds may. If the noise comes from above, a numbers-first conversation tends to go better than a complaint.

Listed buildings. Historic Environment Scotland says listed building consent is almost certainly needed for internal alterations that affect the character of a listed building. City of Edinburgh Council says decorative plasterwork and cornices should be preserved, and that suspended ceilings should never be formed in principal rooms or entrance halls that have decorative plasterwork. A new ceiling or raised floor in a listed flat is therefore a conversation with the planning authority, not an assumption. Our listed building consent guide explains what the contractor needs from your design team.

When to test, and who tests

The handbook recommends post-completion sound tests for conversions, and the conversion guide recommends a test before work begins. Testing should be done by people with recognised acoustics expertise. The guidance names the Association of Noise Consultants register of pre-completion testers, UKAS accreditation for field testing, and the Institute of Acoustics certificate of competence in building acoustics measurement. If the noise is severe or disputed, our advice is to have an independent acoustic specialist measure it before any construction specification is chosen.

If a neighbour’s noise is the problem rather than the building, mygov.scot suggests talking first, then mediation, then keeping a diary and reporting to the council. City of Edinburgh Council’s Household Support deals with anti-social noise such as loud music, but it says it cannot take formal action over loud footsteps or where soundproofing is a factor, so footfall usually comes back to a conversation, mediation or building work.

Where Sweet Homes fits

We may include sound-reduction construction inside a wider renovation where the likely noise path and the boundaries are clear. We do not offer standalone soundproofing surveys or treatments. We build to the specification your acoustic specialist or design team provides. A floor build-up, a new ceiling or a sealed junction affects ceiling height, cornices and doors, so those effects belong in the specification before a price is agreed.

If sound reduction is part of a project you are planning, tell us about it and we will say what we need to see before we price it.