This Jan. 21, 2021, photo shows a view of apartments seen from the 63 Building in the western Seoul neighborhood of Yeouido. Most Seoul residents live in shared buildings rather than individual, stand-alone housing. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid a recent surge in the number of disputes over noise between floors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted most Koreans to spend more time at home, construction companies are moving heaven and earth to develop technology that can reduce noise between floors.
DL E&C Co. and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. each developed technology to reduce noise between floors and are measuring the performance of the technology at new apartments before move-in dates.
Samsung C&T Corp. also broke ground for the establishment of an R&D building with specialty in measuring noise between floors in early July.
The construction industry, in particular, is placing emphasis on reducing heavy weight floor impact noise.
Heavy weight floor impact noise refers to the noises created by footsteps or the sound of children playing. It’s regarded as the main source of inter-floor noise disputes.
In general, the impact noise can be reduced by increasing the thickness of the floor slab.
In March, Samsung C&T acquired a patent for technology that can increase the thickness of the floor slab in specific areas up to 250-millimeter (mm), higher than the legal standard of 210-mm.
SK ecoplant Co. also developed a floor structure with a floor slab 90mm thicker than existing structures.
According to the Korea Environment Corporation, the number of consultations for inter-floor noise disputes totaled 42,250 cases last year, up 61 percent from 26,257 cases a year ago.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
