If you are planning open a business premises or already have one in operation, you must ensure that you comply with the relevant rules and regulations. Among these requirements, acoustic measurements play a crucial role, especially when obtaining opening and first occupancy licenses.
In this article, we explore in detail how to obtain acoustic certificates for commercial premises and the procedure of entering the neighbor's house to measure.
What is an acoustic measurement?
When requesting a opening license, it is essential to present an acoustic certificate that validates that the project has been executed correctly. This involves making precise measurements of several sound insulation parameters both inside and outside the establishment.
Insulation measurements:
- air noise: Evaluation of the capacity of roof and wall insulation of the premises. Requires measurements from the neighbor's house to evaluate noise penetration.
- Facade noise: Measurement of the noise emitted from the main door to the outside to evaluate its impact on the environment.
- Impact noise: Evaluation of the sound impact generated by activities within the premises. It is measured from the perspective of the neighbor's home.
Immission measurements:
- Indoor noise: Measurements inside the premises of the ambient noise with its normal operation.
- Outside noise: Outdoor measurement of ambient noise from the premises to the street.
For the first occupation license There is a methodology depending on the case:
- In single family homes, follow the same previous procedure. If you have adjacent homes such as semi-detached or semi-detached houses, you will go to the neighbor's house to carry out the appropriate measurements.
- In Residential buildings Measurements must be made in at least 10% of the building's homes, at least 2. The impact noise is measured in the group of homes that adjoin below, above and on the sides.
In the event that the commercial premises do not have homes nearby It will not be necessary to access the nearby premises to measure the above parameters, except in specific cases required by city councils.
When and how to do the acoustic measurement in the neighbor's house
You must access the neighbor's home to measure the parameters of airborne noise and impact noise. These measurements require being made in a specific time and manner, the specifications of the municipal council will be taken into account.
Commercial activities are divided into daytime, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and night time, from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Therefore, the measurement inside the neighbor's house will have to be carried out at the same time that the premises' activity is carried out.
The owner of the commercial premises will be responsible for contacting the neighbor, explaining the procedure to be performed, the schedule, the time, which is usually about 30 minutes, and the reasons for the measurements.
Measurements may only be carried out, in order of priority, in the bedrooms and/or living room of the home that abuts the roof of the premises. In no case will it be possible to carry out measurements in other areas such as bathrooms, kitchens, hallways, landings or elevators, the echo and spaces could alter the results.
What to do if you are not authorized to measure at your neighbor's house
In exceptional situations where access is denied, the following protocol will be followed:
- A will be issued burofax with the requirement of the city council, the measurements that are intended to be carried out, the parameters and, in addition, the availability times to enter the home will be consulted. We will wait 30 days for the response.
- If there is no response, another burofax will be sent accompanied by a notary. This will inform you of the work that is going to be carried out at the home, the time at which you are going to attend and, in times of redundant refusal, you can access it with the police.
- If the refusal persists, will be recorded in the certificate and the neighbor will not be able to claim future damages for nuisance caused by the noise.
Acoustic measurements in Malaga
The acoustic measurements They are a fundamental tool to comply with regulations and in PBM Engineering We are specialists. If you have any questions about this topic or any related topic, you can call us or send a message so we can resolve your particular case.
Explore our skills at Ingeniero Málaga - Miguel Pulido Bendavid - Licensed Engineer.
