New acoustic standards in apartments. From September 2026, construction will be more expensive

Isolating the apartment from outside noise and protecting it against sounds propagating through structural elements increasingly determine the quality of the premises and its market attractiveness – according to a report by the RynekPierwotny.pl website. New acoustic standards will apply from September.

Analysts of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal pointed out that when assessing the quality of apartments, acoustic comfort, i.e. adequate protection against noise and the penetration of sounds from neighbors, is increasingly taken into account.

“Urban noise has become one of the characteristic elements of modern cities and more and more often penetrates apartments in multi-family buildings. Intensive car traffic, infrastructure development, a larger number of inhabitants and an increasingly dynamic lifestyle make silence more difficult to obtain than a dozen or so years ago,” noted Jarosław Jędrzyński from the RynekPierwotny.pl website.

The expert pointed out that these changes are particularly noticeable in large agglomerations, where new housing investments are being built in the vicinity of existing buildings, communication arteries or service areas. An additional factor is the popularization of remote and hybrid work, which has caused some people to spend much more time at home than before.

Many elements influence the acoustics of the apartment and the noise level in the apartment. One of them is building location – both on the scale of the city and the immediate surroundings. They also play an important role design and urban solutions. The layout of buildings in the estate, the arrangement of staircases, elevators and technical rooms, as well as the way in which zones fulfilling specific functions are arranged in the apartment. All this determines what sounds propagate in space.

Taking into account the technical aspect, the acoustic insulation of partitions and the materials and construction technologies used at the investment implementation stage are of key importance. The authors of the report indicated that In practice, designing apartments always involves the need to reconcile various factors: costs, land availability, buyers' expectations and applicable regulations. Acoustic comfort is one element of this compromise.

The construction regulations in force in Poland regulate, among others: minimum acoustic insulation of walls and ceilings and permissible noise level in residential buildings. At the same time, attention is increasingly drawn to the difference between meeting standards and the subjective sense of comfort of residents. What is within the limits of the regulations may not always be perceived as optimal from the point of view of everyday use of the premises. Hence the growing interest in solutions that go beyond the formal minimum and respond to the real needs of residents.

Experts pointed out that changes taking place on the market are also reflected in legal regulations. From September 2026, new technical conditions will come into force (WT 2026), which significantly tighten acoustic requirements for residential buildings.

Jędrzyński emphasized that the new regulations introduce the obligation to meet the AQ-0 acoustic class, previously associated with high-standard construction. In practice, this means moving from minimal formal requirements to the design level, which is to ensure real comfort of using apartments.

Ceilings and walls between apartments will have to effectively limit both airborne and impact sounds – regardless of the finishing layers. The insulation index for walls between premises and corridors was set at 50 dB, and for technical rooms at 55 dB. In practice, this will often mean the need to use thicker partitions and more advanced material solutions.

The new regulations require anti-vibration protection for installations and technical devices, such as sewer risers, cisterns and installation cables. This is intended to reduce one of the most common problems reported by residents, i.e. sounds transmitted by structural elements. Design requirements were also introduced limiting the proximity of technical rooms, kitchens and bathrooms to residential rooms in other premises, which emphasizes the importance of acoustics already at the architectural concept stage. Doors to apartments from the staircase side will have to ensure acoustic insulation of at least 37 dB, and the design documentation will require an acoustic report taking into account noise from the building's surroundings. The new regulations will cover primarily investments designed and modernized after September 2026 (PAP)

gkc/ mick/