Does Chicago building code require certain soundproofing levels be met on new construction multi-unit homes?
My wife and I have been looking at a number of mid-range to upscale condos over the past several months, and have found significant variance between the amount of floor-to-floor soundproofing between units. As such, I have been doing quite a bit of research to learn as much as I can about techniques to soundproof multi-unit homes. I received some good replies to my last question on this site, and I’m hoping someone will similarly know the answer here: Are builders of multi-unit dwellings in Chicago required to meet any specific sound transmission requirements (i.e. STC ratings), and can they be held liable if they skimp on this? I’ve seen STC numbers in the 50dB range claimed on some blogs as being minimum required values for multi-unit homes nationally, but I couldn’t find anything specific to Chicago in that respect. I’m fairly certain that a number of the units I’ve looked at wouldn’t be anywhere close to having 50dB of sound isolation between floors.
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