Scientists are trying to find out why the "typical" Kiwi timber house is so noisy.
"It is hard to imagine there is any high technology involved in taking a pile of four-by-twos, a heap of nails and plasterboard and making a house," said research leader Keith Ballagh, an Auckland acoustics consultant.
Nevertheless, Mr Ballagh's team has been using some sophisticated methods to study how sound is transmitted through the typical timber-framed house, and why timber homes have such poor soundproofing.
The project, backed by public good science financing, aims to enable quieter houses to be built from traditional materials.
Demographic changes are also a factor, Mr Ballagh said.
"Recent trends in housing are away from single houses to apartments and other multi-unit dwellings.
"These put people, often with potentially incompatible lifestyles, very close to each other."
Mr Ballagh said that although the building code required architects and builders to meet sound insulation standards between different buildings, there was a lack of knowledge on how those sound conditions could be achieved.
"There is no information on how sound behaves at the junctions between walls and floors, or how sound can travel along floor joists under a wall and into an adjacent room."
- NZPA
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