By Graeme Esson BBC News Online Scotland

Many people are opting to abandon carpets in favour of stripped floors

Many Scottish housing associations and councils have already moved to address the issue through tenancy agreements.

But noise campaigners, tenants' groups and environmental health experts want tighter regulations and more advice for flat dwellers buying new flooring.

The Scottish Executive has commissioned a study into the impact of the problem.

Increasing numbers of people are doing away with carpets, with many people blaming home makeover television programmes for the shift.

However, the growing trend is leading to a rise in noise complaints to environmental health officers across Scotland.

The problem tends to arise when new flooring is installed in flats without an adequate replacement for the "sound deadening" which is removed or lost when the carpets are pulled up.

It has proved to be more of a problem in Scotland than the rest of the UK, one possible reason being the large number of people living in flats.

Noise enforcement

Alistair Somerville is a council member and past president of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (Rehis).

He told BBC News Online Scotland that people involved in local authority noise enforcement, housing associations and housing departments across the country agreed that the problem was on the increase.

"It is a significant problem. It has been on an upward spiral and is showing no signs of getting any less," he said.

Edinburgh City Council saw a surge in complaints a few years ago and they show no signs of abating.

Floorboards now rank alongside music as one of the most complained-about problems in the area.

We try to give people as many rights as possible, but we also try to remind them that if there are problems with noise a carpet will muffle it Colin Turnbull West of Scotland Housing Association

Many housing associations and council housing departments are now starting to address the issue through tenancy agreements.

Solicitors TC Young represent more than 100 housing associations across the country.

Andrew Cowan said that over the last two years most had introduced a new tenancy agreement which forced people to seek permission before installing laminate flooring, or were looking at doing so.

He said there were two reasons - the noise issue and the expense of replacing the flooring if any repairs works had to be carried out underneath.

Legal threats

"Housing associations have asked tenants to remove flooring in certain cases.

"We have raised a court action where they have this clause and it has been laid without consent," he said.

However, it had never come to court as the threat of action had been enough to resolve the issue.

Mr Cowan agreed that there was a need for tighter regulations to tackle the problem.

Edinburgh has seen a surge in complaints over recent years

The West of Scotland Housing Association, which has about 2,500 properties in Glasgow Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, is among those to have introduced a new tenants agreement.

Colin Turnbull, its director of housing services, said: "We try to give people as many rights as possible, but we also try to remind them that if there are problems with noise a carpet will muffle it."

Dundee City Council also requires people to seek permission before installing laminate flooring, with criteria for sound insulation forming part of the consent.

The Dundee Federation of Tenants' Associations said it had been concerned about the noise problems for some years.

A spokesman said: "A prohibition against installing laminate flooring in flats would probably be better until the relevant industry body tested flooring and insulation to ensure that noise could be kept to a level that can reasonably be expected in tenement properties.

Building regulations

"Thereafter, only that flooring and insulation would be acceptable in flatted properties."

Alastair Brown, pollution control manager at Glasgow City Council's environmental protection department, said building regulations covered the sound insulation between properties.

However, he acknowledged that these regulations were not always policed in Scotland.

"Maybe we do need more stringent controls and more stringent overseeing of the insulation properties between buildings so that these problems do not arise," he said.

The Scottish Executive, along with UK Government colleagues, have commissioned a research study into the impact of laminate and wood flooring Executive spokesman

"Maybe we could look at tightening up the regulations. There are options from a building control aspect which may be explored as well."

A spokeswoman for the executive said it was committed to giving councils more powers to deal with noise nuisance.

"Through the Anti-social Behaviour Bill we are delivering on these commitments," she said.

"The Scottish Executive, along with UK Government colleagues, have commissioned a research study into the impact of laminate and wood flooring.

"The study is being carried out by Napier University and will be completed in autumn 2004."

Mr Somerville suggested the introduction of a grant scheme covering noise insulation.

Grant scheme

Under the existing legislation aimed at improving housing standards, people can obtain financial help to install adequate heating and thermal insulation.

"It would be well known in each local authority that there are properties which just don't have adequate sound insulation," he said.

"If you put laminate flooring on top of that it compounds the problem.

"There is scope for some sort of grant scheme which might work the same way as student loans.

"If somebody lives in a property like that they could apply for a loan which would be repayable on the sale of the property."

Sound insulation

He also thought that all such flooring should be accompanied by a warning that it could lead to complaints from neighbours.

"If you are putting it in in a flat with somebody living underneath you there should be some warning about putting in resilient layers, and they should not be put in on floors where there are existing sound insulation deficiencies."

The number of complaints to the Noise Abatement Society is also on the rise.

Director Peter Wakeham said: "I think it should be compulsory that anybody who wants to take floorboards back to the original state or put them in should be subject to planning regulation and building regulations.