Of the daily noises, construction noises cause serious conflicts between a construction firm and residents due to their high sound pressure level and shocking, repetitive sound. While South Korea regulates construction noises on the basis of legal criteria to minimize the damage from the noises, the regulation only involves a weighted sound level (dB(A)), which is loudness, like other types of noises. However, since construction noises are characterized by very diverse spectra and waveforms, it has been indicated that they cannot be reflected only by physical loudness: SPLdB(A). In addition, the need to reflect acoustic psychological characteristics and meanings of human beings in evaluating construction noises has recently been indicated. This study aimed to use six Zwicker parameters to determine the sound quality and acoustic psychological characteristics of construction noises and analyze the correlation between physical indexes of construction noises, as found in literature review, and the Zwicker parameters. Loudness of construction noises were closely correlated with SPLdB(A); shocking noises were perceived as ‘loud, sharp, and annoying’ sound. The Zwicker parameters were most strongly correlated with loudness, followed by unbiased annoyance and sharpness, among the evaluation indexes; as for correlation with construction noises, ‘normal noises’ were closely correlated with loudness, ‘shocking noises’ were closely correlated with loudness, unbiased annoyance, and sharpness, and ‘fluctuating noises’ were closely correlated with loudness. Therefore, if loudness, unbiased annoyance, and sharpness were taken into account in terms of the sound quality in evaluating construction noises, it is expected to be useful to make and revise criteria for regulating the noises.

Noises in each construction field cause residents in the neighborhood to make complaints due to their high sound pressure level and repetitive, shocking sound. While South Korea regulates construction noises on the basis of legal criteria to minimize the damage from the noises, the regulation only involves a weighted sound level (dB(A)), which is loudness, like other types of noises. It is therefore necessary to make typology of construction noise sources and evaluation vocabularies with the objective of making criteria for regulating construction noises suitable for the South Korean situation. While research based on a survey has been conducted to make typology of construction noise sources and evaluation vocabularies, there have been lots of difficulties in using it to make criteria for regulation because no consideration was given to psychological responses of people. On the basis of the findings from literature review, this study aimed to make typology of construction noise sources and vocabularies through a psycho-acoustic experiment and analyze the psychological characteristics and meanings of construction noises more accurately. The respondents’ psychological responses to construction noise sources were grouped into three factors ‘normal, shocking, and fluctuating noises’ and into ― ― six factors ‘annoying,’ ‘loud,’ ‘confusing,’ ‘noisy,’ ‘alarming,’ and ‘boisterous’ in terms of evaluation ― ― vocabularies. Since the factor with the biggest eigenvalue drawn from the respondents’ psychological responses is most important, the most important influential factor in evaluating construction noises was ‘normal noises’ for construction noise sources and ‘annoyance’ for evaluation vocabularies. This typology is expected to be useful to make and revise criteria for regulating construction noises.