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Wood framed structures are horrible for dampening the noises from people walking (or stomping) around. I will never live in a wood structure with people living

by reza_n 11y ago

Wood framed structures are horrible for dampening the noises from people walking (or stomping) around. I will never live in a wood structure with people living above me, its horrible. This is a non issue with steel and concrete structures.

vlehto 11y ago
Reinforced concrete is not that good either. The best floors are made so that you have separate floor and ceiling and some foam in between. It's called "floating floor". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_floor It can be done with wood too. But I don't know how effective that is.
gipp 11y ago
We're not talking about an early-20th-century timber frame. This is a different material entirely. A two-second Google search puts actual numbers on this: https://fpinnovations.ca/media/factsheets/Documents/cross-laminated-timber-the-boook.pdf https://fpinnovations.ca/media/factsheets/Documents/cross-la... (page 8). Seems a standard suspended-ceiling type arrangement provides damping as good as a well-built concrete structure (by comparison to http://www.aia.org/practicing/awards/AIAB025071 http://www.aia.org/practicing/awards/AIAB025071). HN comments seem to have a bad tendency to dismiss interesting and potentially cool ideas out of hand (especially about anything that isn't software) by citing the first difficulty that comes to mind, without doing even a little bit of research. As though the many highly qualified engineers putting this stuff together wouldn't have thought of something as basic as sound insulation.
- hackuser 11y ago
  > HN comments seem to have a bad tendency to dismiss interesting and potentially cool ideas out of hand (especially about anything that isn't software) by citing the first difficulty that comes to mind, without doing even a little bit of research. I agree and was just pointing out something similar in another HN discussion. It's detrimental to do the easy thing and shoot down innovations rather than the creative work of imagining the possibilities. Most of the tech people are using to post these comments, and probably most of their employers and YC members, wouldn't exist if they listened to the naysayers. It's also a waste of my time to read the noise of yet another naysayer. I thought that behavior was explicitly discouraged at HN. Sigh.
- reza_n 11y ago
  The problem isn't really sounds, its the vibration and shock waves which travel thru the structure. I could never hear my neighbors, but I could hear and feel every heal strike. Loose metal attached to the structure would vibrate (air vents, kitchen items). Wasn't trying to tear down this technology or anything, I guess I just had a really bad experience living in a wood constructed apartment (constructed in 2013, 5 floors) and I pretty much vowed to never live in a multi-family wood constructed structure again. Edit: page 9 in the parent link addresses this. Extremely poor vibration dampening.
  - alricb 11y ago
    Naked CLT sucks at impact damping, but so does naked concrete. You really need to think things through (methods of attachment for vents and pipes, flanking problems, etc), and to add some stuff to dampen the impact (on that same page they suggest adding a suspended ceiling with resilient mounts, giving an IIC of 62, which is pretty good).

by reza_n 11y ago

vlehto 11y ago

Reinforced concrete is not that good either. The best floors are made so that you have separate floor and ceiling and some foam in between. It's called "floating floor". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_floor It can be done with wood too. But I don't know how effective that is.

gipp 11y ago

We're not talking about an early-20th-century timber frame. This is a different material entirely. A two-second Google search puts actual numbers on this: https://fpinnovations.ca/media/factsheets/Documents/cross-laminated-timber-the-boook.pdf https://fpinnovations.ca/media/factsheets/Documents/cross-la... (page 8). Seems a standard suspended-ceiling type arrangement provides damping as good as a well-built concrete structure (by comparison to http://www.aia.org/practicing/awards/AIAB025071 http://www.aia.org/practicing/awards/AIAB025071). HN comments seem to have a bad tendency to dismiss interesting and potentially cool ideas out of hand (especially about anything that isn't software) by citing the first difficulty that comes to mind, without doing even a little bit of research. As though the many highly qualified engineers putting this stuff together wouldn't have thought of something as basic as sound insulation.

hackuser 11y ago
> HN comments seem to have a bad tendency to dismiss interesting and potentially cool ideas out of hand (especially about anything that isn't software) by citing the first difficulty that comes to mind, without doing even a little bit of research. I agree and was just pointing out something similar in another HN discussion. It's detrimental to do the easy thing and shoot down innovations rather than the creative work of imagining the possibilities. Most of the tech people are using to post these comments, and probably most of their employers and YC members, wouldn't exist if they listened to the naysayers. It's also a waste of my time to read the noise of yet another naysayer. I thought that behavior was explicitly discouraged at HN. Sigh.
reza_n 11y ago
The problem isn't really sounds, its the vibration and shock waves which travel thru the structure. I could never hear my neighbors, but I could hear and feel every heal strike. Loose metal attached to the structure would vibrate (air vents, kitchen items). Wasn't trying to tear down this technology or anything, I guess I just had a really bad experience living in a wood constructed apartment (constructed in 2013, 5 floors) and I pretty much vowed to never live in a multi-family wood constructed structure again. Edit: page 9 in the parent link addresses this. Extremely poor vibration dampening.
- alricb 11y ago
  Naked CLT sucks at impact damping, but so does naked concrete. You really need to think things through (methods of attachment for vents and pipes, flanking problems, etc), and to add some stuff to dampen the impact (on that same page they suggest adding a suspended ceiling with resilient mounts, giving an IIC of 62, which is pretty good).