4 ms·

I'm more concerned about noise isolation Concrete buildings seem to isolate my neighbors' noise far better than wooden structures

thewebcount 4y ago
Yeah, I lived in a wood frame building. The first week we were there, we heard some young kids right outside our door making noise. I opened the door to ask them to quiet down and there was nobody there. But I can still hear them. So I go up one floor. No kids, but they’re still just as audible as before. I go up one more floor to the top floor. Sure enough that’s where they were, 2 floors above us. It sounded like they were at our doorstep. Needless to say we moved out after just under a year because of the noise problems.
- BirdieNZ 4y ago
  Note that this isn't a problem in wood frame buildings built with proper sound insulation, so it's more that regulations in many municipalities allow weak sound insulation, and developers build to the cheapest spec possible if there's no compelling reason not to.
SECProto 4y ago
When you say "wooden structures", you're referring to typical stick framed construction with likely no sound dampening or insulation. This post is about mass timber construction[1], where the (manufactured) timbers function more like a concrete or steel columns/girders/shear walls. Many modern concrete buildings use steel stud framed walls, which are actually worse than stick framing for noise isolation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_wood
abcanthur 4y ago
noise transmission (and the reduction thereof) is affected by all aspects of building design. A wood building will not always be noisy. More expensive buildings tend to have multiple mitigations in place for sound transmission. These can be multiple special purpose layers in floors and walls, from elastic layers that are only a few mm thick, to inches of poured concrete present only for the sound response. A technique in very nice stick-built (the 5-over-1s mentioned) buildings is to have walls built with different structural systems for either side of the wall. Two layers of drywall on a single structural wall acts like a membrane, transmitting sound to the other side. Attaching drywall to disconnected structures greatly inhibits that vibration, at the cost of a thicker wall (lost rentable sqft) and ~2x spent on structure.
falcolas 4y ago
Mass, decoupling, and air tightness are all required to isolate sound effectively. All three are expensive to implement, and spec homes (houses built to immediately sell, as opposed to live in) are all about saving money to make more profit.
cycomanic 4y ago
Noise isolation is much more a function of how the actual insulation being put in. If houses are build to the lowest standard than yes they will be incredibly noisy. I mean cheap concrete apartment buildings are essentially made with large concrete frame and thin plaster interior walls.
Kaotique 4y ago
Except when someone wants to drill a hole to hang a painting. You can hear that multiple floors up or down. I live in a 30 story building and the drilling noise in a real nuisance.

thewebcount 4y ago

Yeah, I lived in a wood frame building. The first week we were there, we heard some young kids right outside our door making noise. I opened the door to ask them to quiet down and there was nobody there. But I can still hear them. So I go up one floor. No kids, but they’re still just as audible as before. I go up one more floor to the top floor. Sure enough that’s where they were, 2 floors above us. It sounded like they were at our doorstep. Needless to say we moved out after just under a year because of the noise problems.

BirdieNZ 4y ago
Note that this isn't a problem in wood frame buildings built with proper sound insulation, so it's more that regulations in many municipalities allow weak sound insulation, and developers build to the cheapest spec possible if there's no compelling reason not to.

SECProto 4y ago

When you say "wooden structures", you're referring to typical stick framed construction with likely no sound dampening or insulation. This post is about mass timber construction[1], where the (manufactured) timbers function more like a concrete or steel columns/girders/shear walls. Many modern concrete buildings use steel stud framed walls, which are actually worse than stick framing for noise isolation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_wood

abcanthur 4y ago

noise transmission (and the reduction thereof) is affected by all aspects of building design. A wood building will not always be noisy. More expensive buildings tend to have multiple mitigations in place for sound transmission. These can be multiple special purpose layers in floors and walls, from elastic layers that are only a few mm thick, to inches of poured concrete present only for the sound response. A technique in very nice stick-built (the 5-over-1s mentioned) buildings is to have walls built with different structural systems for either side of the wall. Two layers of drywall on a single structural wall acts like a membrane, transmitting sound to the other side. Attaching drywall to disconnected structures greatly inhibits that vibration, at the cost of a thicker wall (lost rentable sqft) and ~2x spent on structure.

falcolas 4y ago

Mass, decoupling, and air tightness are all required to isolate sound effectively. All three are expensive to implement, and spec homes (houses built to immediately sell, as opposed to live in) are all about saving money to make more profit.

cycomanic 4y ago

Noise isolation is much more a function of how the actual insulation being put in. If houses are build to the lowest standard than yes they will be incredibly noisy. I mean cheap concrete apartment buildings are essentially made with large concrete frame and thin plaster interior walls.

Kaotique 4y ago

Except when someone wants to drill a hole to hang a painting. You can hear that multiple floors up or down. I live in a 30 story building and the drilling noise in a real nuisance.