Apartment noise during Portland winters?

[We're All Aliens]

Originally Posted by Minervah

An example of apartment diplomacy:

My apartment complex consists of only 8 apartments. We have a mix of young and old. A neighbor recently moved in. She is in her late 20's early 30's. The first Saturday she was here the other "old ladies" and myself were sitting in our courtyard enjoying the cool evening air.

Suddenly a troop of people came up the walk and headed for new neighbor's apartment. The ladies and I all looked at each other uneasily. Then new neighbor came out and told us "Hi, I'm Arian your new neighbor and I am having a party. I'm making pina coladas, would you like some?"

After that we really didn't care how much noise her party made.

You sound like a fun neighbor. Keep up the beautiful positive attitude. We may be moving to Portland in a year or so. I'll make you a Pina colada when we arrive

[Nell Plotts]

That is why Portlanders LOVE well maintained pre WWII buildings. They are solid and they breathe. You may wear a sweater inside during the winter and may need to update the wiring but they are great homes.

[nancy thereader]

Are these usually condos or are they for rent?

[Nell Plotts]

Some of the mansions have been converted to condos and to the best of my knowledge are never rented (in fact they rarely come up for sale). You can find smaller homes for rent, on the east side in particular.

[no one special]

I have lived in many apartments around the Portland area. I have also lived in many houses. And duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes.

What I have discovered is the older the building the less noise heard by all. The newer buildings do seem to be constructed with cheaper materials, etc... and less pride is involved in the construction of these places. I currently live in a 4 plex that has 2 units on the bottom and 1 above each of those. I am on the top and probably suffer the least amount of noise. I am sure the people below us hate us for the foot traffic throughout the place and we try very hard to remain quiet. But up here we really don't deal with much unless the neighbors are outside in the shared yard.

On the other hand, the people below us had a semi truck they used to park in the driveway. Every day at 5:00 am that thing would start up and wake the whole household up. We told him it bothered us. He didn't care. Later they complained about our curious cat to the landlord so we retaliated with the truck problem. The truck has not been here since. I tried to work it out with the neighbor without involving a landlord but he wouldn't budge. So we did what we had to do for our sanity (over 6 months with this problem.)

Noise is everywhere but if I were inquiring about the property I would ask when it was built. Ours was in the 60's and the walls are very thick. We lived next door to a screaming baby for months and never heard it.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by karlsch

A reasonable person would think that the original poster was asking about the problems of noise transmission in Portland condos and apartments. Several reasonable people attempted to answer this question.

The original post innocently said something about Portlanders staying indoors during the rainy months. The thin-skinned Portland evangelists who frequent this forum, of course, interpreted this as an insult to the wonderful people who live in Portland who, unlike people everywhere else, never stay inside during bad weather. Did they even notice that the question was about noise transmission?

Actually, my question was mostly about people being stuck indoors, hence causing more neighbor-noise. It seemed like a logical premise but I'm learning that Portlanders can't just wait out the rain, as people tend to do in sunny climates when they know it won't linger. There is clearly a different psychology when the rain/drizzle lasts for months straight. This is exactly the info I need.

The other thing I'd like to know is if S.A.D. has a genetic component or is just common depression. People claim that some are immune to S.A.D. but they might be the same Bobby McFerrin / morning-people you find everywhere. It might be advantageous to makes oneself superficially happy, e.g. fake it until it becomes real.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by no one special

I have lived in many apartments around the Portland area. I have also lived in many houses. And duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes.

What I have discovered is the older the building the less noise heard by all. The newer buildings do seem to be constructed with cheaper materials, etc... and less pride is involved in the construction of these places. I currently live in a 4 plex that has 2 units on the bottom and 1 above each of those. I am on the top and probably suffer the least amount of noise. I am sure the people below us hate us for the foot traffic throughout the place and we try very hard to remain quiet. But up here we really don't deal with much unless the neighbors are outside in the shared yard.

On the other hand, the people below us had a semi truck they used to park in the driveway. Every day at 5:00 am that thing would start up and wake the whole household up. We told him it bothered us. He didn't care. Later they complained about our curious cat to the landlord so we retaliated with the truck problem. The truck has not been here since. I tried to work it out with the neighbor without involving a landlord but he wouldn't budge. So we did what we had to do for our sanity (over 6 months with this problem.)

Noise is everywhere but if I were inquiring about the property I would ask when it was built. Ours was in the 60's and the walls are very thick. We lived next door to a screaming baby for months and never heard it.

Would you happen to know a cutoff year (i.e. 1970) when the walls really started getting flimsier for some technical/legal reason?

As for that truck, I find that people who make a lot of noise in the first place don't care by default. Often they are just criminals or borderline cases. From what I understand, leaving an airspace between adjoining walls makes a world of difference, since solids transmit noise more effectively. It's possible that Portland's famous density has made that difficult to do.

I'm for a cessation of (U.S. & world) population growth in general, not just denser housing. Most people want elbow-room but sprawl is just a lazy way to scatter growth that will have to stop cold at some point. People need to stop claiming that the U.S. has plenty of land left. They don't understand how much non-urban land is already being used to support city densities. Those empty deserts lack water, other places are too cold, etc. Let's leave it alone so we can still have the concept of frontiers.

[Minervah]

I'm for a cessation of (U.S. & world) population growth in general, not just denser housing. Most people want elbow-room but sprawl is just a lazy way to scatter growth that will have to stop cold at some point. People need to stop claiming that the U.S. has plenty of land left. They don't understand how much non-urban land is already being used to support city densities. Those empty deserts lack water, other places are too cold, etc. Let's leave it alone so we can still have the concept of frontiers.

I find this comment really interesting and spot on! People used to migrate to the West from back East to find elbow room and space to live. There is no longer much of this left here any longer. In Portland, every teeny-tiny space within the city has been stuffed with houses or condos. What was lovely countryside even 10 years ago is now covered in strip-malls.
I am going to beat those to the punch who will post "It's happening everywhere." Or "you should see where I live."
Yes I know that but I think it's even more sad to see this beautiful place become like that.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

Well most people have jobs, they go to dinner, to cafes, take their kids or dog out, hike, walk, bike, etc.

And when they're not doing that, they're going to the zoo to look at the baby elephant!!

[Bluesmama]

My 1st dwelling here (in '78) was an old apartment complex with very thin walls, and we had a neighbor who would ask me to turn down our stereo. Until one day when he was at our door, and he couldn't believe how "low" the volume actually was. (But in that same place, I used to hear our neighbors going at it all the time.) Quality of construction hasn't gotten any better with time; if anything it is worse because mold problems seem to almost-always hit the newer buildings.

You mentioned 'book-reading', which got my red flag up right away. Are you, by chance, one of those who expects a little too much quiet from your neighbors? I realize that there are people who live in these arrangements who like more quiet than typical apartment-living provides. I've always accepted noise as part of it.

But, then, I can sleep through anything.