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We are going to consider looking at townhomes in Durham, Cary, Holly Springs, etc. I like the idea of the low maintenance living right now as we will be first time home buyers. We wouldn't stay in the town home forever, but would stay until we decide to purchase or build house. My main concern is noise. We have been in apartments for years now and have often had loud people above us. Are town homes just as bad? In apartments, I have never run in to where I hear the people next door to me, only the people above me. I was just wondering what others experiences are. Obviously this can vary by the individual builder, location, unit, etc. But just looking for some general feedback.
My experience with apartments is that noise seems to come not through the walls, but the floor and ceiling, which you don't deal with in a townhouse. Can you hear noise from shared walls? Of Course, but I never seem to hear the guy next to me. The women upstairs? All the time.
Actually, I live in a center unit, and I LOVE it! I never hear my neighbors (except for the occasional kitchen cabinet if my neighbor accidentally closes it too hard). I feel less "exposed" than I would if I were in an end unit. And I don't have any data to back this up, but I have to imagine that it costs less to heat and cool because I only have two short exterior walls.
You might look at the "semi-detached" townhomes that are connected by a storage room, rather than having a common wall between living spaces.
And, an end unit is also good advice, if you are willing to pay a little premium. The other bonus is that a quality townhome end unit will get natural light from windows on three sides.
I am in the center as well and never hear anything. I have lived in houses my entire life until we moved to NC and was worried I would hear neighbors when I purchased my TH, but I don't hear anything. Love the maintenance free lifestyle as well.
You might look at the "semi-detached" townhomes that are connected by a storage room, rather than having a common wall between living spaces.
And, an end unit is also good advice, if you are willing to pay a little premium. The other bonus is that a quality townhome end unit will get natural light from windows on three sides.
Not always. Our townhomes have no windows on the sides of the end units. I always found that a bit odd, to be honest.
Being in the middle, the only 2 rooms I have with no windows are powder rooms. We have huge windows and plenty of light. I also had the same concerns of no windows on the sides, but once I walked through my TH, I realized that would not be an issue here.
Our main gripe about townhouse living was that you basically have to deal with the same issues as you do in an apartment, you just have slightly more space. We didn't have any noise problems (we had an end unit), but we still had to deal with the problems you have when you are sharing space with a lot of other people. People don't pick up after their pets, they have people staying over and take up all the parking spaces, you can't maintain the outside space the way you'd like, etc. It just didn't feel private like we had our own space. After a year we were ready to move into a single family home with our own yard and driveway.
Unless you don't live in a neighborhood you're going to have some of those issues anyway, but it's just easier to ignore when you don't share certain spaces with others. That being said, if you are OK with that you need to make sure it's quality construction that will block most noise. Unfortunately even if you own it there might not be much you can do as far as upgrading building materials if you'd want extra buffer because the building isn't all yours. It's a trade-off, less control and more opportunity for neighbor problems in exchange for less maintenance.
We lived in a townhome in Summerville, SC (outside of Charleston) actually heard more noise from outdoors than from inside the walls.
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