Builder- Standard Pacific

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by VickiR

Buy an end unit. Then you'll only have neighbors attached on one side.

There will always be some noise but with a 2 story townhome that is an end unit, you'll only have neighbors on ONE side.

Many townhomes are built so that the master bedrooms don't connect and the stairs are on the same side.

I've had many clients tell me that they never hear their neighbors unless they are hanging pictures or something similar.

Yup. End units are great.

[jperryrocks]

I ended buying a Lennar end unit townhome. Almost 2400 SF and 3 story. Not a cheap price townhome.

It has it's problems. Lennar apparently doesn't build units as good structurally. A firewall does not account for soundproofing.

My problem is from vibration and structural noise. My great room sits right behind my neighbors stairs. So every time he runs up and down them, you can hear the pounding through the walls. Even when I'm up in my 3rd floor bedroom, you can hear people sprint up and down the stairs through the walls.

It's structural vibration coming thought the walls, ceilings and floors.

To me that's unacceptable when you're paying 250-300k for a nicer townhome.

[MikeCool64]

Originally Posted by jperryrocks

I ended buying a Lennar end unit townhome. Almost 2400 SF and 3 story. Not a cheap price townhome.

It has it's problems. Lennar apparently doesn't build units as good structurally. A firewall does not account for soundproofing.

My problem is from vibration and structural noise. My great room sits right behind my neighbors stairs. So every time he runs up and down them, you can hear the pounding through the walls. Even when I'm up in my 3rd floor bedroom, you can hear people sprint up and down the stairs through the walls.

It's structural vibration coming thought the walls, ceilings and floors.

To me that's unacceptable when you're paying 250-300k for a nicer townhome.

I guess that if you could have chosen the standard pacific builder TH, you had not heard those sounds and vibrations since SP has the dead (air)spaces/structures between walls, right?

[Sal_M]

Originally Posted by MikeCool64

I guess that if you could have chosen the standard pacific builder TH, you had not heard those sounds and vibrations since SP has the dead (air)spaces/structures between walls, right?

I think you are looking forr guarantees that do not exist. If you are that sound sensitive you should look at single family homes. In the price range of SP's townhomes, you could find a single family home.

[MikeCool64]

Originally Posted by Sal_M

I think you are looking forr guarantees that do not exist. If you are that sound sensitive you should look at single family homes. In the price range of SP's townhomes, you could find a single family home.

Due to good locations and the good quality of SP's TH, I prefer townhome.
I have lived over 20 years in SFH, am getting old, so I am sick and tired of yard work, so TH is better.

[snapdragon12]

I used to live in a townhome build by Standard Pacific. It was built in 2006. I could hear the teenager next door running up and down the stairs in their house. I could also hear the thud thuds of their music. The neighbors also smoked on the screened in porch, and the smoke floated over to our porch. We could even smell it if we had the windows open in our house, both downstairs and upstairs. The townhome I lived in was a two-story; and in the neighborhood I lived in, they are selling in the mid 190s-low 200 range.

I rarely heard the neighbors on the other side of me when they were in the house. Most of the noise they made was late at night getting into taxis to go to the clubs, or slamming the porch door.

[jperryrocks]

The townhomes I was looking at were the upper end 3 story SP ones over in brier creek. The 2 story ones may be different.

If you do not share a wall and there's dead airspace between you and your neighbor, you are far less likely to hear noise...like structural vibration.

Most townhomes share a frame and they are attached together. So a firewall will help some, but the vibration carries throughout the ceilings, floors and walls.