Neighbor Noise level: Apartments vs. Condos

[HDWill1]

Originally Posted by signalfire

"have to hear my neighbors having sex (Army barracks rooms)"

!!??!!

Haha, I was always in mixed-gender Army units.

[neon.kitty]

I live in a Condo now which unfortunately has very little sound insulation between the floors and walls. I can hear everything my next door, and upstairs, neighbors do. So I'd say...it's easier to rent then to buy and then be stuck with more work you have to put into a unit.

[hellopity]

I think it depends on the construction of the building. We downsized to a downtown condo 5 months ago. It's a steel and concrete construction highrise condo that completed in 2016. We have one neighbor who I think is a performing artist and another neighbor with a 3 year old kid. I don't hear anything from them ever. Once or twice a month I might catch the faint noise of one neighbor practicing/singing or the toddler screaming while walking to my unit from the elevator, but once I enter my unit I don't hear it anymore. There are some "high end" apartment high rises going up here in Seattle that are also steel and concrete construction, and I suspect they have comparable soundproofing. I have to say the condo we are living in now has unquestionably superior sound insulation compared to our previous single family home. No question.

[ekimi]

Apartment, condo, concrete or not, does not matter much. Sound travels faster in solids than in ambient air. Then there is impact noise, upstair neighbors banging on your ceiling. Not much can be done to mitigate this on your part. If they have carpets placed everywhere that would help but nothing helps with low frequency banging noise, especially at night, the absolute worst.

What matters most is what your *neighbor* is like. Some people thought they had a solid built condo and the irony was that they just happened to have the quietest guy on the block as their neighbor, only to find out when a noisy neighbor moved in. Been there done that telling from personal experience. Top floor corner apt I imagene could be the best (though have no firsthand experience to share).

Private house can be better in terms of impact sound (the worst), air borne noise coming through windows--the same. A private house on a large lot in the woods would be the best.

[jackalope48]

Older apartments and high rises are probably better bets on noise. The reason is that International building code removed the between units fire separation requirements in most buildings that existed under the precursor codes(Southern for my part of the country). Fire separation was most easily accomplished by doubling or tripling the wall board between units and thus reducing sound transfer.

Newer stuff has fire sprinkler systems to meet base code requirements rather than bulking separation protection. Rehabbed stuff without sprinklers will still use extra wall board to meet existing building code since it's the most inexpensive way to get points for compliance. High rise stuff generally has mandated fire separation that's higher than low rise stuff so provides more base protection.

[M3Guy]

I own a condo in the city. The biggest factor I personally notice is what kind of people usually rent in an apartment vs. what kind of people buy a condo. My building has a rule where only 25% of the building can be rented by the owner and the other 75% has to be owner occupied. I find that condo owners tend to care more about the community and their neighbors, thus being more mindful of noise.
The tenants (renters) in the building just simply don't care (I speak from experience. There are renters in the condo below me. Noisiest people ever!).

That's just my take on it.