I live in an apartment in the U.K. and this is just not the case - I have absolutely no idea what anyone else is doing. Proper construction goes a long way. There’s something about America that makes proper construction of apartment buildings impossible, apparently - whether that’s building codes or cost-saving exercises I don’t know.

If that is true, I am moving to the U.K. next. I've lived in 4 different countries, 12 different apartments and I've known when each of my neighbors is playing XBox, watching some cop drama, playing bass guitar, getting in arguments, kid is crying - heck, even snoring in a couple of them!

Having no idea what they are doing sounds like dreaming the impossible dream!

I don’t know, America is a big place. The sound insulation in my San Francisco apartment building seems excellent.

I'm also in the UK. It was the case in those I've rented. That included one fancy river front expensive one that work rented while I was working in Docklands. In short, never again.

Maybe newer ones are better as that was back in the 90s.

I suspect its actually older properties that are more robustly constructed - the flats we had in central Edinburgh had 1m+ thick sandstone walls and we never heard anything from neighbours.

I'm currently in a 10 year old house based on old farm buildings and the walls here are even thicker (still sandstone).

Plaster vs. drywall probably has a lot to do with it. The plaster+lathe in my 103yo house (in the US) blocks sound exceptionally well.

The fairly large amounts of horsehair I used to find in old plaster probably helped with sound deadening as well!

On reflection, that's more likely. It's certainly been our experience of houses. The London apartment was a new conversion in an old building.

I've no experience of those converted or purpose built long ago.

There are certainly US apartments/condos with high quality sound insulation. The lack of it is cost saving measure. Every cent that goes into the building comes out of the pocket of the developer.

Why should we assume that tiny houses would be insulated beyond the bare minimum? Yes, the current trendsetters care about the environment, but nothing is preventing them from building well-insulated apartment blocks.

Soundproofing techniques are well-understood and not horrendously expensive (of course, many builders don't bother because it's not worth the cost, from their short-term perspective). And separate buildings in close proximity still allow plenty of opportunity for sound to carry—again, unless soundproofing has been performed.

You seem to be making the assumption that tiny houses will always be built well above minimum code requirements, while apartment buildings will not. If tiny houses really go mainstream, that will no longer be the case.

My building is circa 1900 and all-wood construction and doesn't have any of those problems, aside from being able to tell when an immediate neighbor is running a washing machine on high (the wood floorboards are all nailed to the same long joists and carry the vibrations across).

As we blunder our way into the Anthropocene, discussions like this will be looked upon in terror by people living in far more cramped and efficient conditions.

Why didn't you live in more efficient housing, they might ask.

Oh, because I was mildly inconvenienced by my neighbors.

Because I wanted a garden to grow my own food.

The insulation might not be perfect.

These things are not important or, in the case of the insulation, can be adjusted with aggressive regulation. We are going to force future generations to do it, because of our wasteful lifestyles. The least we can do is start working towards living like them, in honor of those whom we imprison in a hell of our making.

What an odd reaction. There;s no need to force everyone into a rabbit hutch as though we all live in Hong Kong. Most places have little or no need to build several floors up, outside of city centres.

A small house is, for most, a better and far more efficient solution for a couple than the typical property available. As the kids move on we've no need of multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Yet most of what gets built tries to squeeze more rooms and more bathrooms and toilets than people into the same square footage.

To me, that's what needs a rethink. You'll never get us into another apartment block though.

For the elderly they also seem like they could be an ideal solution where we once built sheltered flats. Cluster a group together with small garden space, and add a warden and panic alarms. More appealing than rattling around in the old family 4 bed home.

There will be nothing of the sort.

Shared walls also mean that if they burn their home down there's a good chance yours burns down too.