Re:Small World: The Tiny House Trend
by vertex-four on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @10:47AM
(#19086346)
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.
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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.
Re:Small World: The Tiny House Trend
by NeedMoreTea on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @11:00AM
(#19086499)
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).
Re:Small World: The Tiny House Trend
by organsnyder on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @11:39AM
(#19086914)
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!
Re:Small World: The Tiny House Trend
by NeedMoreTea on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @11:12AM
(#19086624)
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.