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Comment by pickle-wizard | Hacker News Reader

After 10 years of living in an apartments and hearing all of my neighbors I got tired of it. So I bought a single family house. I have a small yard, only 1/8th acre, but it is enough of an air gap that I don't hear my neighbors.

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I live in a concrete/glass/steel luxury high-rise in downtown San Diego. My neighbors can have raging parties into the early morning and I can't hear a thing unless I wander into the hallway.

The construction quality of multi-family homes in SV pretty poor.

I've lived in apartment buildings in at least four cities (mostly in the midwest) where I could hear my neighbors doing normal things (i.e., not throwing ragers). It seems be a widespread problem not confined to SV.

My first post college apartment in the Chicago burbs was awful. Paper thin walls/floors/ceilings. My neighbor below me would file noise complainta against me for watching TV at a volume at which I could barely make out dialog. And, I heard every footstep of the unit above and TV of the neighbors above and below. I dont think anyone was intentionally being loud, was just shoddy construction.

I moved out after my first lease expired.

It's pretty much a thing that happened in the last decades, when building materials and standards became advanced enough that noise became a serious issue.

Nowadays codes and trends - at least in parts of Europe - caught up, and soundproofing has became important through the process. (For architects/engineers, developers/builders and buyers/renters.)

For sure, I’ve lived in places like that in SD during and after college.

My point is that properties above entry level apartment grade are scarce in the valley despite the fact that rents can support it better than just about anywhere. It actually kept me from moving up there

I'm not talking about college town apartments. Maybe I had bad luck, but two of the "luxury" apartment complexes I lived at in Kansas City were really emblematic of what I'm trying to describe. During the initial showing, I was impressed with the granite counters, flat-top range, amenities, ceiling heights, etc. But within days of moving in you noticed it's all so cheaply built.

And you can hear your neighbors cough.

Yeah, mine is a "luxury" apartment too (definitely by price and the furnishings you mention). Fortunately, it's not as bad as hearing people cough, but (as above) conversations from people above can transmit through the side walls. Plus, from one point in the kitchen, you can hear people urinate.

We can do better, and yes, I'm willing to sacrifice the superficial stuff and pay a bit more for quality construction.

I live in such a building in San Francisco. At most I can faintly perceive a baseline. I think the difference is mid-rise vs. high-rise, probably having to do with the use of wood vs. steel and concrete.

I also run a box fan almost all the time, so quieter sounds from neighbors are below the noise floor and not perceptible.

Even condo buildings tend to have way better sound proofing than apartments.

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