Are all apartments noisy

SeaSpray

Looks like detached bungalow it is! The apartment idea was just a thought I had when browsing the property sites

Ivana_Tinkle

SeaSpray wrote: »

Ah yes she's had the noisy footsteps, people having sex, but no toilet flushing - in the semi detached house.

It's very, very unlikely there'll be less noise from neighbours if she moves to a ground floor flat. I won't say it's impossible, because she could be lucky, but it really would be luck - dependant on a combination if a well-designed building and very quiet, considerate neighbours who keep similar hours to her. These things are pretty much impossible to check thoroughly without actually living in the flat, and can change at any time if new neighbours move in.

If the neighbours' noise bothers her now, in the semi, I think she would be foolish to even consider a ground floor flat unless she's got no other option.

pinkteapot

Flats are also leasehold and so have a monthly management charge (highly variable). Need to account for that in the budget.

Bungalows are a little expensive as they are on larger plots of land than equivalently sized houses. First step is to get her semi valued by some agents and then see what she can afford in terms of bungalows in the area.

GwylimT

It depends on the flat, I live in a flat that was completed in January, it is ground floor and sits above an underground car park, I'm yet to hear any car engines starting or anything of the kind.

The way our flats are designed is that each flat has two external walls, the two internal walls consist of one being joined directly onto another flat and the other the communal hallway. We don't get any noise, you don't hear people walking upstairs and we can't hear our adjoining neighbours, the only thing we heard was the flat next doing some DIY, they were fitting shelves on our adjoining wall.

If we have the french doors open we might occasionally hear our neighbours, but as we have a garden no more than you would in a normal house, we also have the luxury of having very little traffic noise as we aren't on a through road so we only residents vehicles, service vehicles and visitors.

hellokitty08

My nan has a shared ownership in a on over 55's development, is that still too old?

fionajbanana

My friend lives in a newish gf flat and the only noises she hears is when the people upstairs drop heavy things accidentally.

Slinky

We had a 2nd floor flat my husband used to live in during the week for work. I certainly wouldn't have wanted the ground floor flat next to the external doors as we could hear them banging from 2 floors up.

lvm

I wouldn't recommend an apartment.

I live in first floor flat and could hear old tenant upstairs snoring and people in next building playing music. Saying that, I have extraordinary hearing (I've moved back with parents to avoid the noise!)

I definitely recommend detached!

uk_american

I am also extremely noise sensitive. I chose a top floor flat which is in a Y shape, with 3 flats, one on each prong. And--very important--my bedroom does not share any walls with the other flats. My bathroom does, but not bothered there. As it's a 2009 build, the walls are pretty sound.

A colleague has a new build ground floor flat, the bedroom is on the back and faces woodlands. He does hear some foot traffic on the stairs, especially as people come/go from work. His walls are not shared with any neighbors, but only to the external hallway, and they seem quite strong, no sounds. Above him, the flat is in the same layout but he hears nothing.

So if you did go the flat route, be sure that the bedroom is not sharing walls with side neighbors to minimise the risk of noise.

jk0

My latest rental flat was built in 1963. When I was there the other day, I could hear the neighbour upstairs tinkling in the toilet, never mind flushing it.