Ground floor or first floor?

HampshireH

I've lived in various.

1st floor (loved it)

Ground floor communal hallways (didn't particularly enjoy either especially the girl upstairs playing piano at 11pm and then their arguing till gone midnight) both were also damp.

Ground floor own entrance with a back door. Loved it!

None had personal gardens though 2 had communal (never used exect to hang washing)

Personally I would choose a top floor. I lived in 3 ground floor due to availability.

goodwithsaving

Ground floor for me, I like being able to step outside onto grass and had less faff when getting things delivered. It did have drawbacks though:
- People walking past when I was in bed having a lie in, or in the living room
- Cold in winter
- Nosey neighbours

Depends on area, flat size, type etc. I had my windows open all night but I wouldn't have done that elsewhere...

hazyjo

First floor - cos of noise (presuming the first floor is the top floor! If it's sandwiched between two, I'd pick the ground).

Mind you, did see a thread once about the freeholder (I think) deciding to have floors built above.

Looked round a 1st floor flat with my friend once (and another friend). She'd ruled out ground floor flats. The EA said the g/f one had just come up for sale so we decided to view as we were there. Same footprint, same way round, everything, but we ALL got 'the feeling' with the g/f one surprisingly! She bought it. Suppose I'm saying buy with her heart as much as her head! The 1st floor flat will still get noise from below (and maybe sides if attached.

iammumtoone

Best of both worlds if you can.

Never lived in a flat but my friend has. She had a 2nd floor one which she would moan about as it was a hassle carrying shopping etc up the stairs. She then moved to a second floor again but this had its own private entrance with small hall and then straight upstairs into flat (converted house). She could take all the shopping from car at once leave in the hall to carry upstairs at leisure, she also used the hall space to store a bike.

iammumtoone

The other thing my friend liked about the top floor was she had use of the loft (but I suppose this depends on the flats terms of use)

Murphybear

1st floor every time.

The noise from people above will be there all the time. Washing machines etc delivered will be once in a blue moon, you won't have to handle it yourself. Walking up one flight is not difficult, even I can do that with dodgy knees plus you get a free work out. Shopping can be delivered to door. Living on 1st floor won't be as hot as people think plus you can open windows.

I lived in a small ex council block near the common in Tooting Bec. I was on the top (4th) floor. There were only 4 flats on each floor. It was quiet, had lovely views across the common, could keep windows open, never heard the neighbours. There was a lift which never went wrong in the years I lived there (that may, of course, be unusual).

I also lived in a ground floor flat in Balham. Noisy neighbours plus the only time in my life I have been burgled:(

AnotherJoe

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

First floor flat will be a lot harder to get things like washing machine, fridge, couches and other heavy furniture into.

Does she have kids? Will she have to struggle with getting a pram up the stairs every day?

Also she will have to lug shopping bags up the stairs every week.

Only if you insist on carrying them up there yourself. If like most people you use a removals service, this shouldn't be an issue. (You wont find many residential houses with nothing in the bedrooms on account of the stairs being an insurmountable issue for getting the beds and wardrobes into them )

Fair enough for very small kids and shopping.

Anyway, another vote for 1st floor mostly on account of noise from sources such as or people just walking about, or washing machine, witness the current thread from someone in a basement flat.

Marvel1

Ground floor - most likely hear footsteps etc from above.

First floor - most likely to make noise and downstairs would be complaining.

Tom99

Ground floor is better but there is a big risk of noise from above.

benjus

I think it's hard to generalise as so many things depend on the nature of the individual situation. My wife and I live in a first floor flat with a second floor above us. It's a conversion of an Edwardian building, but they seem to have done a good job converting it and there is very little sound carried from either above or below. Of course, that's probably also got a lot to do with who our neighbours are - but I've lived in a flat underneath one with creaky floorboards and it used to drive me mad, even though the people living in it were pretty quiet themselves.

As others have said, if there's direct access to a garden then that's a bonus for ground floor living. In the past we've lived in flats with direct garden access and loved it, and it's one of the only things we miss now. We are one of the rare non-ground-floor flat dwellers that actually use the communal gardens regularly. In our building no-one has direct garden access, but one portion of the garden has effectively been taken over by one of the ground floor flats (it's fairly secluded and their main feature window in the living room looks out to that bit of garden, so it would feel a bit awkward to use it anyway), so we mostly use the other part of the garden.

The stairs don't really bother me - it's a big, wide, open staircase so easy to get things up and down it. Narrow, steep, winding stairs would be a bit different.

In summary, it depends on the individual circumstances.