It’s understandable that anyone who’s never lived in a townhome might feel trepidation about the neighbours’ noise. Better yet, those who have lived in a town home might recall noise coming from adjoining units in the past.
You’ll be pleased to learn that sound attenuation technology today is far superior to what it once was and the soundproofing at The Oaks will be so effective you may well forget that you have a party wall at all.
Here’s how we do it:
When we build our townhomes we make sure that we get off on the right foot by pouring foundation walls that demise the town home units with concrete walls at the basement level. Then we build solid block walls that separate the units into individual spaces.
We add 1½” studding and insulation to each side of the concrete block walls to ensure that both sounds are restricted to the unit from which they originate.
Floor joists run from front to back, rather than side to side, ensuring that sound generated in an adjoining unit doesn’t carry to its neighbour. Also, there is 1½” sound insulation on either side of the party walls further ensuring sound attenuation. Finally, we finish the interior walls with 5/8″ drywall (not 1/2″) to further add to the unit’s integrity. The floor joists are Engineered TGI Floor Joists “Silent Floor System,” supported by steel beams seated on concrete piers within each unit.
The accompanying image shows how we do it.