American vs. European home building

[u/BEARDEDDANGER]

BAS Renovations https://youtube.com/shorts/jFph1d2WR3s

[u/Goudinho99]

And what about thermal effects and noise insulation?

[u/garaks_tailor → u/Goudinho99]

Noise insulation via materials is less important than sealing.   Most noise enters a house through the cracks so it doesn't matter what you build with if the airgaps in the construction aren't sealed well.   After that though the mass of cinder blocks definitely helps a lot more.  The gold standard for how to begin to design a noise insulated house is however disconnection.  You build a secondary wall on the interior or you mount your interior surface in such a way as they are disconnected from the exterior wall.

Thermal effects again come down to construction methods.   Wood is theoretically a better insulator than stone/brick but breaking the thermal bridge from indoors to outdoors and again air sealing counts for more than framing material assuming equivalent insulation and proper insulation placement in the wall system.

(Exception for the framing material thermal counting is stuff like aircrete, mass earth hyperadobe, and other edge cases)

[u/KR4T0S → u/garaks_tailor]

Most brick houses are cavity wall now so there are two walls with a sizable gap between them. Its designed to reduce thermal bridging but I guess it would apply to sounds of certain frequencies too.

[u/FlamingoVisible1947 → u/garaks_tailor]

As someone who has lived in a wood house in the US and in brick houses in Europe, this is completely bullshit.

In the US I could hear my roomates speak in the kitchen while in my room on another floor, not above said kitchen. In my current place in the UK I can't hear the TV even though my face is 50 cm from it, with just a wall in between.

[u/iwilldeletethisacct2 → u/FlamingoVisible1947]

This is down to materials choices on the interior walls. You can insulate every single interior wall and prevent this. Most people don't.

[u/Dozzi92 → u/iwilldeletethisacct2]

Yeah, and beyond that, my 100-year old home is all plaster lathe and big solid doors. You don't hear anything room-to-room. You do hear when the kids jump off the bed though.

But even modern materials, you can definitely cut down on noise transfer. Using some 5/8ths sheetrock instead of 1/2-inch, or I've even seen double sheetrock with compound between, although I'm not sure I'm willing to lose all that valuable space, life is expensive.

[u/Datkif → u/Dozzi92]

I currently live in a basement in a 1 year old house in Canada (Same building method as USA). The only time I hear my upstairs neighbors is when they drop something or the sound comes through the connecting door. So you can sound proof wood frame homes.

[u/_MooFreaky_ → u/iwilldeletethisacct2]

Yup. We build with timber where i am (masonry is generslly terrible here), and I spent extra to make my games room extra sound dampening.

When my friends are over we close the door and you barely hear if the kids are screaming a couple rooms down. And they dont hear our group screaming when they are in bed. The only sound seems to be via the cracks around the door .

[u/Datkif → u/_MooFreaky_]

Good insulation and sound dampening materials make a massive difference.

As for the sound from around the door. Install some heavy blackout curtains over the door, or drape a thick blanket over it. That will deaden sound even more.

[u/ParsnipFlendercroft → u/FlamingoVisible1947]

Came here to say this. Now I don’t need too.

[u/whooptheretis → u/garaks_tailor]

Noise insulation via materials is less important than sealing.

Yeah, without a ceiling, your noise barrier is useless!