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Comment by ilkkao | Hacker News Reader

I live in Europe and decided to buy an apartment from a building that has been constructed in 1936. Brick walls are about 2ft thick, no issues with the neighbor noise. Still happy with my choice.

I think it's the same everywhere. Construction companies optimize everything to make more profit. Hundred years ago, at least here, apartment buildings were constructed mainly by people that had become wealthy. They directly hired builders and monitored the quality. Many times reserved the biggest apartment for themselves.

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I live in America in an apartment building that was destined to become condos (in American terms, a purchasable apartment) just before the 2008 market crash. Due to the market crash and subsequent changes in mortgage requirements for condos, it became rentable apartments instead. It was built in 1913. It has brick walls that range from 2-3' thick, and I almost never hear my neighbors except through my front door. If I could own it, I would!

I completely agree. The very old buildings in Montreal are soundproof. But the new “optimized” condos coming up have thin concrete floors(the bare minimum code) and the common walls are also soundproofed to the bare minimum code I think STC 50 if I remember.

Concrete floors with multiple thin layers of foam embedded in the concrete end up stronger and lighter than concrete without foam, and are way better at sound insulation. The downside is it's logistically harder to arrange everything in the mould.

When someone figures out a process to do it without so much labor, it'll become standard practice, because it'll save concrete and weight.

Won't the foam deteriorate over time, possibly faster than the concrete ?

Yes, but it doesn't matter. The foam really acts as a spacer to convert a single block of concrete into two blocks separated by a few millimeters.

As soon as the concrete is set into place, the foam has done its job and can degrade all it likes.

Interesting! But what holds these blocks at the separation once the foam is no longer load bearing ? Some external bracing ?

Typically the foam is only in the middle of the concrete slab, so there are still a few inches of attachment all around all the edges with contact. There is rebar in those edges too.

Interesting, do that's how it works - thanks for the explanation! :)

Can’t know this by looking at it from the outside. A renter or even a buyer gets so little time to analyze what’s underneath the flooring or inside the common walls. I do not know if one can request the materials and blueprint of a condo before buying it.

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