HawthorneVillager.com

I live in a semi and I have never heard anything from the people attached to us. And they have a little dog (who barks a lot when it's outside, so I imagine it does inside as well) and a baby.
When we went for our frame walk I asked why there were no cinder blocks and the guy told us that they actually use an inch of space and extra insulation. Apparently this has been found to be even more effective in blocking out sound. I am not architecturally or scientifically inclinded at all, but his explanation fully satisfied my bio-chemist husband. He seemed to understand the principles behind it. All I know is that this house is quieter than my last semi that DID have cinderblocks.

We have lived in our Mattamy built inside unit townhouse (neighbours on either side) for almost 5 years and love it. We never heardeveryday noise (t.v, talking, babies crying) from the other homes. One of our neighbours even has 2 dogs and we only hear them bark occasionally – and that’s usually from their backyard. So I would say that the extra wide “quiet wall” that mattamy puts between the towns and semis is more than sufficient to block noise. Form what I’ve heard about the cinderblock walls is that it’s just one method of dividing attached homes – not code or anything. I’ve also heard (but don’t have first hand knowledge) that more noise travels through those block walls…

Anyway – all of you that purchased towns and semis from Mattamy have nothing to worry about…we love ours, and will be sad to leave it. Even if we are moving to a beautiful 46’ home!

Bonnie - i was typing as you were posting, sorry for some repeats


i think that may have to with fire code

we live in a townland semi and never hear anything from our neighbours....
willow im not sure at what stage of the building process you did your testing but if it was at a construction site after the drywall was up then there probably was not any kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities etc installed in the home...depending of course when you went into it of course...anyways these things reduce the travel of sound...an emplty house without carpet etc....allows sound to travel more freely so you would hear more.....like echoing in an empty room.....thats just my opinion though....

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Adrienne & Ryan

My neighbours are anything but quiet and considerate. And I still don't hear anything. I know they are loud because in the summer when we both have our windows open I have had to go and knock on their door in the middle of the night to ask them to keep it down. Or I have to close the windows - then I don't hear anything.

The only thing we hear is when the husband goes into the garage and revs his souped-up car. Then the pictures fall off our walls.

I can help on this discussion as I've built a few sound proofed rooms in my day. I've actually done some testing with a decible meter to see the real facts.
I'm part owner in 2 (soon to be 3) music stores and when we did construction on them, we had to be very conscious about sound levels and neighbour complaints. One of our stores is located in Mississauga. When we built that store, we divided a large unit into two - our store and a carpet store next door. We specifically had a sound proof batt (insulation) that was also a great fire retardent and met with all fire codes put in the new wall. On the other side of the store there's an existing cinder block wall and a dollar store behind it. After construction was complete, we had a bit of a "jam session" with a full band playing in the store, including drums, bass, electric guitars and the Db level was around 105. We measured the DB level in both next door units and the one with the cinder block walls was noticeably higher.
So, Mattamy has an excellent reputation as a high quality builder and I'm sure with a company of this size they would have addressed the sound issues with their engineers before a shovel even hit the ground.
Just ask a Mattamy homeowner if they would ever buy Mattamy again. There's your proof.

Thanks,
Cliff

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Cliff Barron
Selling in Milton for over 14 years!
Sutton Group - Summit Realty Inc. Brokerage
#1, 07-18 company wide!

cbarron@sutton.com
http://www.callcliff.ca
905-286-5888

obviously there are a lot of happy mattamy townhouse / semi owners on this forum. it seems the "POORLY BUILT" part of the topic has prompted us to defend our homes - understandibly so.
i'm sure there are at least a couple of unhappy owners out there too.. if willow is just encouraging prospective buyers to reserch all builders in milton and make an informed desision - that is good advice. that's what we did... twice. we chose mattamy both times. it was a combination of quality, customer service, location and most of all design/layout. since our first purchase in phase 2, mattamy has listened to reams of customer feedback and improved a lot of the "finer details" by our current phase (14). i would think if there were enough noise complaints from the attached home owners (we were surveyed by mattamy) they would have reconsidered the dividing wall construction..

my 2 cents -

think about it...and cinder blocks dont catch fire....

Well Willow you have to understand, you're talking to a group of people who have spent/are spending a significant amount of money and are very proud of their new homes (i.e. their babies). You are telling them that their homes are poorly built - essentially you're saying they're crap. Judging from the opinions of the peeps who live in these cinderblock-free homes everyday, doesn't sound like there is a problem so maybe its time to re-examine what really keeps the noise out.

I also have never heard anything... and am attached at all sides and the back to my neighnours...
my neighbours assure me they cant hear anything from my house either.

I have to say that I have been in several other houses built by other builders.. where the noise is much worse and I have had a friend who actually sold his house as he could hear people next door speaking, opening dresser drawers and snoring... it was like being in the next room, not the next house.

Hello

I live in a Mattamy Townhouse and I have a Cinderblock wall between myself and my neighbour. Let me tell you.... we hear everything!!!!!!! Well let me re-phrase that.... we hear his Stereo loud and clear. It is much better then it used to be as we have worked together to find a volume and bass setting so that he can enjoy is stereo and we get the peice and quiet that we want. At the other side we may hear a cupboard door slam everynow and then but other then that not a thing. The cinderblock wall acts as a resonance chamber and reverberates all the noise through the wall. We were told by mattamy that we were lucky to have the cinderblock wall. This may be the case if the house next door catches fire, but it certainly does not do much to help reduce noise.

my2cents

KM

If everything is off, ie AC, tv, fans fridge etc. and you sit there quietly, you can hear mumbling next door. If you put your ear to the wall you can make out conversation sometimes. You can hear the tv and music too. Our town is NOT 100% soundproof, nor did I completely expect it to be. A town with or without cinder (I have lived in both), will always have some degree of noise transfer. It all depends on your own "white noise" levels as to how much you actually notice from next door.
J my 2C

I edited the topic...hope no one minds. Just thought this post is more about possible noise with towns/semis more than if the homes were poorly built or not.

We're buying a townhouse in phase 15a for my wife's parents. We've spoken to some current Mattamy Townhouse owners and the concensus we've heard is that they are well built with good noise insulation. But I understand that opinions will vary.

Our newly purchased townhome will be our first home. One of our biggest worries was whether noise from our neighbours will be bothersome. My sister has a townhome (not a Mattamy) and hates the fact that she hears everything through the walls. After reading this thread, I'm feeling a little better about buying a townhouse. It sounds like Mattamy is on the ball! Thanks everyone for posting your positive experiences!

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New Miltonians

cliff, you forgot to mention what happened when the electrical overloaded and caused a massive fire only to see the bricks and blocks remain standing, leaving the others well....out of luck...lol