ᐅ Prefabricated house, poor sound insulation / high noise transmission

Hello

I have never understood why someone would buy a prefabricated house. A timber frame, some insulation, drywall on the inside, and plaster on the outside. If you hit it with a wheelbarrow, you’re suddenly in the living room.
If these houses were cheaper, I might understand it. But a masonry house doesn’t cost that much more. And the interior finishing is almost identical.
My house is made of 24 calcium silicate bricks, mineral wool insulation, and facing bricks. In total, the exterior wall is over 50cm (20 inches) thick. No sound gets through that. And when I look at the prices being quoted here, I just can’t get my head around it.
My house will still be standing in 100 years. At least the structure will still be sound. A prefabricated house has much lower chances of lasting that long.

Steven

Steven schrieb:

Hello,

I have never understood why anyone would buy a prefabricated house. A wooden frame structure, some insulation inside, drywall on the inside, and plaster on the outside. If you bump into it with a wheelbarrow, you end up in the living room.
If the houses were cheaper, I might understand it. But a brick house doesn’t cost that much more. And the interior finish is almost identical.
My house is made of 24 sand-lime bricks, mineral wool insulation, and facing bricks. In total, over 50 cm (20 inches) of exterior wall. No sound gets through that. And when I see the prices being asked here, I just don’t get it.
My house will still stand in 100 years. At least the structure is still solid. A prefab house has much lower chances of lasting that long.

Steven

Yes, you’re absolutely right. That’s also why there are no old half-timbered houses left in Germany. An external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) is much less vulnerable than any prefab house. And if the wolf comes, it will blow down the wooden house.
Especially here, I want to agree with you: absolutely every prefab house is the same! In reality, there is no difference between solid wood or various insulation materials.
*Irony off

Steven schrieb:

Hello

I have never understood why anyone buys a prefab house. A timber frame, some insulation inside, drywall on the interior, and plaster on the exterior. If you bump into it with a wheelbarrow, you’re standing inside the living room.
If these houses were cheaper, I might understand. But a brick house doesn’t cost that much more. And the interior finishing is almost the same.
My house consists of 24 cm (9.5 inches) calcium silicate bricks, mineral wool, and facing bricks. In total, over 50 cm (20 inches) of exterior wall. No sound gets through that. And when I see the prices quoted here, I can’t make sense of it.
My house will still stand in 100 years. At least the structure will still be fine. A prefab house has less chance of lasting that long.

Steven

That’s nonsense and an overgeneralization. Apart from calcium silicate bricks with external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS), other houses nowadays also have poor sound insulation. Ytong and Poroton blocks are also weak. But windows are usually the weak point with a weighted sound reduction index (Rw) of 30 to 33 dB. Even with your calcium silicate brick wall, which probably achieves 50 dB to 53 dB, you can’t improve much if the windows are the limiting factor.

Steven schrieb:

My house will still be standing in 100 years.

That doesn't have to be an advantage.

I’m not sure which areas you live in, but regardless of the architectural style of the houses, I have never noticed poor soundproofing as a negative issue when visiting anywhere. It should be quite obvious that wood or aerated concrete near an airport or major traffic road is not the best choice.

Steven schrieb:

But a masonry house does not cost much more.

The same applies to masonry houses as well. We have the same issues as @haydee with a house built using Poroton.

haydee schrieb:

I can hear when
- cars drive by
- car doors slam
- people talking loudly

However, unlike the original poster, we don’t press our ear to the wall... we hear these sounds just as they are. But if we did that, we would probably get too caught up in other people’s noises and end up noticing every little sound and getting annoyed.