I'm posting this because I want some sort of an idea of what to expect when buying a townhouse. I've read a bunch of other threads and most seem positive but I want to ask a few things. Here's a little background info first...

Right now I'm living in a smallish condo/apartment complex (some of these are condos but I'm renting for pretty cheap). I'm on the 2nd floor which sucks (3 floor complex) so I share my floor and ceiling. Needless to say, watching movies/listening to music sucks here, which is the main reason I want to find a new place. Not to mention my refrigerator is in the same room as my living room, so you can imagine how mad I get when the fridge is almost as loud as my T.V.!

Ideally I want a house, but at my age it probably isn't the best move (although in this market it would be smarter in the long run). Even though I'm 23, I can afford a decent house around the 200k range if I am smart about my budgeting and whatnot. But still, there is a lot more responsibility and costs associated with a house so I probably shouldn't go that way yet until I have a years' worth of salary saved up in my savings/emergency fund/etc.

Well with all that said, we can get to what this thread is really about!

I've been researching and I found a couple of really decent townhouses. They are actually duplexes that are ~1500 sq. ft. Two floors plus a basement... but I'm not sure if the basement is finished or not. The realtor's website doesn't show pictures of it, so I'll assume it's unfinished. Here is a picture of the front of one of the townhouses (both are basically the same design):

http://media.cdn-redfin.com/photo/52/bigphoto/651/70894651_0.jpg

Basically, the living room is against the exterior walls (on both the left and right duplex sides) with the kitchen occupying the space that shares the common wall. The construction, from what it says on the website, is frame construction w/ 2x6 boards and fiberglass insulation. From this info., do you think I have a good chance of disturbing my neighbors? If you must know, I have two Cerwin Vega E-712 floorstanders (yeah I know, not the greatest but they have served me well over the past few years). Right now I'm just trying to save as much money as possible so I can get a decent place to live (at the same time, I am researching speakers:D).

I do plan on sound proofing to some extent. Whether it is ripping up the walls and putting new insulation in or something else... I'm not sure yet. I will be visiting these places soon though.

Eventually, I'll keep my 61" DLP in the living room for regular T.V. watching and whatnot and buy a projector for the basement (if the basement isn't too small of course.) I'll have a good 5.1 or larger setup but I'll also want to be able to switch it to a 2.1 setup for music listening. But that's a discussion for another time:)

What are your experiences with townhouses that may have not-so-good insulation inside the walls? Does the kitchen provide a good enough buffer zone (keep in mind that there are basically two kitchens separating our living rooms)?

Would you guess that the basements are separated by a shared concrete wall? I am positive the ceiling is concrete if the garage is above the basement. With this in mind, would I even need to do any soundproofing? Would the lower frequencies pass through the concrete?

From the pictures, the only thing worrying me is the living room/kitchen. Although the kitchens are a kind of buffer zone, I still think that some sound will leak through.

If you could give me all of your opinions/ideas/comments that would be excellent. For anyone who has actually read all of this, thanks! For anyone who hasn't/won't, sorry about the long post. I usually tend to go overboard and be over-thorough.

you need to read the library of articles here. Then you will have some knowledge of the issues. Insulation will be of no help in keeping the sub-woofer rumble on your side. You need mass, mechanical isolation and dampening. In the basement if you have a concrete partition wall between the two units that would be the ideal place to start. There actually might not be a basement under the garage portion of the town house so you would have a buffer zone. The challenge will be to keep vibration out of the townhouses framing which from your description may be connected to the other unit. There are construction techniques used today where two adjoining units each have separate wall framing and in that case your goal of containing sound is easier to achieve. You might look for such. Some multi units erect a concrete block wall between units then put the framing on both sides not connected to the concrete block wall. In that case the only mechanical connection between the two units is the roofing and the siding.

You might check your community for zero lot-line homes. Might be called patio homes in your area. Homes that are built very close to each other but not touching. Often outside maintenance is provided by the homeowners association.

www.soundproofingcompany.com

you need to read the library of articles here. Then you will have some knowledge of the issues. Insulation will be of no help in keeping the sub-woofer rumble on your side. You need mass, mechanical isolation and dampening. In the basement if you have a concrete partition wall between the two units that would be the ideal place to start. There actually might not be a basement under the garage portion of the town house so you would have a buffer zone. The challenge will be to keep vibration out the the townhouses framing which from your description may be connected to the other unit. There are construction techniques used today where two adjoining units each have separate wall framing and in that case your goal of containing sound is easier to achieve. You might look for such. Some multi units erect a concrete block wall between units then put the framing on both sides not connected to the concrete block wall. In that case the only mechanical connection between the two units is the roofing and the siding.

You might check your community for zero lot-line homes. Homes that are built very close to each other but not touching. Often outside maintenance is provided by the homeowners association.

www.soundproofingcompany.com

Excellent, thanks. When I visit these places I'll ask if the units are separated by concrete or just framing/drywall.

I've been looking all over in towns near here and all I can find are townhouses that are connected to each other. Within my price range, there aren't any that are separated.

I'll check out that link, thank you.

EDIT:
I just got some more info on one of the duplexes, and it has concrete flooring (I'm guessing for the living room/kitchen). So that's some good information :)

I moved in to a newly constructed townhouse in November. If there is any way to put the ht in the basement, do it. I have a pretty high powered sound system with 2 subs and have had no complaints. There are some pics on page 3 or 4 on this thread if you are interested.

I moved in to a newly constructed townhouse in November. If there is any way to put the ht in the basement, do it. I have a pretty high powered sound system with 2 subs and have had no complaints. There are some pics on page 3 or 4 on this thread if you are interested.

No complaints... that's good to hear! I'll check out your setup.

Does anyone know if a duplex shares a basement or is it split in half like the house?

Does anyone know if a duplex shares a basement or is it split in half like the house?

Like a lot of things in life, it depends.

But usually two separate units do not share a common basement. I owned a duplex as my first house. It had separate basements. The basement was part garage, part finished space. The garages were side by side in the middle and then the basement rooms were on the ends so there was a great buffer between the two units.

However the Master bedrooms were separated by simple 2x4 walls with single layers of drywall on each side. We lived in the unit for a few months and the renters moved out. We rented to a couple that just got married and we were surprised at how much of their life we could be involved in. They were in the putting the nickels in the jar stage of their life and we realized that the previous occupants must have been whispering when we moved in and letting us entertain them because we never heard them.

In the bathrooms the medicine cabinets were back to back and I felt like I had roommates when getting ready in the morning.

I was really glad when I moved out, and even happier when I sold it a few years later for almost 3 times what I paid.

Whateveryo....the wife and I just bought our first home, a townhome, not to long ago. We have a neighbor on each side who have not complained about the MFW-15 yet. I just took a look in our utility closet and noticed that a concrete block wall goes about 7.5 feet up then I only see drywall, so I am assuming that that is all the concrete I have between us and the neighbors. That may be a good place to look in your search for a home.....and good luck with the search, it is a good time to buy if you can responsibly handle it.

Like a lot of things in life, it depends.

But usually two separate units do not share a common basement. I owned a duplex as my first house. It had separate basements. The basement was part garage, part finished space. The garages were side by side in the middle and then the basement rooms were on the ends so there was a great buffer between the two units.

However the Master bedrooms were separated by simple 2x4 walls with single layers of drywall on each side. We lived in the unit for a few months and the renters moved out. We rented to a couple that just got married and we were surprised at how much of their life we could be involved in. They were in the putting the nickels in the jar stage of their life and we realized that the previous occupants must have been whispering when we moved in and letting us entertain them because we never heard them.

In the bathrooms the medicine cabinets were back to back and I felt like I had roommates when getting ready in the morning.

I was really glad when I moved out, and even happier when I sold it a few years later for almost 3 times what I paid.

Yeah if these places have separate basements then I'm all set and my decision is pretty much made! It'll probably be a few months before I move so we'll see what happens. I managed to find one detached condo but the killer for me (for the price of it) is that there's no garage. A garage is very nice to have in the northeast.

It sort of makes me mad how so many places have 'cheap' construction and don't have thicker walls. I think I should build my own apartment building with 12" concrete slabs behind insulation and drywall... I'll call it the Audio Enthusiast Estates!

Whateveryo....the wife and I just bought our first home, a townhome, not to long ago. We have a neighbor on each side who have not complained about the MFW-15 yet. I just took a look in our utility closet and noticed that a concrete block wall goes about 7.5 feet up then I only see drywall, so I am assuming that that is all the concrete I have between us and the neighbors. That may be a good place to look in your search for a home.....and good luck with the search, it is a good time to buy if you can responsibly handle it.

Yeah when I go to look at places I'll be asking a bunch of questions about the shared wall and the basement. I'll definitely make it a point to poke around in the basement and see how well built everything is. If I'm spending >200k on a duplex I'm going to damn well make sure I can put a home theater in it!

This really is a great time to buy. I'm only renting now because when I got out of school I had pretty much nothing in savings. I found the cheapest place I could (it's also within walking distance to work so there's some extra gas money I save too) and my plan was to move out within 10 months or so. Hopefully only the responsible people will be buying in a time like this:)

I built a home theater in the basement of my townhouse last fall. Check my sig for pics.

I double dry-walled and used Green Glue in between, and didn't couple the studs to the concrete outer wall. I can make it uncomfortably loud in the room and my neighbors don't hear a thing. I'm friendly with them and ran a couple of tests and the most they heard one time when I had it so loud I had to step out of the room (I wasn't watching anything, this was just a test) was a low rumble like far off thunder.

I built a home theater in the basement of my townhouse last fall. Check my sig for pics.

I double dry-walled and used Green Glue in between, and didn't couple the studs to the concrete outer wall. I can make it uncomfortably loud in the room and my neighbors don't hear a thing. I'm friendly with them and ran a couple of tests and the most they heard one time when I had it so loud I had to step out of the room (I wasn't watching anything, this was just a test) was a low rumble like far off thunder.

That's excellent man. I'm so excited to buy a place now (townhouse or duplex) and turn the basement into a home theater. Looks like a really fun project once it gets started.

For the double dry-wall: you basically put one layer of dry-wall and the original wall in the basement (with insulation between them), then a layer of green glue between your first dry-wall layer and a 2nd layer of dry-wall? Do I have it right? That sounds easy enough.

Also for the ceiling, is it efficient/reasonable to repeat that process above (except not decoupling the ceiling and drywall) but probably with something better than drywall in order to mount a projector and lights?

I can't believe no one hears anything! Looks like an amazing theater BTW.