New Apartment

warrenaldo

Hi folks,

I am in the process of buying a 2 bed appartment in a small development.
The appartments a 3 stories high with 3 appartments on each floor. There really nice and i AM buying (please no nay sayers about the doom and gloom property market)

Anyway, my query is which would somebody reccomend -

is first floor a bad idea. do you get a lot of noice from above. And is it a ,lot handier for getting furniture in.

Top floor what are the advantages and disadvantages.

Just really wondering which is the most sought after.

bugler

Top floor would be most expensive. There can be noise from above on any floor except for the top, I live on the 3rd floor of a 4 story building and we used to have trouble with footsteps from the apartment above us.

Ground floor you have less privacy / greater risk of burglary.

One thing I've learned from living in apartments is that you are very much at the mercy of your neighbours. If you have decent neighbours then they can be as good as a house for peace and quiet etc. If you have bad neighbours....well, it can be a rough experience.

patrickolee

Yep, I'd agree with bugler (you didn't leave out a 'r' there?) Higher the floor the better. Used to live in 3rd floor of 4 floor apt block. Was really warm. My girlfriend of the time, lived in the same flat, only two floors down, ie first floor. Her flat was always cold... which suited her! I'm not bitter. Plus we had a better view.

Supercell

Ditto what the others have said. I've many years of apartment living behind me and agree with all said so far.
Would also stress for the same reasons don't get anything timberframed or non solid concrete floors..noise WILL drive you demented otherwise on any floor, timber seems to be a great medium for transmitting sound.

bugler

I had actually forgotten about the benefits of being on an upper floor with regards to warmth. Our apartment is really warm, meaning we should save on heating. But of course we have gas and have to pay for it anyway :mad:

We have a family with 2 kids (could be twins) of about 6/7 years of age living above us. The noise from them running around was very intrusive. It is not a suitable environment for children IMO.

After many complaints to both them and the management company something has changed, as it isn't really a problem anymore. The management company started babbling on about some underlay that had to be of a certain thickness under the floor, so maybe that has changed, hard as I find that to believe.

In any case if I am looking into moving into another multi-storey building I will only live on the top floor - it's not worth the hassle.

Oh, and I'm not missing any consonants

dalk

warrenaldo wrote:

Top floor what are the advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages?

- Usually more expensive. Most apartments i've seen get more expensive the higher up they get, with the top floor being the most expensive, even though floor space and layout may be identical.
- A lot of new developments are flat roofed so heavy rain can be noisy.

Advantages?

- Some top floor apartments (penthouses) have higher ceilings than the apartments below them, which makes them feel bigger (even though floor space might be the exact same). This is a big deal in my opinion. All apartments should have higher celings.
- No noise from above. Which i think is well worth any extra money. You will never have to worry about somebodies subwoofer upstairs etc..
- Secure. Usually can only be broken into through front door.
- Private. Nobody walking past your windows looking in.
- You might have a view.

wasim21k

well i m living on 3rd floor (its top floor)
yes! you are really at mercy of your neighbours its not that you get noise from top floor but from lower floor as well, in my case there are some polish on second floor and every day they play so loud music that every thing in my apartment vibrate (floor is timber and we have carpet on top of that thought it might help same music bum bum bum..... :mad: and if some one have party then you better join them
and on positive side i don't see any single one to live in flat or in apartment. i m buying house coz in last 3 years i learnt lesson from it so i don't want to say don't buy but think seriously you will be living there.

patrickolee

One possible disadvantage? There was a thread here before, where someone was complaining about a water noise at night time. Turned out it was the water tank for the block above their bedroom, so they could hear the tank filling. Haven't heard of that before though.

bugler

An ex-girlfriend of mine used to live in an atrociously built place in Galway, right in the middle of town. You could hear every gurgle, rattle and hiss that was emitted, as well as doors banging, floorboards creaking etc. I've never been anywhere like it since.

Victor

Try to get the apartment away from the lift / street / other noise source.

Top floor is the one that has to deal with any future roof leaks on a practical basis (the management company is responsible financially). Likewise the ground floor has to deal with rising damp, flooding and break-in