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My first old wooden house, built in '32, creaked in the winter so much that I thought there was a break-in. It calmed down over time or it got warmer outside.
The next one was built in stone and was indeed quiet except for noise from a neighbor that came through the concrete which unfortunately was connected.
Now we have a '50s one that seems quiet except where the previous owner replaced some timber, so we've had to go down several times to check.
Are new wooden houses quiet or do you have to build mostly with masonry?
The next one was built in stone and was indeed quiet except for noise from a neighbor that came through the concrete which unfortunately was connected.
Now we have a '50s one that seems quiet except where the previous owner replaced some timber, so we've had to go down several times to check.
Are new wooden houses quiet or do you have to build mostly with masonry?
Whether a wooden house is new or old, it can make noises. This depends on how it is built and how moist the timber was when it was constructed.
If you take an old half-timbered house (often built of oak), it may creak less or more, and the difference depends on how meticulous the builder was with dry timber and accurate measurements; otherwise, this construction has all the prerequisites to become a quiet house as the frame is braced in all corners and edges (with diagonals).
If you take a modern wooden house with a vertical frame, the bracing is often replaced with (theoretically calculated) panel action. That is, there are no diagonals at all, instead, the interior paneling is used to stabilize, even if the panels are 13 gypsum. When wind pressure is then applied to the walls and roof, the horizontal forces are transferred via truss and wall plate to shear forces on the nails in the panels, provided that the panels are stiff enough not to yield around the nails, which they naturally do around a nail with a diameter of about 1 mm in gypsum, even if the nails are closely spaced. Therefore, the house does not remain quiet.
A modern wooden house, therefore, usually has worse conditions to become a quiet house once the timber has dried out after X number of heating seasons. If it's also built with rough-sawn timber, you have another factor that makes it less quiet. Additionally, if it is constructed by non-professionals, the precision in measurements during construction is poorer, which also results in a noisier house. But even if built by a professional, they cannot do anything about the timber drying later, which contributes to gaps between wooden parts and a less quiet house in the long run.
Addition:
Building a masonry house results in a quieter house. A heavy frame better insulates against sound and is not as easily set to vibration by, for example, heavy traffic. The roof truss (made of wood) is, however, an equally weak point from a noise perspective, whether it is a stone or wooden house.
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The Builder
If you take an old half-timbered house (often built of oak), it may creak less or more, and the difference depends on how meticulous the builder was with dry timber and accurate measurements; otherwise, this construction has all the prerequisites to become a quiet house as the frame is braced in all corners and edges (with diagonals).
If you take a modern wooden house with a vertical frame, the bracing is often replaced with (theoretically calculated) panel action. That is, there are no diagonals at all, instead, the interior paneling is used to stabilize, even if the panels are 13 gypsum. When wind pressure is then applied to the walls and roof, the horizontal forces are transferred via truss and wall plate to shear forces on the nails in the panels, provided that the panels are stiff enough not to yield around the nails, which they naturally do around a nail with a diameter of about 1 mm in gypsum, even if the nails are closely spaced. Therefore, the house does not remain quiet.
A modern wooden house, therefore, usually has worse conditions to become a quiet house once the timber has dried out after X number of heating seasons. If it's also built with rough-sawn timber, you have another factor that makes it less quiet. Additionally, if it is constructed by non-professionals, the precision in measurements during construction is poorer, which also results in a noisier house. But even if built by a professional, they cannot do anything about the timber drying later, which contributes to gaps between wooden parts and a less quiet house in the long run.
Addition:
Building a masonry house results in a quieter house. A heavy frame better insulates against sound and is not as easily set to vibration by, for example, heavy traffic. The roof truss (made of wood) is, however, an equally weak point from a noise perspective, whether it is a stone or wooden house.
__________________________
The Builder
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