Condo, villa, townhouse, duplex, house… all these words that can mean different things. We knew we wanted more space, privacy, a great neighborhood, brand new construction, maintenance free-ish living, and our own design touches. But what exactly would our new home look like? The same as a freestanding house… or one with a shared wall?
We narrowed it down to either a freestanding condo house, or, a home sharing one wall, and one wall only. The freestanding houses are mixed in with one shared wall homes in our desired neighborhood. But no lots remained for the freestanding condo houses in the current phase. If we chose that option, it would be many more months to wait for a new phase to open. We actually liked the layout of the shared wall homes slightly better than the freestanding condo houses. So we took the plunge… signed up for the wall.
The wall
A shared party wall it would be. Sounds risky (oh, maybe a pun?). But all walls are not created equal. Some are pretty fantastic. Our realtor lives in basically the same model we are building. She has sold many dozens of these shared wall homes. She has never heard noise. None of her clients has ever had a noise issue. I talked to the construction supervisor who also confirmed their great experience with this wall.
Still, I like to understand the actual structure.
It starts with two inches of rock, built from the foundation all the way up to the roof. An inch of air on both sides (to decouple acoustically). Then, 2 by 4 separate walls on both sides. They are isolated from the middle rock wall, and filled with loose insulation. The 2 by 4 walls are only connected to the rock by aluminum clips. If a fire occurs, the clips will melt and the wall of the unit on fire will collapse inward on itself. The home next door remains undamaged for two hours.
Sheet rock then finishes the wall on both sides. All resulting in a two hour firewall.
A foot thick wall.
A quiet wall.
A few weeks away
We love the home we have designed. The lot we chose will give us great backyard privacy. Our construction supervisor knows his stuff, and is delivering quality construction. Sometime in June, we will finally be moving. Just a few more weeks. Into our last home. Not your old townhouse wall. And not your grandma’s condo.