Tip for apartmenrt owners and renters.

I realize this may exclude most, but the fact that your apartment is quiet is a very marketable point. Especially once you have been to BA.

I have found this fact to be very hard to extract from various entity's.

I will give a run down of what I know so far.

Anything with any glass facing a street with collectivos double insulated or not will be loud. Its physics.

Jacksons Junin / Vincente lopez apartment is not quiet. This is a reported fact on this forum. I will confirm.

[url]http://www.argentinaprivate.com/forum/showpost.php?p=346140&postcount=3[/url]

Roxana's apartment is dead quiet, its in the back. But craptastic cell phone coverage.

Its a trade off I guess.

I found it to be like pulling teeth to get this information from future renters. BA is a very late night town. I usually stay out until 5 maybe 8 am I have gone as far as 2 pm the next day twice. With no GHB. Afterward I need a place to crash in silence so I can start it over again that night.

I made this mistake my first 2 months here until moving to the more peaceful areas in Palermo.

It all depends on several factors:

1- Your apartment may face the back of the building, but there is a building in construction, they will start working from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM when your apartment faces the back of the building (so called city block lung) the noise concentrates more than noises from the streets.

2- Especially avoid floors under 5th in streets with buses. Downtown is more noisy than any other neighborhood. However, depending the specific street there may be more or less noises. Libertador ave is a huge street, however, is not noisy. Luis Maria Campos it's super-noisy because there are many colectivos lines going by that street. Smaller streets are less noisy, depending if there are buses on the way. For instance, baez street may become noisy only in weekends because of the people going out of the restaurants and talking loud. You may be more or less sensitive to this, however, during the mornings the street itself is super quiet. It's incredible that such central place is quiet. But it's true.

3- New and cheap buildings reduce their cost by constructing thiner walls, when you rent / buy a studio, the noises has less stopping chances and that makes a person stand in the hall can hear all the noises you make, including your phone conversations. In my opinion it's also disgusting to hear people fucking when you are not fucking, perhaps when you are eating is especially disgusting, and depending the apartment distribution, with thin walls you can hear and / or be heared.

4- Modern minimalist decor brings more noises from the outside and from the inside to the outside as well. In cases of double glassed windows, the only effect you get is sending all your noises to the hall outside of the apartment, or increasing neighbors parties and dogs barks.

5- double glassed windows are scarce in Buenos Aires, as you know there are two types, anti noise and thermique, it's not only about putting a double glassed window in the apartment, since you must change the frames as well, and some times new frames will not fit perfectly, a whole reform will be needed if not built from the beggining, and for instance, the cost of double glassed new windows for a 2 story loft it's up to USD 10.000 means a 10% or more the value of the property when a 50+ sq meter (about 505 sq ft) apartment in palermo, recoleta, belgrano areas.

Weather during the winter is not that bad as in northen europe / north of the USA, so double glassed windows porpouse it's only for noise blocking. Some brand new apartments in brand new towers (luxury construction) may inlcude it by default. It's rare an owner using the property as investment will place this premium, because the property cost will be increased a 10% but no one will pay back for it when selling the apartment. Buyers may pay more for more visual appealing improvements.

6- a stereo capable to play your ubs's or SD cards or CD's is a great way to reduce the outside noises, in addition, depending on where you come from (frequent traveller, or living in a quiet house in the middle of the country) it may take a week to adjust your noise sensitivity. Some times you are used to one type of noise, like me, I live in BA, there is no beach, and when I stay right by the beach, it takes a time to get used to the beach-night natural noise, but living in there for a while becomes even peaceful.

Noise may be traslated as an unwanted sound, or a sound you are not used to. There are many noises your brain just don't hear (you hear with your brain) like when mounting a girl and she moans, may be you don't hear it so loud when you are concentrated in other aspect of this promiscuos act:)

A good test for this is when you have a friend in the same house but in another room, he / she may tell you how loud the mounted girl moaned, and you may think she or he just exagerated. (at least happened to me a couple of times when I was in school) Perhaps is a matter of sound-perspective.