Living Across from A Bar
I am about to make an offer on a townhouse thats located right across a street from a bar. I am not clear how noisy the bar will be as it is still under construction, but i know it will be a beer garden. My bedroom will be on the first floor a road across from the bar. I wonder how loud can it get? Is there anything I can do to protect myself from the noise? The seller says they have very special windows, but I wonder if thats enough. Anyone experienced living across the stree from a bar? Any advice? Thank you.
viaorient
in Quality of Life 13 years and 4 months ago
8
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8 replies
Mads54 | 13 years and 3 months ago
I don’t know. I didn’t buy but I lived on top of a bar in the West Village for years. Granted, I was on the third floor and it was the West Village. Having the bar traffic always made it a bit safer for us all. But again, guess it depends on the area.
Rick | 13 years and 4 months ago
There will always be another house. You could be asking for a headache. What makes this building so special that you’re considering the risk? I lived accross the street from a bar for about 8 years ( Carriage House Park Slope ). However, I lived on the top floor so it wasn’t so bad. I did get to watch some good fights in the street from my apartment. I had to call the cops a few times. It can be really entertaining watching shitfaced, idiot guys, beat the hell out of each other.
armchairwarrior | 13 years and 4 months ago
my tenants bitch about the bar in the backyard. if you don’t like noise don’t buy it. the same tenants will be bitching about the beer garden soon as it opens in that lumber yard.
Snezan | 13 years and 4 months ago
it could be a big deal, but you don’t know. You don’t know if the loudest people in the world live next door to your apartment. You don’t know if people smoke right outside the window of the apartment. Buying anything requires some risk taking. Make the decision.
Goatcrapp | 13 years and 4 months ago
depends on your personality type… I know some who would see such a location as being an assett lol. They would get to stumble home straight way and have instant access to libation. If that’s not you – look elsewhere, unless you can get it at enough of a discount vs. a similar home NOT near the bar, to make it worth living with.
GoodProspect | 13 years and 4 months ago
Do not not not not buy a house across the street from a beer garden. I live around the corner from a bar with a back yard and a) am sick of drunken idiots yelling down the street late at night, which I can hear from my bedroom on the other side of the house and b) can’t open my front windows in warm weather because said idiots, packed into bar’s back yard, are loud and obnoxious, especially when there’s a game on and the preferred team scores a point. I’ve lived here a lot longer than the bar has been there, and I wish they’d found somewhere else to set up shop.
slopemope | 13 years and 4 months ago
Ditto. Drunk people will stumble out, linger, smoke, talk way too much, not respect the neighbors – and when you are sober and sleepig you wouldn’t believe how shallow and pointless the conversation will seem. By that point you are consciously awake and interrupted sleep night-in and night-out will degrade your life much more than having the townhouse. Sure, you can do a double set of windows, the outside one being laminated and then perhaps an special laminated interior storm window. (Laminated being expensive but excellent for sound control). However keep something in mind: if the house in question is an old brick or brownstone and does not have central heat and ac with an air exchanger – chances are the house “breathes”. Meaning it is not insulated on the exterior walls precisely because the air draft exists to let fresh air into the house, and without it the air quality would be very poor (and you would not do so well yourself). What does this have to do with noise? Well, you can’t acoustically seal something that needs to breathe by design. (Also, if you’re like us and your rental neighbors next door smoke on their stoop guess who smells it? not pleasant) Anyway, if it were a modern townhouse with integrated HVAC – your chances would be much greater to have a goal for peace and quiet across from a bar. Conversely if its old, and you want to seal up th bedroom and add an acoustic air exchanger, that is a possibility – but not cheap as you need someone who knows what they are doing, otherwise there is no point in doing it half-assed (when it comes to acoustics). Good luck, and remember – location location location.
Putnamdenizen | 13 years and 4 months ago
Don’t do it. It will be noisy. People will smoke in front of your windows – which you might want to open occassionally. Beer gardens invite conversation. Loud conversation. Buy elsewhere. (But you knew that already, right?)