Solid staircase. Nothing worse than the poor quality of staircases I’ve walked up in homes from the past 80’s to present. You can hear everything. That’s one thing about this current house the stairs from basement to first floor and first to second and second to attic are solid as a rock! 1910 home.

I will add that my GC built the staircase in our 1890 home in AL when we converted the attic to living space and he did a fantastic job. Solid as a rock . So it’s the construction quality that matters.

(not a pro)

• Solid doors - there's a big difference in look and feel between nice paneled doors and flat hollow-core doors.
• Good quality windows - no rattling.
• Good quality carpet and padding. Good padding can make OK carpet feel more high quality and cheap/thin padding can make good carpeting feel lower quality.

These things affect sound as well.

We live in Florida. Would never buy a home that didn’t have second story poured concrete. All my husband has to do is do a quick bounce on the second story and he’s got his info!

JuneKnow - you are spot on - we had a home built 3 years ago and it was close to $1m - but it had spray foam insulation throughout, every interior wall had insulation, radiant in floor heat, very expensive windows, extensive engineering for significant snow load. All these things you can’t see, but we knew were there. You could walk around upstairs and not hear footsteps downstairs, when the wind blew, you could hardly hear it. Due to losing our home in a forest fire, we are now living in a rented tract home (same square footage) brand new - sold for half that - but oh my gosh can you tell the difference! It doesn’t even have windowsills - just drywall around all 4 sides of the windows! You can hear every sound from the upstairs to downstairs, and I’m not sure how well it’s insulated, but my feet are just cold all the time, and noisy... you can hear everything outside too (builder grade windows, I’m sure!)

Build to above and beyond code. Code offers minimal as the requirement and that is what many tract builders offer and what most people will accept and expect as the norm.

I am an old house lover so plaster walls are high on my list. Real masonry construction, not just a few square feet of brick veneered onto the street facing portions is a plus too. Solid wood doors, solid nail down wood flooring and real wood windows are part of a solid look and feel too. Other items would be spray foam insulation and hydronic heat.

I would say that few build with "real wood" windows in any situation now. I had real wood windows on my last house - built 10 years ago. This time we have vinyl wrapped wood windows and they are far more solid. There are lots of ways to do windows but generally wood is not the high-end go to.

Not every dollar spent makes a home feel solid so just throwing money around doesn't really help.

Thicker interior walls and those with insulation aren't really that noticeable. Now thicker drywall - that is noticeable.

The items you list that make a house feel solid are from different issues.

Draft and hot and cold areas should be gone with any decent modern house. Even a crappy spec house (well usually).

Spray foam is a way of throwing money at a problem that helps but isn't the best way most of the time. Now I have spray foam but not throughout - only in problem areas. Packed cellulose in the walls actually blocks sound a bit better. 2x6 and masonry siding help keep a house quiet from the outside. Obviously good windows help. Thick drywall helps here too.

Creaks, rattles, vibrations - that is just solid construction and probably comes down to using not the cheapest materials but more importantly, good quality labor.

Truly solid homes - concrete does help. Build on a slab certainly helps limit floor movement. Know of course that some movement is a bit more comfortable on knees and back.