How much do you hear from your neighbours?

pinkteapot

We used to live in a top-floor flat. We never heard a thing from the neighbours below... Except for every Sunday at 10pm on the dot when they'd have, um, their special time.

Before that I lived in a middle-floor flat and did hear noise from above (e.g. washing machine on spin). More noise comes down than up.

We live in a detached house now and it's absolute bliss. Not only do you not have to worry about neighbour noise, you don't have to tip-toe around yourself and worry about the noise you're making. Would never go back to an attached property unless forced to.

Gillyx

We live in a terraced house, I'm assuming 50's/60's, it's a 3 story house that's been converted into 2 flats. We're on the bottom floor and our neighbours are on the 2 floors above. We hear everything, the girls going up and down both flights of stairs, shower going on, shower going off, toilet being flushed. I assume the landlord is a cheap bar steward and hasn't insulated the flooring between us properly.

Don't hear a peep out of the neighbours either side of us, their pipes are noisy as hell though, but I've actually grown used to that and don't notice it much anymore.

minerva_windsong

Not much really, but then I think we have very quiet neighbours! I only ever really hear them going out or coming in.

Does that make us the noisy ones then, if I can't hear them?

MrsManda

1930s semi, have a elderly deaf lady next door.
Don't generally hear anything in the evening/overnight. I sometimes hear the vacuum cleaner and the slightly muttering of the TV but only if I don't have any sound in my house - even having the radio on at a reasonable level means I don't hear anything from next door.

lady1964

We've just moved overseas and into an apartment on the 31st floor!!

We've never lived in a flat/apartment before and the noise from the occupants above us is taking some getting used to.

All the apartments have wooden floors, lady (I presume) upstairs walks about in heels all the time, there are I don't know how many kids, possibly 2 (sounds like 4 or 5 at times) and they like to run about and cry - loudly. Someone plays the piano, sometimes badly, sometimes ok. I can hear chairs being scraped back on the floor. They may have a rug or two down on their floors, I can hear what sounds like a hoover.

I can hear people in the corridor, I can hear the lift pinging when it arrives on our floor, I can hear the neighbours opening their doors.

That said, I know they can hear the lift bell, I know they can hear us going out, I'm sure the people below us can hear me dragging a chair out from under the table, as much as I try to remember to lift it. I don't walk on my heels around our apartment, I put them on by the front door.

This will take a bit of getting used to I'm sure, we've not been here long and I probably notice it more because I'm here all day/evening.

david39

We live in an end-terrace (1970's) and fortunately our adjoining wall separates us from their hall, stairs and kitchen and bathroom, so we don't get a problem of hearing their noise from the living room or bedrooms.

We can hear the neighbours going up and downstairs and the odd clatter of crockery and of running water but nothing that is annoying or prolonged.

Having previously lived in other adjoining properties, I count myself lucky now - and hope they don't move!

Alizarin

In my previous house the neighbours were an absolute nightmare. I lived in a 1960s semi detached house which had been split in two by a cheapskate landlord and there was no sound proofing. I heard every tiny little sound REALLY loudly. The neighbours the other side who I wasn't connected to weren't quite as bad, but their teenage son used to play dreadful bassy music that made my walls shake.

Luckily I moved out of that house before having a nervous breakdown, but not before suffering badly from depression, anxiety and insomnia caused by stressful living conditions

My current house is an end terrace, built sometime around 1980. The only sound I can ever hear from my neighbours now is if they are drilling/hammering into our shared walls (and occasionally their washing machine if I listen really hard).

My other next door neighbour is our shared private car park, so I can hear cars starting up/car doors closing etc, but I don't mind that one little bit

pulliptears

The bloody dog! Damn thing yaps from the moment she leaves for work until she gets home. I can't sit in silence in the house because it does start to grate on me after a while. I know we aren't the quietest of folk though so we have a mutual understanding lol.

I remember as a kid I lived in a 1930's semi that has massively thick walls so you can hear virtually nothing from next door. Mum had moved my bed up into a corner near to the pipes and I awoke one Saturday morning to hear the woman next door shout "BERT!!! Have you FARTED??!!!"
Never could look at them the same again. That was 30 years ago and I've never forgotten it!

LittleMissAspie

I'm in a mid-80s terrace. One neighbour is empty, the other side is a family of 6. I hardly hear anything from the big family though. There's an occasional thumping which I think is the teenagers stomping up/down the stairs and I can sometimes hear faint screaming (the primary school kids) or faint shouting (the mum). I hear no music, no TV, no hoover, it's great.

Birdie85

I live in a ground floor flat and we can hear our upstairs neighbours all the time. Shouting, laughing, banging things, running around; the horrid little kid who's never disciplined for being a noisy little screaming brat goes to bed later than we do. My *favourite* noise is when we're in bed and there's no noise to drown them out (we have the TV on constantly to cover it up)... and we can hear them peeing! _pale_

I suppose we can be annoying at times too; my OH likes to watch action movies with lots of loud bangs, which seem to shake the walls as we've got surround sound and the subwoofer does its job very well!

I cannot wait to live in a detached house!