Semi detached noise?

mymoneyfox

Haha, it's not that bad at all. I guess you have had bad experiences with a semi ? I'm happy with my house  just wanted to check these bits were normal or if I should be  asking the builders to check. 

hazyjo

Always good to try to get "halls adjoining" with a semi. Mine only has the hall/stairs, kitchen, bathroom and downstairs loo against the semi-wall. I find it's when you have rooms like bedrooms, lounges etc joined that it's more of an issue.

staffie1

The noise you can hear on external walls is ‘flanking noise’. When all said and done, you live in one building with a dividing wall down the middle. Impact noise (created by 2 surfaces meeting ie. doors slamming, something dropped on the floor upstairs, etc) will easily travel around the structure of properties, depending on construction methods and materials.
Airborne noise tends to me more frequency dependent. You’ll hear some sounds but not others.

I lived in an early 80s semi and never heard a peep from the 3 lots of families who lived next door during my time there. Then new people moved in and decided to put laminate flooring everywhere and, well I had to move!

I lived in a 1930s semi which was awful - there may as well have been no party wall at all. I heard every impact noise imaginable, and voices - even without being anywhere near the party wall. When their dog barked, it sounded like it was in my house. 

amandacat

I live in a 15 year old semi. I’ve lived here 10 years. I can’t hear much day to day noise, I can hear if they slam their front door or muffles if they have their TV loud. The issues have been when they do DIY and I’m unfortunate that they they seem to do a lot and that can be frustrating. They used to have teenage kids who put on loud music when the parents were out and parties until the early hours when the parents were away, it was awful. Now the kids are grown up and moved out it’s much quieter. They got a dog recently who barked constantly when they were out and I could hear that loudly but it has stopped now the dog has settled in. I know people who have no neighbour noise even in new houses and I think a lot depends on the neighbours, age of kids etc 

dinkylink

My friend lives in a new build (8 years old) semi town house. I've house sat a couple of times and the noise is awful. You could clearly here the next door kids running up and down the stairs and the slamming of doors. They're currently in the process of moving, largely because of the noise!

I live in a 90s semi and hardly hear my neighbours at all 

mrsmsebastian

moneysavinghero said:

Yes hearing doors closing is quite normal. Just wait till they start doing DIY, you will hear that. Baby crying all night. Voices when they have visitors. TV. If they are musical you will hear all their terrible instruments playing. Screaming kids. Yapping dogs.

Oh my god, I can't imagine ourselves hearing neighbours noise on a daily basis! Good thing the house we moved in is a 1960's semi-detached bungalow and I could not hear anything at all from our next door neighbour. The only time I heard a noise is when they were drilling a hole on our partition wall in the lounge, that is all.

matthew91822

My parents' 1930s semi is very poorly soundproofed. Their neighbour is a guy that's nearly deaf and listens to his TV very loud which can be heard along side their own TV. When the neighbour was still married, you could hear every word of their arguments and door slams and sadly when they made up again... 
I've lived in 2 fairly modern apartment buildings and only ever hear upstairs walking around and dragging chairs like they seem to do all through the night!

RelievedSheff

mymoneyfox said:

Haha, it's not that bad at all. I guess you have had bad experiences with a semi ? I'm happy with my house  just wanted to check these bits were normal or if I should be  asking the builders to check. 

We have vowed never to live in an attached property again after our last experience!