Dilemma with recent house move and future

johnnpaull12

theoretica said:

One thing which hasn't been mentioned and might be worth it is a very tactful word to the neighbour asking if they would install cushioning on the doors if you provided/paid for it.  A little sticky backed felt in just the right places can reduce the hardest impact of a shutting door, but it does still shake the walls.  You could experiment on your doors to see what you think might work.

We could do but as well as this the children stomping and screaming are the main culprits, like I said it can’t be helped and you can’t expect kids not to run around in their own house. Can hear the adults walking around upstairs too as if it’s in the room above us.

All carpeted too I believe.

andy444

How old is your house out of interest?

GDB2222

Sound proofing a wall will lose you around 15cms off your room size. You need to build a new wall, inside your home, acoustically isolated from the party wall. As you know, there are so many ways for sound to travel that it may not help much, anyway. As well as being v expensive.

Get some very comfortable Bluetooth headphones, and play white noise or the TV through them. A decent pair will cost £100. 

Put the money saved towards moving.

ohdarn

People often say that older houses are better constructed but our terraced house was built in 1910 and we can hear pretty much everything from next door.

The kids are pretty much feral and I swear they play drums on the radiator pipes and communicate via screaming. I get kids make noise, we've got two, but sometimes the parents don't seem to bother with controlling certain behaviours.

Plus the parents screaming obscenities at their kids can sometimes get you down.

You think you'll get used to it but actually it seems to get worse. 

I used an MP3 track called BoomBuster to counteract another neighbour that blared out thumpy music all the time and that worked really well at getting rid of the noise. Depends if you can tolerate white noise I guess.

Maybe just do it up and sell it on.

Good luck.

borkid

Have the children gone back to school? Sometimes a full day at school tires the little ***** out. You seem to have moved in during holiday time so give it a few weeks whilst they are at school and see what happens to the noise levels.

Mildreds_Earrings

johnnpaull12 said:

I don’t always have the TV on. Plus it’s a vibration whenever they walk upstairs, close a cupboard, close a door it sounds like it’s coming from within our house. Not sure I can put up with it for 10-15+ years

No you can't put up with it for 10/15 years. Speak to your partner, discuss your budget and see if you can move to a smaller detached house or a semi detached bungalow which tend to have older, quieter neighbours. We moved to a semi detached bungalow because of noisy, inconsiderate neighbours. Never looked back. That said, in your case, it's their everyday living noise that's getting to you but it does not matter - the noise is interfering with you enjoying your own home. 

Yes moving is very stressful but moving to a new place and having peace and quiet in your own home will be worth it. I am speaking from experience. Speak to your partner and move. All the best. 

MalMonroe

I've also had a noisy neighbour problem in the past, more than once, and it does get you down, I agree. However, I don't think all is lost in your case and you seem to be a very reasonable and tolerant person in that you quite understand that your neighbours aren't being deliberately noisy and three children do make substantial noise. Having said that, not all children do and maybe they're just allowed to do their own thing a bit too often. 

My first instinct would be and was when I lived in a semi, to have a word with the neighbours but although mine apologised and said they'd try to tone it down, not much happened. I had hoped that making them aware that they were being a tad (a lot!) inconsiderate and thoughtless might help them realise that other people lived through the walls. They were aware but didn't care.

However, all is not lost. I managed to move home and you will too. You're young yet and have the ability to save money so that you will hopefully be moved into your new detached home in under two years. Not everyone has that option. In the meantime you can try to cope with it as best you can. Try putting a radio on sometimes to counteract the nuisance noise or play some music or try to shut out the noise from next door and make a bit of your own in another way. Your neighbours won't even notice.

I wouldn't waste money on soundproofing. I tried that once some years ago when I moved into a ground floor flat beneath people who were deaf and had their TV on so loud I not only knew what programme they were watching but also what the characters were saying! I just had it installed in one ceiling at a cost of £1k but was disappointed because I could still hear noise from upstairs and the installer came back and added another layer of whatever it was he'd installed. It still wasn't 100 percent satisfactory. I did have a word with those neighbours too and they were quite shocked to know how their sound travelled. They actually apologised profusely and turned their TV down. Where I live now my daughter and I use headphones a lot. Not for neighbours' benefit but we like them.

Things will get better, you have the means to 'escape' and it could be much worse. Once I lived somewhere where the neighbourhood teenagers were so bored they used to throw bricks all over the place. My car was damaged more than once and so was my living room window. Police were utterly apathetic and I sold that house - with full disclosure - at a loss to one of those companies who buy any property rather than trying to sell it to some other family. 

PS sorry this went on a bit but what I was trying to say is that I'm sure things are going to turn out well for you in the end! 

Ktm1050

We had same thing lived in a semi and had noisy screaming boozing all hours adults and kids next door ..once you hear it its impossible to stop the noise ..it was either move or have a heart attack with stress ..we moved best thing we ever did .

Purplelady65

It sounds as if the family are quite noisy but even the noise of everyday activities travels through to your house. Also people have different sensitivities to noise so someone else living in your house might not be bothered by it. I’m sensitive to external noise so could never live on a road with traffic noise and have lived in a detached house for over 20 years and wouldn’t want to live in a house attached to another. From what you’ve said even if a quiet couple lived next door to you the noise of daily activities would still travel through and bother you. 

I had a friend who moved into a really old house but just couldn’t feel at home there. Noise wasn’t an issue but she just didn’t like it. It ended up having a really negative effect on her mental health so her husband, who liked the house, agreed to move and the house was sold within 12 months of them moving into it. They bought a brand new house and as soon as they’d moved it was like a weight off her shoulders and they’ve been living happily in their current house for over 15 years. 

I’d suggest if the noise really bothers you then maybe give it a couple of months just to make sure you’re not going to be able to get used to it and if not then bite the bullet and move to a detached house. Feeling happy in your home is more important than the several thousand it might cost you in moving costs. When you think about how many hours you spend in your home the cost of moving per hour of time spent in your home will work out as value for money. 

[Deleted User]

johnnpaull12 said:

Deleted_User said:

We have recently moved to a detached house after two semi-detached's and I must admit for me it's absolutely the right thing as we are very noise conscious. Although more the other way as we have two kids (15 & 12) who can be seriously loud when they want to be along with two dogs and we were always so worried about the noise they were making or the TV being too loud etc that we couldn't really relax and always felt on edge. I think it's a similar 'on edge' feeling you are describing.

I think it's all very new for you. There will be a big adjustment period. You may never get used to it - but you might, or at least be able to take a longer 'interim' period before a move to a detached property. Perhaps get a couple of good sound proofing companies out to see you and give honest opinions rather than just reading about it. They will be able to advise a lot more. You could also try one or two of the 'main use' rooms adjoining the other property first and see if there's an improvement. Then you may not have wasted as much as you thought and it might make the decision a bit more for you?

You also seem to be putting a lot of pressure on this house and very long term / forever ness. If you are late 20s, then there are so many things that can change that it might just be a lot of pressure you're adding on. It sounds like you are trying to create the 'perfect' place everywhere. Also - if you did eventually have children there then you may not notice the sound as much as with just you and your partner as you're currently on 'hyper-alert'.

Our last move was less than a year. We realised it wasn't right for us (although we agreed on that). A short move isn't a bad thing but make sure it's the right thing after exploring all options and try and take the pressure off a little.

Hi and thanks for the response.

The ‘on edge’ feeling you describe is basically it. It’s like I’m waiting out for it as soon as we settle down for the evening and stick something on the telly and I just can’t relax.

We are looking at getting some quotes. The soundproofing companies I’ve spoken to are quite honest though in saying there’s some noise you can’t block out depending on the house’s structure (I guess to cover their backs). I suppose you’ll just never know until it’s done and you owe them ££££s whether it works or not ha! I imagine soundproofing can get expensive very quickly. The thought of spending all that money and still not being satisfied will leave me completely stuck.

I will give it time though and see if I can adjust and settle, then in a years time re-evaluate. It’ll make more sense financially. Our property’s value will only increase with the market I suppose.

You said your last move was less than a year, did you struggle to sell at all with it going back on the market so soon, did buyers ask questions about why etc? 

We put ours on the market after just under 8 months. That wasn't the reason we'd moved, it just didn't feel right to us and too rural a location for our teens in hindsight. But we were always intending on doing some level of renovation to the property which we did during those months which gave us a reason to sell for an increase. We were honest with viewers that the house wasn't the right location for us with the age group of children and our lifestyle, although idyllic. People seemed to understand that and appreciated our honesty. 
I think it happens a fair bit to do shorter moves. You just may need to have something prepared to say if you're asked - even if it's a vague 'change of circumstances'.