Depressed about new house

TBagpuss

You have my sympathy - I'm alos very senstive to noise and have had issues in the past with noisy neighbours BUT there is hope. As others have siggested , think about sound proofing / noise reductions - short term, things like bookcases and hangings on the walls, and rugs or carpets, longer term look at a proper assesment and work on the floor and/or walls.

You might also find that a white noise machine is helpful.  In my previous home I had an issue with noisy neighboors and found that havign a white noise app on my phone was really helpful when I went to bed (it was a terraced hosue and our bedrooms shared a wall - they used to have the TV on and were also prone to noisy conversatios at all hours) 

Equally, you may find that having your own tv or music on at low volume works in a similar way - it doesn't drown out the noise from next door but it breaksit up, and gives you omething differnt to listen to. 

You could alsoconsier if there is anthing specifc which stands out - I did have a chat to my neighbours as they had mounted their tv on the wall between our houses and a lot of sound travelled. I explained the issue and they moved it (or possibly changed how it was mounted, I don't know) which helped a lot. 

Best of luck. 

FreeBear

neverthoughtidbehere said: I will never understand why all semis are built with adjoining living areas and bedrooms, makes more sense to have the hallways and stairs adjoining 

Older builds would have a shared chimney stack in the middle. It made sense to position the rooms either side so that one could make use of a fire. With the move away from solid fuel, there is no need for a chimney in a modern house, so things could be moved around. But with a semi, putting bedrooms/reception rooms furthest away from the party wall means that these rooms have two external walls - A bigger area for heat loss...

RM_2013

Reading about soundproofing of weeks need it has eased my mind a little.  Plus the suggestion about layout.  We are in the middle of a 3 terrace but looking from the outside it’s obvious that the stairs are adjoined so hopefully this provides a kind of barrier between the houses 

Norman_Castle

killerferret666 said:

The worst part is I'm sure the bigger benefit would be of course filling in the gap between their joists, stopping the noise dead that end.

Joists are rarely a tight fit where they go through walls. Filling the gaps between them and the walls might help stop the airborne noise from under their floor traveling to under yours. It should be possible to do this by lifting only one or two lines of floor boards.

andy444

It might be worth getting a specialist contractor round to see if there are any possible soundproofing options available. Don't be too quick to determine that there's no soundproofing options available.

But you have my sympathy. I live in an end terrace house (so effectively semi-detached) and I can hear my neighbours TV through the party wall. I'm just glad that I don't live in a mid-terrace house where I could literally have double the 'fun' of noise intrusion.

I know hearing 'it could be worse' will hardly make you feel better but it would likely be so much worse if you lived in an apartment. And although you probably find your neighbours annoying, consider yourself fortunate that you don't live next to proper neighbours from hell who could cause right misery.

Just to let you know that you're not alone in your issue; it's unfortunately a fairly common aspect in adjoined housing.

neverthoughtidbehere

TBagpuss said:

You have my sympathy - I'm alos very senstive to noise and have had issues in the past with noisy neighbours BUT there is hope. As others have siggested , think about sound proofing / noise reductions - short term, things like bookcases and hangings on the walls, and rugs or carpets, longer term look at a proper assesment and work on the floor and/or walls.

You might also find that a white noise machine is helpful.  In my previous home I had an issue with noisy neighboors and found that havign a white noise app on my phone was really helpful when I went to bed (it was a terraced hosue and our bedrooms shared a wall - they used to have the TV on and were also prone to noisy conversatios at all hours) 

Equally, you may find that having your own tv or music on at low volume works in a similar way - it doesn't drown out the noise from next door but it breaksit up, and gives you omething differnt to listen to. 

You could alsoconsier if there is anthing specifc which stands out - I did have a chat to my neighbours as they had mounted their tv on the wall between our houses and a lot of sound travelled. I explained the issue and they moved it (or possibly changed how it was mounted, I don't know) which helped a lot. 

Best of luck. 

Got a really good white noise machine off Amazon when I realized problem and tbh it's been a good send with reducing noise when I go sleep !

neverthoughtidbehere

andy444 said:

It might be worth getting a specialist contractor round to see if there are any possible soundproofing options available. Don't be too quick to determine that there's no soundproofing options available.

But you have my sympathy. I live in an end terrace house (so effectively semi-detached) and I can hear my neighbours TV through the party wall. I'm just glad that I don't live in a mid-terrace house where I could literally have double the 'fun' of noise intrusion.

I know hearing 'it could be worse' will hardly make you feel better but it would likely be so much worse if you lived in an apartment. And although you probably find your neighbours annoying, consider yourself fortunate that you don't live next to proper neighbours from hell who could cause right misery.

Just to let you know that you're not alone in your issue; it's unfortunately a fairly common aspect in adjoined housing.

I will have to keep digging for specialists, seem to be quite rare when looking online. Really hard to find average cost on forums as well who's had it done. You try read between the lines n it sounds it could be a few thousand or 10k plus. they don't disclose

[Deleted User]

neverthoughtidbehere said:

GDB2222 said:

You might find carpets help, if the sound is through the floor? What do you have right now?

Yes impact noise come through floor and all carpeted 

There's carpet and there's carpet though, if finances allow go for the thickest pile, if not, add some thick pile rugs.
There are ways to muffle sound.

Mostly though, try changing the way you look at the problem, focussing on the ways you hate it won't help, alter the way you see the situation and plough through it for a couple of year - then sell if you've not settled your mind by then.

[Deleted User]

housebuyer143 said:

neverthoughtidbehere said:

Exodi said:

I'd say this is part and parcel of living in a terraced house to be honest.

The last terraced house I lived in we could hear the neighbours having... fun... together. No doubt they could hear the same. Obviously very weird to think about but we both just lived our lives.

What is the issue if they can hear you? It's likely to be muffled anyway, are you able to make out exactly what they are talking about, or just that they are talking?

I wouldn't hope on the fact that moving into another terraced property would solve this issue. Do you have the money to move to a detatched house?

It all comes down to affordability and convenience.

Do you think you could make peace with the fact that you can hear them and they can hear you?

I'm already mentally stressed from it, could maybe learn to deal with It better overtime but I can't see a long-term future here, especially if I find a partner eventually . it's so bad it's not even muffled it's like 2 bedroom in same house. There older and the person who sold me was older as well so I imagine they got on with it but as I'm young i like my privacy 

My sister was joined to an old lady who was deaf and fell asleep with the TV on full blast in her bedroom which was linked to my sisters. She couldn't sleep. It was rented though and she managed 2 months there before moving out  

I think certain impact noises such as draws on the party wall opening and closing. Plugging things into the sockets on shared walls etc. You will always here, but hearing others speaking is too much. At least they don't have a barking dog to top it off?

I can identify with that !
It's not good but you can't change the situation - changing the way you view the situation is the only solution - up until you're in a position to afford to be able to move ghain.

[Deleted User]

FreeBear said:

neverthoughtidbehere said: I will never understand why all semis are built with adjoining living areas and bedrooms, makes more sense to have the hallways and stairs adjoining 

Older builds would have a shared chimney stack in the middle. It made sense to position the rooms either side so that one could make use of a fire. With the move away from solid fuel, there is no need for a chimney in a modern house, so things could be moved around. But with a semi, putting bedrooms/reception rooms furthest away from the party wall means that these rooms have two external walls - A bigger area for heat loss...

Yup, i've had this - the elderly person living there then had mounted a massive TV on there and you can really enjoy everything they watch via sound through those walls ..... day.and.night 😤😠