Noise through party wall

ProDave

My guess is previously it was occupied as one house and any noise created would have been spread around.

Now it has been converted to 2 properties, at a very basic level there will be twice as many people living there and twice as much noise.

My experience of 1930's properties is solid walls and no sound insulation whatsoever and you hear every footstep up the stairs, every kitchen cupboard door banging shut.  It is hard to imagine how building work can make the original party wall any worse for noise transmission.

janj1332

ProDave said:

My guess is previously it was occupied as one house and any noise created would have been spread around.

Now it has been converted to 2 properties, at a very basic level there will be twice as many people living there and twice as much noise.

My experience of 1930's properties is solid walls and no sound insulation whatsoever and you hear every footstep up the stairs, every kitchen cupboard door banging shut.  It is hard to imagine how building work can make the original party wall any worse for noise transmission.

No that's not the case. Apparently, all the houses on this particular stretch of street were built by the same builder, who then chose our house to live in after he'd completed the work. I'm guessing he built it purposelessly for himself, and that's the reason we have quite a large back garden, while the other houses don't.

As I say, the sound issues weren't a problem before renovation. 

Ditzy_Mitzy

The only pragmatic solution would seem to be for the OP to investigate soundproofing on her side.  Whilst a perfect job is difficult, there are plenty of things that can be done to mitigate sound transmission.  

jonnydeppiwish!

janj1332 said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

You can but it’s a bit late. You’ll need plenty of cash to see it through I would have thought.

What sort of noise? 

What’s the family dynamic now compared to before it was bought? I mean an old lady compared to family with young kids is going to be significantly noisier.

Dog noise, TV noise, audible voices at anything above conversational level. It's not so much the frequency of the noise as the clarity. The walls now seem paper thin. That wasn't the case before. The lady who lived in the house before it was sold would often have large gatherings round and you wouldn't hear a thing. The issue I think is the way in which sound vibrations are traveling along/through the wall.

Okay, so from a single person to family living. You need to invest in sound proofing. Very little else will have changed, or get used to the noise associated with living attached to someone else’s house.

Thumbs_Up

Before renovation, carpets, fabric curtains, wall papered walls. After renovation, wooden floor, window blinds, magnolia painted walls.

If you have young children tell them to pay attention at school, good results, good job, detached house! I wish this wisdom was past on to me.

Shelldean

We've lived here for 26 years for the first 14 we had a lady plus three boys living next. Heard occasionally but not really much at all.
New people move in man an two daughters. OMFG the difference was astronomical. I knew his daughters names almost immediately.
We could heard almost everything. Door slamming voices music etc. 
We did complain to our joint landlord but not a lot was achieved. We did mediation. Didn't help much at all.

Can't work out how we heard one family SO much an the previous hardly ever!

Thumbs_Up

Shelldean said:

Can't work out how we heard one family SO much an the previous hardly ever!

I like to guess, old school types moved out, the new generation types moved in.  

janj1332

jonnydeppiwish! said:

janj1332 said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

You can but it’s a bit late. You’ll need plenty of cash to see it through I would have thought.

What sort of noise? 

What’s the family dynamic now compared to before it was bought? I mean an old lady compared to family with young kids is going to be significantly noisier.

Dog noise, TV noise, audible voices at anything above conversational level. It's not so much the frequency of the noise as the clarity. The walls now seem paper thin. That wasn't the case before. The lady who lived in the house before it was sold would often have large gatherings round and you wouldn't hear a thing. The issue I think is the way in which sound vibrations are traveling along/through the wall.

Okay, so from a single person to family living. You need to invest in sound proofing. Very little else will have changed, or get used to the noise associated with living attached to someone else’s house.

Yeah looked into the soundproofing route. Thought about speaking to the landlords as some work they've done on the party wall we feel would have required our notice or permission. Just wanted to know where we would stand legally if we asked them to make changes and they refused.

janj1332

Shelldean said:

We've lived here for 26 years for the first 14 we had a lady plus three boys living next. Heard occasionally but not really much at all.
New people move in man an two daughters. OMFG the difference was astronomical. I knew his daughters names almost immediately.
We could heard almost everything. Door slamming voices music etc. 
We did complain to our joint landlord but not a lot was achieved. We did mediation. Didn't help much at all.

Can't work out how we heard one family SO much an the previous hardly ever!

I know. Rather hard to accept when you've lived next to a house for so long without any sort of disturbance. 

janj1332

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

The only pragmatic solution would seem to be for the OP to investigate soundproofing on her side.  Whilst a perfect job is difficult, there are plenty of things that can be done to mitigate sound transmission.  

I'd like to think so. When we first mentioned it to the tenants we told them we feel as though the issue is more to do with the soundproofing as opposed to how noisy they are. They mentioned they'd speak to the landlords about it, but either they haven't  spoken to them, or they have but the landlords aren't particularly interested in doing anything about it, because while the problem in some regards has improved, in others it's worsened.