To ask how soundproofed your new build houses are?

[domesticgoddesshaha]

I'm wondering about soundproofing in newbuild houses and whether ours is exceptionally bad or just the norm.
We recently moved into a detached house, built 2009 by taylor wimpey.
External soundproofing seems non existant. We have double glazing but you can hear every time a neighbour closes their car door, and people doing this in the morning (at normal volume) wakes my kids.
In the lounge at the back of the house you can still hear cars driving past at the front. You can hear next doors dog barking in the garden with all windows and doors closed.

Internal soundproofing is also useless.
The downstairs toilet is across the hall from the lounge, yet while sitting on the sofa, all doors closed you can hear someone having a pee.
You can hear very loudly if someone showers in the bathroom above the kitchen.
Last night I used the coffee grinder in the kitchen at the back of the house and it woke DD in bedroom upstairs at front of house (all doors closed).
We can hear the dishwasher from our bedroom above.
Thank god it's detached or we'd probably hear the neighbours picking their nose.

Is our house particularly rubbish for sound transmission, or are all new houses this bad?

[RedBlu]

Well I lived in a new build Taylor Wimpey once, build around 2004 I think. Sound proofing was awful. It was a terrace and you could hear everything from the other houses, like neighbours using the toilet, sneezing, etc.

I do remember it was a particularly crap build quality as well.

I now live in a new build Persimmon house, semi. Only time I hear the neighbours is if someone is shouting. They do have a yapping dog though and I can hear that through the walls.

[soloula]

We've just moved out a 2005 Bellway house and we had no issues with soundproofing. DH and the kids could be downstairs with the doors closed watching tv reasonably loud and I wouldn't hear anything in our bedroom directly above. And definitely no peeing (or otherwise) sounds behind closed doors. Yours sounds exceptionally bad - sorry!

[OneFlewOverTheMumsNest]

We have a 2013 new build and the sound proofing is really good. Occasionally hear the 20-somethings on one side of they are having a party but that's all.

[OneFlewOverTheMumsNest]

2 young kids the other side and we never hear them. They don't hear ours either apparently.

[GoodGirlGoneWrong]

I can talk to my neighbors in the downstairs loo...you can hear everything

Ours isn't Taylor wimpy tho ours is a hill house.

[IamFriedSpam]

Loads of Taylor Wimpey homes went up in my old village, from the complaints of the people who lived in them the sound proofing was horrendous. You could hear everything. Particularly bad in the terraced houses - you could hear your neighbours pass wind.

[Supernothing22]

2014 Taylor Wimpey semi detached here.

All the windows have tricked vents so fairly pointless sound wise bring double glazed. We can hear people walking passed the front window from the back of the house and people talking from across the road, not even shouting just normal talking.

Next doors is very quiet can't hear normal conversations but running upstairs and closing internal doors without using the handles we can hear. Still better than the 1901 terrace we moved out of where I could hear my neighbour wee!

[mistermagpie]

Mine's a Barratt new build, never really noticed any noise to excess so I would say the soundproofing is ok in our house. We're an end terrace too and I never ever hear anything from my neighbour through the wall, our utility rooms join and I have never once even heard her washing machine or anything.

The only thing is that if DS is running around upstairs I can hear him downstairs.

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

Never hear the neighbours except music when windows are open in the summer. We don't generally hear cars going past either, but there is a noisy motorbike that goes by intermittently and that's audible. I can hear the washing machine finish it's cycle- it's in a futility cupboard in the cloakroom- but only because it plays a tune that goes on for ages. There's still building work going on nearby and we don't hear that much either.

It's a Berkeley house built about two and a half years ago.

[hollinhurst84]

I'm in an apartment, probably 9 years old now. Can hear a dog barking or cars going past or car doors
Internal is excellent, I can't hear neighbours at all even with TV. At top spin if I really listen I can hear a v faint hum of their washing machine

[Phoebefromfriends]

I live in a rented flat that's about 9 years old and the sound proofing is terrible. I can hear my neighbours washing machine that they put on at 4ish in the morning but that probably isn't as bad as hearing them have sex then again the washing machine lasts longer than the Sex but they've only done it once that I've heard

[CheshireDing]

Part of your problem will be the stupid vents in the top of the window frame as Super said. The rest sounds like crap build quality.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Bloor homes, 2011. Never hear the neighbours despite having 3 children under 7. Outside noise is very limited due to layout of estate.

[IndianaMoleWoman]

2013 Taylor Wimpey semi. We live next door to single man who works six days a week. He does his cleaning on Mondays and sings for approximately three hours.

We have a two year old and a baby so I dread to think what he can hear.

[domesticgoddesshaha]

It's beginning to sound as if ours is typical of Taylor Wimpey but they are worse than other builders.
I wonder if anything can be done about it.

[domesticgoddesshaha]

cheshire I closed all the trickle vents to stop the wind whistling through when storm Doris arrived but it hasn't made any difference

[Rufus200]

A house I used to live in (end of terrace) I could hear next door get up and pee in the night. I could actually hear their pee hitting the bowl!

My current house, I had a new extension put on it. I told the builder to put huge amounts of sound proofing in it. When I'm in bed and DH is in the kitchen below our bedroom, I can hear him open a drawer. He can't watch tv as I can hear it like it is in our room. I paid extra to have mdf boards put on top of the floor boards below the thick carpet underlay. Still can hear all the noise!

[domesticgoddesshaha]

Rufus oh dear. If extra soundproofing doesn't work there's not much hope here either. In any case it's not like we can afford to rip out all the walls and add soundproofing!

[Pisghetti]

New houses have a ten year NHBC guarantee. I'd lodge a complaint with them.

[domesticgoddesshaha]

pisghetti from what I've read online the guarantee isn't worth the paper it's written on.

[Historygirl97]

I live in an EMH new build house (built April 2016). I literally can't hear anything! Soundproofing is amazing

[downwardfacingdog]

I used to rent a Bellway terraced townhouse and the soundproofing was excellent. Next door had two Yorkshire terriers that yapped all day, but we never heard them in the house - only every time we went outside!

[PurpleDragon76]

I live in a new build Barratt, its shit. Even TV downstairs on low I can hear. Mostly its vibrations than sound, irritates the shit out of me. Thank God I have considerate neighbours.

[JaniceBattersby]

Is it brick/ block built with a cavity, or is it timber framed?

Everyone I know who loves in the latter says their soundproofing is atrocious.