Is this normal...party wall and noise

[cyclingmad]

in my living room and neighbours living room is on the other side of our party wall...I'm just reading a book no music on etc and I can hear him scraping his plates as he is eating his dinner, to the point he may as well be in my living room.

I also hear him sneezing from time to time.

Our bedrooms also share a wall abd ofher night i could hear him switch his light off.

Is that normal? Why are the walls that thin!!!!

I'm the same. I can hear my neighbours answerphone message play and I can hear the phone leaving a message.

Because the building has no soundproofing and its a poor standard of building work. He will hear everything you do too. What age is the house. 70s and 80s builds seem worse. My dm had to get rid of her bathroom extractor fan because the ndn kept complaining it woke them up.

Yes - completely normal unless it's a new build. New build houses should be built to a certain sound insulation level between the party walls to comply with building regulations. Older houses won't have this and will likely just be a couple of bricks, air gap and the plaster between you and your neighbours

My house is 1960s and you can hear EVERYTHING up in the bedrooms. We were able to sign proof the ground floor but weren't able to do the first floor and it's really frustrating to the point I would never buy semi detached again

Its 1985 house, feels like its single brick party wall. I dont know i think wfh has really highlighted it as my neighbour is retired and all day long I hear his TV bubbling away whilst I'm trying to work.

I used to sleep in the front bedroom and then i noticed he did too which backs onto our shared wall. Can tell by creaky floorboards. I moved into the back bedroom and noticed he did too. Creepy af 😐

Not in my 200 year old cottage! I''ve got neighbours both sides and I often have to look out of the window for their cars to check whether they are in or out!

Can hear hoovering if the vacuum bumps the walls, and one side's dog barking (faintly) but only in one room. Bedrooms are silent.

I always said I'd only have a terrace if it was over 50 years old.

You can put in soundproofing panels.

We're in a 1930s semi and have had two different couples living next door, and very rarely hear anything at all. However, when our DS was born they (very tactfully) told us they'd moved bedroom because of the noise in the night, so I think we have quiet neighbours and we're the noisy ones.

I feel for you OP, when I lived in a flat I could hear the neighbours, and once you start to notice the noises you seem to hear them more and more.

My old house 1929 was pretty ok but I could still hear some louder noises. Screaming or laughing kids Drills etc.

I'm in a detached now and it's pure bliss.

@HowDeeDooDee have you done this? Do they work?

Havent done it yet but am looking into it. You can buy foam and stuff from diy shops and there's loads of info online. I am looking at muffle.co who even have.coloured stick on panels which are more expensive but look really easy to apply.

We lived in 1930s semi and had a company to come out re soundproofing, they said our house was single brick and could install panels on the wall but there could also have been an issue with sound travelling through the floorboards.
We now live in a detached!

Thanks, my downstairs floor is basically concrete. I only know this when I had carpet refitted and discovered black tiles that had been laid over concrete so nlise through floor shouldn't be a problem.

I'll look into panels, hopefully dont lose too much space.