Can anyone come and talk to me about noise and houses and new builds and estates?

[SenselessUbiquity]

I don't have a lot of money and am likely to be looking to move house soon-ish. My current neighbours (end terrace) drive me absolutely nuts. I would love not to share a wall with anyone. When I look at detached houses in the sorts of areas I am considering, there seem to be some, often new buildy new estate type things, very close to the next house along though not actually attached. Can anyone who lives in a house like that tell me what they are like for noise travelling between houses?

Any other upsides / downsides to that sort of house?

In general, what would wise mumsnetters say to look out for when looking for a quiet neighbourhood? Once you have decided not to buy next door to a pub I am not sure what else to look for. I live next door to the noisiest man within 3 miles and if he wasn't home, I think someone coming to view a house in my road would probably think it's a quiet street. Is there any way to tell what kind of vibe your potential new neighbourhood will have about noise? Anything to look out for - certain layouts, "tells", anything like that?

The house i bought as a fyb was a new build semi on a main road
Backing to a motorway
Under a flightpath
Beside a railway hahah!! honestly what was I thinking

I got a greay price but the main road at the front was the worst so...

Try and get as deep into the estate as you can if buying new

I barely heard my attached neighbours at all
The neighbours to the other side not attached and only the width of paving slabs beside us...i never ever heard them at all

So main points...
Avoid a main road if you need quiet as lorries litterally made my house shake

Think about the layout of your house vs the one attached next door if going semi, we didnt have the same design of house attached to us so the layouts meant we never heard them at all

Ftb*

Loads of people will probably come along to tell you about paper thin walls but my new build terrace is brilliant I don't hear a thing. Good advice to get a plot /house deeper into the estate

We have a newish build detached. There is only a narrow alleyway leading to our back garden which stands between us and our neighbours house. Noise doesn't travel through the walls between our houses so that's not an issue.

The thing with most new builds is that they're made to look nice but can lack in quality (i.e. thin walls and windows). You can hear sounds on the street in our living room very easily. It didn't help that we are in a cul de sac and there was a point where lots of young kids lived on the street and would gather outside to play (constant balls bouncing, kids shouting, etc). Cul de sacs are only quiet if quiet people live there! Thankfully the kids have grown up a little so it's calmed down a lot. It's made me not want to live in a cul de sac when I next move house.

We're in a new build terrace and can't hear neighbours at all, really good sound insulation. If it's detached no problem at all

thanks everyone.

Good point about noise in a cul de sac.

I'd go upstairs and look out the back windows and look for any hot tubs, outside bars, entertainment areas etc in neighbouring gardens. Also, tons of kids play equipment.
I purposely moved to street that all the owners were retired, people joked when we moved in why we'd moved to gods waiting room! But we've had 13 years of quiet. Only now, have houses started to come on the market and it's starting to get noisy.

@MiaowMiaow99

I'd go upstairs and look out the back windows and look for any hot tubs, outside bars, entertainment areas etc in neighbouring gardens. Also, tons of kids play equipment. I purposely moved to street that all the owners were retired, people joked when we moved in why we'd moved to gods waiting room! But we've had 13 years of quiet. Only now, have houses started to come on the market and it's starting to get noisy.

That's a good tip and I'll certainly be doing that when the time comes for me to move.

The trouble with a new build estate (if it's very new) is you don't always know who your neighbours will be as they can move in after you. Especially if you've reserved a plot before it's actually been built.

The best thing to mitigate against this is to try and get a plot at the very end of an estate, rather than right in the middle of it (unless of course that'd mean being next to a pub or something). Passing noise is much more tolerable than constant noise.

We're in a new build semi detached and we never hear our neighbours. Layout is a key feature because our lounges have two garages between us and them so no TV or music can be heard.