To think halls adjoining semis are all nice and quiet?

[NotJustACigar]

DH and I are house hunting and, while we could potentially stretch to a detached house, would rather get a smaller mortgage and not have to worry about money as much. So we're thinking about buying a semi, but we're both fairly sensitive to noise. Therefore we're looking for one with halls adjoining.

So please could you tell us, if you have a halls adjoining semi, how noisy is it? And what period is it from? We're thinking of a Victorian house with cellar but would noise travel through the cellar? Any advice would be brilliant as we made a mistake on our last house and can't afford to make another one.

Depends how noisy your neighbours are and how sensitive you are.

Unless your hall and landing travel the entire length of the house some rooms are going to be next to each other. Gardens definitely adjoin and noise travels through windows.

I think if you are really noise sensitive the only option is a detached house.

I have no experience of halls adjoining (had to google because I wasn't sure what it even meant ) but I once lived in a link detatched (garages adjoining) and that was ideal.

The halls might join, but upstairs in the Victorian terrace we lived in the bedrooms joined and that was more noisy. We now live in a modern semi with downstairs loo, dining room, staircase, master ensuite, bathroom and third bedroom joining that of the neighbour's house and find that much quieter. But then it also depend on the neighbours.

It depends whether your neighbours have carpeted stairs or not.

Halls adjoining are more prestigious, and sought after.

When I worked as an EA ages ago it was a huge positive of the property.

We live in a 1920s semi that's pretty big. Don't have a hall in between us but I think I thought it would be solid as our terrace house was. Can hear everything and neighbours hate us for having a young family who aren't any louder than other children but noise carries. Would never live in another semi.

Or a DD who does grandstands against the bathroom door.

Fortunately ours is detached because bang, bang, bang would drive adjoining neighbours bonkers

Handstands, given a longer hall she'd do cartwheels too.

Or a DD who does grandstands against the bathroom door.

Fortunately ours is detached because bang, bang, bang would drive adjoining neighbours bonkers

This is an example of the type of house we're looking at - here I'm guessing the two reception rooms and two of the bedrooms would be quiet, and the kitchen/diner, master bedroom, and garden would potentially be noisy? If so I'd be happy with that www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-26987343.html?premiumA=true

We have halls adjoining (1930s) and find it lovely and quiet; our last place was a semi too, slightly older but the sitting rooms were joined and you could hear the neighbours when the tv was on or voices were raised

I don't think you would hear plugs being plugged in and the television/radio if they were on at a normal level. If somebody was playing the drums or loud music or children were playing on the stairs you would hear them.

It could be like entering the seventh circle of hell if your new neighbours have swathes of stripped floorboards and a hoard of stampeding elephants kids.

Rally intrigued by that house's proximity to the "British Lawnmower Museum".

I would go for a detached if you're really noise sensitive, and if you can afford it. The actual noise depends on how loud they are, what type of flooring they have etc, like people have said. You can soundproof the adjoining wall, but you'll likely still be able to hear something, in my experience it's pretty unavoidable in a terrace or semi.

Really intrigued by that house's bathroom!!

altho not a semi, my house is end terrace but the mirror image of my neighbours so the only thing thats on the boundary wall is the hall and kitchen (downstairs) and hall, cupboard and bathroom (upstairs)

i rarely here any noise from next door - was one of the reasons i went for this house - mine is ex council build in the late 70s

Ours is Edwardian with cellar. Our cellar is converted into basement utility/cloakroom. Their cellar is just storage I think.

I simply cannot hear next door as they potter about. Very good sound insulation - cant hear them on stairs or in hall. Weirdly can sometimes hear them plugging something into electrical socket in their bedroom that's above their hallway when I'm putting ds to bed (his bedroom is our equivalent one).

They say that we are very quiet. We are not quiet. Three loud children. They may be being polite though....

Thy have a new dog. Have heard him barking a few times, but it sounds like he is a few houses away, muffled sounding IYSWIM.

I shoud point out though that they are a couple of retired librarians!

We live in a terrace and it still gets noisy on the hall joined side. We hear doors slamming, people clomping up and downstairs, people knocking at their door. The kitchens are joined and are noisy too, we can hear their washing machine, microwave and loo flushing.
The other side has a cellar and noise travels through that, they used to have a drum kit in it!
It obviously depends a lot on the neighbours. We use to have both sides rented out by the room so much more noise to now when there is a family there.

Really intrigued by that house's bathroom!!

Do you mean the bidi?

I used to live in one and it was lovely and quiet in most of the rooms, but when our house was quiet you could hear next door on their stairs. Not a problem most of the time, but it scared the hell out of me a few times in the middle of the night when I was alone in the house.

Ooops -should have said it was a late Victorian semi.

Our layout is similar to yours although only our back reception room adjoins theirs (they're styled as dining rooms, but ours is a playroom/study). The kitchen and sitting room don't adjoin.

We're in an Edwardian halls adjoining semi. We never hear human noise from next door (and there are two adults and two teenagers living there) but we do hear their perpetually barking/whining dog which is left alone all day (we're all out most days so that's not a problem for us, but I can imagine it being a pain if you were in all day).

We hear their door slam as they come and go and very occasionally hear them on the stairs, but not enough for that be a problem.