Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect NOT to hear my neighbour coughing in bed.

58 replies

Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:38

FFS! Did 1930s builders just not bother with anything more than brown paper between the party wall of these houses.

My NND is an arse of a man and to have to hear his guttural throat clearing through the bedroom wall is hideous.

Bear in mind I have had some (basic) sound proofing done so Lord knows what it would be like if I hadn't.

It's bad enough I hear him shout at his wife and kids without listening to his horrid bodily functions!

Grrrrrrrrrrr. I need to win the lottery so I can move to a detached house.

OP posts:
RoastingYourChestnutsHurtsAlot · 02/01/2015 23:41

Ha ha I've started a similar thread also in a 1930s semi

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:42

Oh good. Link me to it. I need to share my pain!

OP posts:
pookamoo · 02/01/2015 23:42

1960s here and it didn't improve much. Heaven only knows what they hear from our side!

RoastingYourChestnutsHurtsAlot · 02/01/2015 23:43

special circle of hell for one

SaucyJack · 02/01/2015 23:45

I can hear the bloke upstairs pissing when I'm in the bath.

Really spoils my home spa experience I can tell you.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:46

Thanks! At least your neighbours are elderly and probably ok. Am guessing. Mine is an absolute arse. A big baby man who has regular shouty tantrums. Am hoping his throat clearly is something serious enough so he will move to the country for fresher air. Or something. I could say worse but won't....

OP posts:
RoastingYourChestnutsHurtsAlot · 02/01/2015 23:47

Late middle age rather than elderly and although their kids have moved out (theyre my age) they're round every day until gone midnight.

When they leave theu stand at the front door (under our bedroom) for up to an hour continuing the conversation. It's hell.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:48

Saucy jack. That sounds lovely.

OP posts:
Salmotrutta · 02/01/2015 23:48

Interesting.

My MIL lives in a 1950s semi-detached ex-council house and the party wall is very substantial.

She hears the odd thump/bump but apart from that absolutely nothing. And that is even when small children are going about there daily business.

And neither do we when we visit.

Salmotrutta · 02/01/2015 23:49

their daily business...

RoastingYourChestnutsHurtsAlot · 02/01/2015 23:49

Maybe the 50s was building nirvana?

BingBongMerrilyOnHigh · 02/01/2015 23:49

2000 terrace. Same problem. Can hear everything the two elderly, widowed women on each side do.

Although as a cougher myself (asthma), I can assure you I don't do it for fun!

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:49

Hmmm that does sound bad.

I can't approach my neighbour tbh. He is a bit scary. Plus I can hardly ask him to stop coughing. I could ask him him to stop shouting but that too is a bit tricky.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lagoonablue · 02/01/2015 23:52

If I liked him then the coughing wouldn't really bother me. He clearly can't help it. However because he is horrid it is the cherry on the cake for me. It is really phlegm rattling from the back of the throat stuff that only men can do though. I expect he has a spittoon by his bed.

I grew up in a 50s semi too. Councîl house. Never heard a thing. Even our old victorian terrace wasn't as bad as this house.

OP posts:
MissPenelopeLumawoo2 · 03/01/2015 08:28

Are you my neighbour? My DH has a bad cough at the moment, and we are a shouty family! If it is you, do you realise we can hear you too?

Slutbucket · 03/01/2015 08:43

Have you wondered what the neighbour might be overhearing you doing.

Sandancer · 03/01/2015 09:08

I can hear my neighbour snoring in bed! It's horrendous. He moved in about 4 month ago and I've hardly slept in my own bed since. I feel my privacy is being invaded so I sleep on a blow-up mattress in my sons room. Only a stud wall seperates our room as it used to be one huge flat. I'm going to start collecting egg boxes...

wheresthelight · 03/01/2015 09:24

I feel very sorry for my neighbours and apologise regularly because as an asthma sufferer when I get a cough I can wake the dead! luckily the elderly lady next door is lovely and always claims nit to hear but as I can hear her tv constantly over mine I suspect she is just being nice!!

I always knew when it was a chest infection at my old house as the couple next door were both deaf so when they came round to ask if inwas ok as they had heard me up coughing all night I knew it was time for antibiotics and steroids! much more reliable than the rather overstretched NHS doctors surgery that never had appointments Grin

carabos · 03/01/2015 09:37

We are in a mid terrace, built late 20s. It's terrible, we can hear every word, sneeze and shout from next day. As they do a LOT of shouting, it's pretty trying. We try to be very quiet as we assume that they can hear us as clearly as we hear them, but wonder if the result is that they don't realise the problem Wink.

We've lived here for 11 years and we are planning to move this year as I can't stand it any longer.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 03/01/2015 09:47

Actually apart from the kids we are fairly quiet. I am always turning music and tv down. NND kids are noisy but dont mind that tbh. I expect it.

I think I make extra special effort to be quiet in the bedroom as it feels so intrusive to hear someone else so near in an intimate space.

Penelope if it is you then your DH needs to see a doctor!

OP posts:
whatadrain · 03/01/2015 09:50

My NDN has the worlds loudest, most high-pitched sneeze and she sneezes ALL the time. Other than that, we don't hear much in our 1960s ex-council semi but then my DC are very loud!

Vagndidit · 03/01/2015 09:52

Coughing noises have a way of penetrating any barrier. I live in a very solid Victorian terrace and the only noises I ever hear through the shared wall with my lovely elderly neighbour is her morning lung hack.

You can hear her televsion blasting from the road but not through these walls...

LordJabuJabu · 03/01/2015 09:55

1930's house here & I had to listen to my neighbours having awful sex during the night feed wth dd.
Ds1 woke up at 4 today so can let them off. A bit.

AlanBstardMP · 03/01/2015 09:56

Our late Victorian terrace also has walls made of paper - you can hear the neighbours turn their lights on, I kid you not. I know one of the neighbours has a nasty cough at the moment, so it seems to be going round. The noise is constant and when they have parties its unbearable.

Constant noise makes me want to go live in a shack in the middle of nowhere.

Purplecircle · 03/01/2015 10:02

We bought detached after the last house we lived in had hard floors and we heard everything. We knew the names of the kids in days and how the mother like to swear at them.
Whenever they were out their dog barked at us for moving around our house
We could have had a bigger semi for what we paid but at least we can make as much noise as we like!