To hate hearing my neighbours all the time.

[greengold189]

Something that's been getting to me a lot lately. I live in a semi and the walls are so thin.

I can hear them talking, if they raise their voices I can make out a lot of what they're saying. They have doors that slam and as they work shifts this wakes me up at all hours of the morning.

They have a dog that barks a lot. Sometimes it can bark for hours on end when they go out.

They stay up til midnight some nights talking and laughing in their bedroom and it keeps me awake.

There's nothing I can do to stop them as we had an argument a few years back and now they totally blank me when they see me.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, we are going to be moving within the next couple of years, but can only afford to move to another semi sadly :( Thing is it could just be similar at the next place, or worse could end up with the types that like blasting their music.

Just venting really :( is it normal to be able to hear so much of your neighbours living in a semi? What can I do when moving to try and get good neighbours? I'm sick of hearing shouting all of the time.

I just want a quiet life :( I want to be able to sleep in peace at night it doesn't seem too much to ask.

Don't go for a 1930s semi- paper thin walls!!!! Can you downsize to get detached?

Sadly not, we only live in a little 2 bed and can only afford something similar in a nicer area.

It's causing me a lot of anxiety, the thought we could move and things could be even worse. Couldn't afford to move again.

You might be lucky and find a little bungalow. I feel your pain i can’t stand neighbours noise. We moved out of town so we could afford detached for this very reason!

OP don’t lose hope. I live in a new build semi and I hear nothing from my neighbors. The only time I ever hear anything is when someone goes up or down their stairs heavily/quickly. Other than that- nothing at all. And they have kids and a dog that yaps constantly. If I’m outside I can hear their dog yapping from their kitchen but as soon as I’m inside I can’t hear it despite being in The room next to their kitchen.

I live in a 1965 townhouse, so neighbours at both sides and I don't hear a lot at all!!! In fact the only noise I hear is the tv of my partially deaf neighbour as she has it on loud. Even then it's pretty muffled. I'm guessing housing built this era must be pretty well built with thicker walls.

Depends on the place I think. I lived in a flat and didn't hear a thing now I live in a downstairs mainsonette and hear everything from my neighbours upstairs.

We're in a 1950's semi. On the whole our neighbours aren't unreasonably loud (apart from when they do DIY, which is always at night- the circular saw outside the back door until 10.30pm was a real highlight!) Anything else is normal family noise I guess, plus they have a dog that barks, and their children stay up until a time that I consider late but that's obviously their choice. It doesn't help that they have hard floors throughout. Hearing them still makes me irrationally angry though. I don't want to hear them calling for someone else to bring them some 'bog roll', I don't want to listen to their child's television every evening. Plus when their youngest cries at night it wakes my daughter- what can they do, children cry- still annoying though! I long for a detached house.

My friend is having a similar problems. She is installing soundproofing and using ear plugs in the mean time. I feel for you, it would really annoy me.

The thing with noise is that once you become aware of it, your mind plays tricks and you focus more and more on it to the point where it becomes more annoying and indeed causes anxiety and stress.

It can get to the point where "normal" noise levels become unacceptable.

Really sorry OP< neighbours noise is hell, no other way to describe it.

For the future, even if you can only afford another semi, you might be able to get one linked by the staircase/ bathrooms/ kitchens - mains rooms being on opposite side so you would suffer a lot less.

Do they rent? Own their place? You should be able to do something about the dog, I'd complain to council or landlord.

Can you move bedroom? Or even sleep in the living room? Not ideal, but anything to escape the noise

This is the thing they aren't really antisocial with it, just very inconsiderate and well, loud. If they have a run of staying up late it does trigger my anxiety and I tend to focus on hearing things more.
Anxiety is a problem for me but I think this would annoy anyone. I've even been considering going on antidepressants just to calm me down a bit.

Can't really complain to the council about the dog as we want to sell soon, don't you have to declare that?

I don't know why there aren't more semis that have stairs separating the main living areas, I very rarely see any come up. Was worried there would be a lot of young families on new builds.

Sadly I don't even think sleeping in the living room would help, I think it's their living room door that slams. It travels through the whole house. Doesn't help that both houses are quite small the sound just seems to travel, I can even hear their bed creak when they get into it :/

I have earplugs, don't know if I have particularly small ears but they won't stay in! They are meant to be the slim ones too.

I just have to hope we can find somewhere better, even a little bungalow would be fine, it's just they don't come up very often in the area we are looking at (in our price range) it depends what's around at the time we want to sell.

OP i wonder what brand of ear plug you use?

I can highly recommend the soft squidgy laserlight ear plugs. They are kinda pink/yellow candy stripe. I find them very effective especially when sleeping. You do need to be very careful when extracting as they seal so well,,slow and gentle.

I sympathise OP, our walls are paper thin too. My next door neighbours argue a lot and often wake me up in the middle of the night screaming and shouting and banging doors. When they're on good terms they stay up until 2 in the morning with the TV on very loud, have asked them to turn it down but they're not the nicest of people unfortunately. I'm a light sleeper as it is so getting a good nights sleep is almost impossible at the moment. Hoping to move early next year, detached if we can afford it!

I hope you get lucky with a little bungalow or something when you do move. I wish you could have a couple nights trial run in a new house so you could suss out the neighbours!

I've got the Macks slim fit ones Raspberry, I'll look into trying those.

Jasey, I wish you could try before you buy that'd be great.

Wondering what on earth I'm going to say when trying to sell this place if people ask about the neighbours :S
That's the thing isn't it, you can't believe the sellers if they tell you everything is fine.

It's petty but I'm hoping a loud family moves in after us and gives them a taste of their own medicine.

Can you rearrange the furniture in your house to put bookcases across the adjoining walls? That should provide some soundproofing for you. I've put bookcases against the joint walls and I can barely hear anything now.

As a poster said upthread look for a semi where the halls join together and typically the bathroom and box room upstairs join also worth the master bedrooms on the exterior walls. My neighbour lives in a 1930s semi like this and says she doesn't hear her neighbours!

For this very reason we bought a semi where the living room is separated by the stairs and the master bedroom by the bathroom. It limited the housing stock available to us massively. We're looking at houses again now and I get really frustrated having to discount an otherwise perfect house because of the room arrangement but DH refuses to compromise on this, and to be honest it is worth it. Like you I can't understand why more houses aren't built like this!

Our 1920s semi has wafer thin walls. Naively thought houses were still built to a decent standard back then. Do not understand how builders put in such shoddy party walls.

We had to soundproof our bedroom because of this. Not particularly noisy neighbours but could hear tv, arguments, snoring. Now we don’t hear a peep upstairs it’s amazing. Considering doing the same for downstairs but it is a faff and we find it less irritating as we have tv on. I feel for you OP it does really grate on your nerves.

Ready, was the soundproofing expensive?

We live in a 1975 semi. The stairs are on the adjoining wall, plus less used rooms (study, spare bedroom, bathroom). We rarely hear our neighbours, perhaps if they are doing some diy, but never talking or the tv (and I hope they don't hear us!) When you move take a close look at the layout and construction of your new house, the design makes such a difference. Sorry you are having problems.

We paid for soundproofing in our bedroom and main living room.

Made such a difference and we’d hardly hear them in those rooms. It’s amazing what you can hear in the rooms with nonsound proof!

Super easy solution - move!! No one is forcing you to live there. Life is too short to put up with paper thin walls. #yolo

OP - I don't know the cost of soundproofing. If it is expensive one thing might be to ask an estate agent if it will cost effective in terms of adding value. If it is too expensive then I agree with PP about muffling sound with furniture or maybe a wall hanging. At bedtime could you listen to music or a mediation recording so you are actively concentrating on something else.

Super easy solution - move!! No one is forcing you to live there. Life is too short to put up with paper thin walls. #yolo

Well done for failing to read the second half of the OP!