For those who live in a semi-detached house....

[Afternooninthepark]

Do you/can you hear your neighbours very much?
I ask because we have lived in our semi for nearly 20 years. Our next door neighbour lived on his own and wasn’t there much. When he was at home he was very quiet and we would hardly hear him. Sadly, he died 2 years ago and the house has been empty ever since.
However, when his family come down and stay (the house has been up for sale the last 18 months and they stay from time to time) they make so, so much noise it drives me insane. They watch the tv at a really high volume, the seem to talk really loudly and have 2 dogs who yap all the time and they seem to stomp around the house, we definitely know when they are next door.
The house is now sold and our new neighbours (a couple in their 30’s, no children) are due to move in any time.
In all sense and purpose it has been like living in a detached house for the last 20 years and it’s going to take some time to get used to hearing people going about there every day.
Before that we both came from our childhood homes which were detached.
So I’m just wondering if you hear your neighbours much? Are they noisy or do you just get used to it?
Silly, I know but I’m getting quite anxious about having neighbours.

I live in a 1970 ex council semi with living room, kitchen and main bedrooms attached.
I hardly hear my neighbours unless it's something out of the ordinary. Which is amazing really as they have loads of young kids and animals! I love my neighbours! We get on well without being in each others pockets, wave to eachother, have a chat. I like having them next door. Sadly they are housing association and would like to move, but I would like them to stay forever! They've mentioned possibly buying the house in which case I would be very happy! I guess the house is just well built to keep the noise away? I think it helps that the chimneys aren't adjoining.

I love my neighbours, mostly because they don't want to be over friendly. They have 2 DC and they're quite loud, we swapped bedrooms due to the previous neighbour's ds making such a row shouting when on his x box/playing music. We definitely hear them, but if we're in the garden, she makes them be quiet/turn off music. I can't complain because they're very considerate, as are we, properly quiet for the most part.

We have neighbours in their 60s next door, only thing we hear is their hoover and sometimes the odd loud sneeze, they are very quiet. I think you’d get a very different answer from them, we’ve lived here 3 years and have had 2 children in that time, neither of which liked to sleep. We apologised to them with the second, he screamed every couple of hours pretty much until the other night (slept through the night for the first time), he’s 2! The neighbour claims she’s never heard him (her husband is deaf so he doesn’t) but she must do, our bedrooms are on the joining wall and our heads are on that wall.

I can’t wait to buy a detached so I don’t have to be paranoid about someone hearing us going about our lives. Don’t even get me started about being paranoid about the other thing!

Sleep I honestly do not hear my neighbours toddler, or baby. I am not being polite

I've lived in 2 semis and couldn't hear neighbours unless they played music loudly (luckily very rare!). They were both older though (1930s and 40s) so maybe thicker walls?

sleep I very rarely hear the youngest next door and she was only 6 months when I moved in! There are numerous children next door, aged between 1 and late teens. I can honestly say they are not a noise problem for me. Occasionally it will kick off (e.g. Xmas Eve I think the youngest kids were a bit overwrought and I could hear them then ) but I genuinely don't hear them for about 90% of the time!

Early 1970's ex-council mid terrace here. Fairly poor sound insulation means that you can hear people if they're talking from room to room or shouting, but it hasn't been too much of a problem because we've all realised the problem and tried to keep it down.

Until the new family moved in on the end next to me, that is. The mum screams at her children and her partner. The kids are in the room next to DS2 (6) and if they're having a late, noisy night, he has to go to sleep in my room and be carried round to his own bed later. The first time they had their music on, I yelled up the stairs telling DS1 (16) to turn his music down, it was that loud.

I've always quite liked hearing the background noise of other people living their lives in the gardens. Kids playing, people laughing with their friends. We're packed close together and it feels cosy, part of being a community. This bothers me because it's so angry.

We're figuring out the best way to sound insulate the wall to DS2's bedroom. I'm hoping that since she's pregnant, the housing association will have to move them to a larger place. Otherwise I can see us moving at some point in the future.

We live next to a family 2 boys and a toddler.We hear the occasional thump on the stairs but otherwise nothing.
There are lots of kids around so it all goes quiet reasonably early.

Our cottage is semi detatched but next doors bedroom is above our kitchen and we have a small bedroom above their living room but it is never used. In their bedroom above ours you can hear our washing machine very loudly. They can also hear our baby if she is screaming loudly but that is not often. Not at night though as our bedroom in on the far side of the house.

Crikey yes, the joining walls are really thin, even though Victorian.

You can hear quite a bit, we came up with a kind of rule between us, music / TV not blaring after 10am till 6am. We're considerate anyway, so we both constantly check everything is ok.

I'm a fan of peace & quiet, so it's rare I'll have YouTube on in the day. We mostly watch Internet TV, so we have 2/3 hours a day of that.

I have to say they have children, we all know they don't come with a mute button. So if a baby is crying or a toddler is having a tantrum, you can hear it. I just feel for the Mum as it must be stressful.

Reasonably I think 10pm till 6am or 8am is reasonable to expect TV's / music not blaring. I don't know if you'd give the couple a few months to settle, then see how they are. I would also say, it's a shame that the neighbourly friendships don't really exist. It does help if you're already on good terms. So maybe a card saying welcome, with maybe a gift. (Depending on if you can afford it)

I always think, it's fair enough getting your hair off with the neighbours making noise, are you sure that you exist like church mice.

We live next door to a family whose soon has frequent meltdowns and screams. Yes we can hear pretty much everything. The neighbour was upset about the noise ( we didn't say anything) . We help them out now by babysitting the other child. There's no point in complaining they can't help their situation.

Of course you hear your neighbours, I think YABU to expect not too. You have got used to it being quiet since the gentleman passed away, sadly unless you live in a detached noise is to be expected.

My party walls are also made of cardboard. I can hear my neighbour's talk, walk and everything else in between. My previous neighbours had carpet -didn't really hear anything. These neighbour's put down wooden flooring and the noise travels. It's so bad that it has become a huge contributing factor in my decision to move.

It totally depends on build quality. Generally, if you have an adjoining wall then you'd expect to hear "normal" aka everyday noise. Washing machine cycle, one-off DIY jobs etc.

In my last flat I was in a converted terrace and twice I ended up going round to their front door at 3am to tell them to STFU I may or may not also have threatened to throw them down these fucking steps

I lived in a 1930’s semi where the neighbours had two noisy children and a piano and all we ever heard was them switching off two wall lights at ten o’clock every night.

I live in a lovely, silent detached house now and the noisiest thing I hear is the DH’s family clocks ticking.

In the summer , though, when I am outside it is bedlam. Last week two neighbours had power tools going for extensions, two H Breaker road drills digging up separate drives, screaming children at an all day paddling pool party and a radio playing ghastly pop music whilst the next door lady was outside.

So much for the peace of an English village. I would move to a single house out in the countryside if I could afford the extra £million it would cost round here.

I live in a new build and hear nothing.

I’m in a Victorian terrace with neighbours either side. Yes, I hear them from time to time, as I’m sure they hear us. My DC used to say their baby crying woke them up. But on a general day to day level I don’t hear them to any intrusive extent. Eg, I can hear if their children gallop up the stairs or if there’s raised voices ( rare) but that’s all fine.

Yes not even joking but there may as well not be a party wall! We moved in nearly 2 years ago now we at first thought it was just because there was a teenager next door and we could always hear her door slamming and shouting things like “why are you trying to ruin my life! I promise I’ll be home by 10” etc they moved out and we seriously just thought they were a loud family because of that, then the new person moved in after a couple of months of bliss silence next door and I realised you really could hear everything down to him putting a plug in the wall, vaccing up, his alarm in a morning and things like arguments which aren’t heated just normal but because the walls are so thin you can hear the “I never said that you did” sooner we move the better!!

1930s semi, next to a student house. When it was six young women there - no problem, we barely heard them ever, they kept themselves to themselves.

But enter six young men - awful. Thundering up and down stairs, doors being slammed, regular arrivals home after midnight with drunken raised voices, yelling at the TV when football was on, gatherings of twenty or more people late into the night; and one of them had a voice that sounded like he was addressing a crowded room. We talked to them regularly: "yeah, we'll be quiet, sorry it got out of hand last night", and eventually complained to the landlord and their university, after a very bad disturbance, which did something. They were then quietish until the end of term, when one of them moved out at 2am! Whenever we complained, we always said "tell us if you hear our noise": not once did they take us up on that.

This is a very timely post.

We've lived in our semi for three years and I always marvelled how we never heard the neighbour (a single woman) and how the walls must be very thick.

However recently her adult son and his partner have moved in and so there are three of them and yes, we can hear them talking to each other like they're in the same room.

It's made me realise that we only didn't hear the neighbour before because she had no one to talk to. And it's made me very ashamed of what she must be hearing from our house, especially my incredibly awful guitar playing.

I lived pretty much all my childhood in a detached house, so obviously never heard neighbours. When I met my wife, before we married, we bought a mid-terrace cottage that was built in the 1800s, we never heard a thing, but the walls were granite and was told they were almost 2ft thick!

We then moved to a 1970s semi and that was a nightmare, I'm sure I heard the neighbours fart!

We lasted 2 years there and then bought a detached place, I couldn't relax in the semi at all.

OP, the elderly neighboour who did live next door would had to have put up with your noise for years !

We spent a lot of money on soundproofing

We rarely heard them but apparently they heard us! And we like our privacy.