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.

Our house is 1960s and they may as well
Not have bothered building the dividing wall - we can hear everything! It's also rented which doesn't help a A family with about 5 kids moved in couple of years ago all about 12/13 years and under - they go to bed LATER than we do and often still up about 11pm on a school night - one of the girls has been going through a stage of singing loudly with headphones in - she is blooody awful! Our next move will be a detached house with no neighbours for miles!

We can hear the stairs, the toddler crying when put to bed for an hour every night, the toddler crying at 5 every morning for an hour, the baby crying whenever it cries. In the kitchen, blenders, washing machines, plugs... in the bathroom (which is next to my bedroom), the shower, the radio, the toilet flushing... I imagine they can hear my kids yelling, me yelling, my appliances, me snoring, haha. We keep up a polite fallacy that neither side can hear a thing even though we could quite frankly have had a party every night between my toddler that doesn't sleep and hers!

Lived in a semi for 15 years until this year. Neighbours changed a few times but we always heard everything - TVs, stomping up and down stairs, loud conversations, cupboards banging...... my best 2 weeks of the year used to be when they'd be on holiday. I could have cried when they'd return! Or the glorious gap between when one would move out and another moved in.

Finally in a detached house and the difference is amazing- it's the best thing. The constant noise did take its toll on me.

I live in a semi detached stone cottage (approx 150 to 200 years old), it has metre thick granite walls. Both us and ndn have a toddler. We barely hear anything, if ndn move furniture in their dining room (tiled floor) we can hear a slight noise as we have chimneys back to back which transfer the sound a little, other than that we hear some very faint DIY sounds. To hear voices we both need to have windows open. We have a noisy dog and I regularly check whether they hear him when we are out and he is shut in the house, and they never can.

We're moving to a semi-detached house next year from a terrace. We don't hear much from either side, but I do like having neighbour noise. It's reassuring! I was worried it would be too quiet when we move. But reading this thread I'm very reassured

I've lived in a semi and now I'm in a terraced house. Honestly not been bad at all. I know the set up of my neighbours home as iv been in theirs (we're all friendly) and iv placed beds away from where there's are at the wall... TV not right behind their sofa etc.
Ours is a 60s build which is pretty solid and I only hear if their kids are jumping around but they go to bed at 8 and it doesn't bother me. Or if they do DIY but again it's fair enough and can't be helped. I can't hear them talking and I can't hear the dog that's on one side

It's soo important how the house is designed. If it's main rooms and main bedrooms adjoining you are going to hear more noise than if it's halls and staircases adjoining.

We used to live in a 1930s terrace and heard way more on the rooms adjoining side. Although the chimney breasts had also been removed both sides which made things much worse. We could hear exactly what programme they were watching on TV every night, downstairs and in bedroom!

We now live in a detached house.

We're in an ex council semi - the former occupant of our house bought it under right to buy decades ago in the days of Maggie Thatcher. He died and we bought from his estate. His best mate lived next door - still a council tenant, never heard a peep from him. He sadly grew ill and died and the house was empty for a bit and now has a family of 5 in there.

Yes we can hear them - not to be able to actually evesdrop but when they are all there talking loudly you can hear the fact that they are talking and the occasional burst of laughter. You can hear the baby crying and the kids arguing but it doesn't bother me. Its the sound of vibrant family life. Its not as loud as DH's snoring so its hardly the main source of noise in my life.

During the day when there is hustle and bustle in our house, I only really hear my neighbours when they are shouting at their kids. But they do wake my children up in the morning when things in our house are quiet when they open and close drawers and their children start playing or talking etc. Though the longer we live there, the less they hear them and they sleep through a lot of it. I'm sure my kids wake them up too on occasion but I'd say both our families are considerate of each other. I've heard them shushing their kids if it's particularly early and we do the same.

No, we have a new build and despite everyone yelling me we would, we don't hear our neighbours. Only when they are out in the garden.

Yes omg I wish we didn’t buy our house. I grew up in an old Victorian semi that was pretty big and rarely knew our neighbours existed so I stupidly believed it would be the same when the estate agents managed to show us around on the least noisy day or something.
The minute we moved in the family next door had two young dc and we were just a couple and we’d be woken every morning crack of dawn and it really affected us. Our house wouldn’t sell in this market but couldn’t take it anymore so let it out and now renting. Thank goodness we got out. When we had dc we actually realised it wasn’t completely necessary to put up with all that noise, we never once heard the parents say be quiet or stop jumping

We have a 60's house and hear lots from one side. Their stairs are next to our living room and their grandchildren thunder up the stairs sometimes (don't mind this). I can hear them talking sometimes but not actual words. However, their tumble dryer is probably the thing that will make me move. It seems to be be under the stairs and the noise makes me want to cry some days. I have no idea why they need to use it so much.

We live in a terrace. On one side our stairs adjoin their stairs - we occasionally hear them going up or down the stairs and maybe toilet flushing if they happen to be in the bathroom at the same time as us. That's it. They say they never even heard DS cry when he was a baby, and he was quite loud!
Other side our walls adjoin their walls. We hear a lot more from their side. Normal conversation or television we can't hear, but we always know if they're having a row or if they have friends over, and occasionally I can hear their kid practising his guitar. I feel a bit sorry for them as I have a three-year-old, and while he's pretty well-behaved and (thankfully!) doesn't usually wake up until about seven, the noise level in our house definitely increased after he was born, and I know they can hear it. (Though they're very nice about it).
I actually find the adjoining gardens harder to deal with. Everyone is very civilised and you never hear more than just people sitting out there chatting, but obviously if I'm wanting to sit in the garden and read my book, it's a bit disconcerting to hear next door discussing their personal life over the wall. I know a lot more about my neighbour's marriage than I really want to!

A couple of years ago we moved from a detached to a 1970s semi.

A family with two small girls lived next door. From our first night there we were shocked by the noise. The toddler would scream and run up and down the wooden floors, especially from 7pm onwards when she was protesting bed time. The noise travelled through our house and up into my children's rooms.

My husband built a stud wall with soundproofing. It dimmed it slightly but we could still here.

Fortunately our house had been extended and we lived mainly on the other side in the end.

After six months the family moved out (we are fairly quiet so nothing we'd done) as the woman wanted to be near her mother.

A single guy moved in and it was bliss (minus the motorbike at 6am each day). Now he has a girlfriend and she's brought a howling dog to stay! It's still preferable to the toddler, though they are getting serious now and I wonder if they'll have kids!

Our old detached was a smaller house but in future I will always buy detached regardless.

We are lucky that ours was extended and we can move to the other side where my bedroom is. But my children's rooms are attached to next door and when the dog was howling at 6am the noise just travels up to their room (chimney breast and wardrobes against the wall not helping).

You are hostage to your neighbours in all houses, but with a semi this becomes even more relevant.

• hear

Used to live in a 1930s semi and rarely heard our neighbours. And then it was odd things like certain plugs being switched on.

The funniest one was on a Thursday night they used to have a men’s Christian gathering. Where they sing etc. Wouldn’t normally hear them as would have tv on.

But one night FIL was baby sitting. He fell asleep on the settee and then thought he’d died when he suddenly heard these heavenly voices.

We are in a similar situation to you. The lady next door only stays a few weekends a year so we basically have an empty house. When she is here we don't hear a lot, just odd doors banging and washing machine, but I worry we are the annoying noisy neighbours. We have a toddler and a baby so there is normally someone shouting!

Hardly hear them at all.

Hear nothing from next door but she is a single woman mid seventies dread when she is no longer there tbh. We are a quiet house too, our neighbour is deaf so wouldn't hear us even if we weren't though.

We live next to a family with 2 young children and very rarely hear them. It's a new build home too. Used to live in a terrace group of 6 houses (3 on our side, 3 at the back) and we heard none of our neighbours then. Again, new build houses. No idea why people around here complain about them, they are bloody well built compared to some companies you hear of around the country.

Similar here. We had 2 years of a single old man who we never heard. Just had a very very noisy family move in.. mum, dad and son. They argue so much! And also she had her 5 grandchildren regular - i get it, kids can be loud, especially excited cousins etc..but its her, she cant speak to them she has to shout allll the time. We had to move our bed to the other side of the room

1930s semi. We don't hear much of our neighbours, but then I think they're pretty quiet, mostly. We hear the man next door shouting at the tv when the racing is on, water running if we're in the kitchen, hoovering and, when it's quiet, a loud click every time someone plugs something in on the party wall. If the whole family (parents, 3 adult children, some grandchildren) are round it gets louder and we hear talking and laughing.

When their youngest was a baby, they would leave her to cry in her cot for quite a while - 45-60 minutes or so. The cot was next to the party wall where there's a chimney breast, which seems to amplify sound. The crying woke me/kept me awake a couple of times a night for about 3 months, while they appeared to sleep through it, which was bloody annoying.

@lovelyupnorth that comment cracked me up

My neighbours are nice but they have 3 little kids. I hear them sometimes if there is a crying fit or I don’t have tv on.

Luckily we have a big kitchen playroom extension area which we use day time and only use the joined room in the evening when the kids are asleep.

I plan to move to a detached in the next two three years tho and I will be soooo fussy about how close the neighbours are.

I grew up loving in a 1930s semi and we heard next to nothing from the neighbours. Once in a blue moon there would be loud music from the teenage daughter but it never lasted long or went on late.

I’ve since lived in 3 Victorian semis where you could hear everything - plugs, answerphone messages, tv, stairs, coughing etc. With one neighbour we could only watch the same tv programmes because he was so deaf that we couldn’t hear our tv over his. Then he died and a young couple who liked to party every Friday and Saturday night moved in.

Once we could afford to move to a detached house we did, and I would never to move back to a semi unless I had to.