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.

lowlandluck I regularly asked him if we were noisy and would apologise for the noise the kids may have made but he always insisted he couldn’t hear us and that he loved hearing our kids play as his grandchildren were all grown. We are generally quiet people, we are not noisy which is why I would worry about having noisy neighbours, we are just not used to noise.

You are being unrealistic, yes you are going to hear a lot from them. They will want to have friends round, music on, diy and renovate the house, pets, possibly children in the future. You clearly are going to find this very hard. I honestly think you only two options: 1. Soundproof the whole wall. 2. Move, you are asking for a detached experience without the house and it really isn't fair on next door as whatever they do they are obviously not going to meet you expectations.

I'm in a semi, and we hear everything, but we've been lucky with our neighbours - no late night music or anything. It also helped me, as they would call the Police when the abusive ex was battering me :-(

What was funny was when my son and their daughter were young teens - they would lie in bed arguing through the wall (he didn't like her singing to her CDs!).

@lovelyupnorth / you’re hilarious comment had me laughing out loud, ha ha, brilliant!!

Our old house was a semi, we heard everything...them walking around, cooking, their telephone, doors slamming, their drunken arguments...they didn’t like each other between December and February and their son in his early thirties (same age as us) practicing on his out of tune guitar. Now have no neighbours and it’s bliss.

I fancy no neighbours at all, rural for us in the next few years I think.

We can hear our neighbours tv sometimes, their music and we used to get to hear when she was arguing with her ex. I think they hear us quite a bit when we argue but we never hear any inappropriate noises. Oh we can also sometimes hear the dog being upset when its left behind..

I live down a track in a field, I long for neighbouhood noise, I feel unsafe.

We live in 30's semi and have had lots of NDN as house next door is a rental. We really don't hear much at all only the odd shout during a football match etc.

I lived next door to an elderly couple (later elderly widow) for years and it was lovely. She looked out for burglars and anything suspicious, fed my cat if I was out, and had nice chats over the garden fence. When she died, her grandson moved in and OH MY GOD the shagging and the techno music drove me insane. I once played Chas & Dave Snooker Loopy at them through the wall at 3am when they'd been squealing and shagging for ages, and they were silent for weeks after that.

They moved out a couple of years ago and now I have an almost entirely silent young man, who unfortunately seems to invite his mother round for karaoke once a month or so. It's pretty excruciating, but thankfully doesn't happen too frequently.

We live in a fairly modern semi & it’s not bad at all from our ndn’s side. I actually feel sorry for them as DD is very possibly on the spectrum & can have very loud meltdowns. I shout too ☹️. The main room we hear them in is our bedroom, as it backs onto their bathroom.

We can't hear our neighbours unless they're drilling something into the shared wall. They've got a newborn baby and I was expecting to be able to hear him cry, but haven't heard a peep!

We’ve had 3 different neighbours on our attached since.
First was an elderly, mostly deaf lady. If we heard anything it was her calling her dog (same name as DS!) or if she was in the garden.
Second was a blended family with 4 kids between them 9-12 years old (ish). We only heard shouting (not necessarily angrily but just up the stairs type of thing), real humdinger arguments (rare) and noise in the garden.
Currently a couple with 2 primary school aged boys. Same as above without the humdingers!
Overall, nothing intrusive or beyond what I would consider reasonable.

When we lived in a mid-terrace that was very different!!

We have just sold our maisonette and moved to a detached for that exact reason, neighbours on either side had no idea how to bring up kids, our son was in bed on school nights between 7.30 upto 10pm as he got older he’s now 16, our neighbours kids were up running and shouting upto 1-2am on school nights, we had so many arguments, police called, my DP arrested after neighbour punched him and he retaliated, to save our sanity we sold back to the local council and brought a lovely detached. Ahh bliss

I live in a terraced and never hear my neighbours so I'm surprised you do, are they old houses?

We live in a semi bungalow, same on that we had a old chap on his own, only heard him watching to sometimes. Now we have couple with dogs and no concept of “indoor voices” lol
You will generally hear neighbours tbh but as long admits not at unreasonable times you don’t really notice it.
It’s easy to sound proof a wall actually, sound board or thick plasterboard should reduce the noise levels quite well. Or you might consider moving to a detached house again and never having to worry about it!

I'm in a new build to. It was finished December 2018, by redrow. I've been here since march 2019, haven't heard a peep from the neighbours. Each side has children to. Left side of us has a 8 and 13 year old, other side has a baby.

Our house is nearly 15 years old so not a great build compared to years previous. I originally had a male living next door, OMG I could hear him having sex all the time, I could hear him when he would be in his En suite having a wee ! we now have a young family with young kids and tbh it's like I'm actually sitting in their house.

Earlier this year I went and stayed in my parents house which had been just sold and theirs was a terraced house built early 60's and it was like we were staying in a detached house, not a sound could be heard from either side and there was lots of people about at the time.

I do remember as a child in that house putting my posters on the wall and using an actual hammer to get the tacks into the solid walls, in our house dh was hanging a mirror on our so called solid wall and took his ligh weigh hammer to put up the hooks and the hammer went through the wall, turns out all solid walls were covered leaving a small gap with plaster boards, a common occurence in new builds here. The actual brick is much thinner than years ago too.

We rarely hear ours (usually someone plugs something in to the wall and we hear that bizarrely enough) but rarely anything..
They've never mentioned hearing us, and I'm sure they would do. we're on polite enough terms.