To think a great big semi or detached house must be SO lovely?!

[NeverYouMind123]

Terraced here. It's okay most of the time but I dream of living in a house with no fucking neighbour noise whatsoever. These walls are so thin I can hear the microwave next door. I dream of buying a semi detached in a few years with hallways next to each other separating the living rooms or when I'm really feeling ambitious I dream of a detached house, which must be the mother of all awesomeness. I know there is still 'area noise' but I'm not really a garden person so kids playing outside and lawnmowers etc don't phase me so much. But oh to wake up with no 'house noise' and to know I can sit in the lounge or lie in bed and have PURE SILENCE all day and not hear a dog bark or a door slam or an argument or a television. Is it as great as I think it is?

I lived in a flat, and could hear the people in the flats either side of me AND the ones below AND the ones above. It was hell. I moved to a detached 8 years ago and I still don’t take the lack of neighbour noise for granted.

As for semi's I think it very much depends on the house layout and what's adjoining. I lived in a semi where only the bathroom joined really as all other walls had fitted cupboards which provided a lot of sound insulation. We hardly heard the neighbours at all.

My friend had some sound insulation boards fitted into her terrace but lost a few cms of space each side and can still hear the neighbour's radio!

I used to live in a victorian terrace and the neighbours would cook what smelt like meat and onions all day every day from about 7am. It used to waft up into my whole upstairs. It gave me the rage.

It’s nice if you have considerate neighbours! Unfortunately I don’t! 😩

Yes. I grew up in a large detached house with fairly big grounds so neighbourly noise was at a minimum and the rooms were spread out so didnt hear noise from the nearest bedroom etc. I remember when I went to uni and heard the noise of a next door neighbour plugging something into the wall - it mystified me until my friend explained what it was!
I live in a semi at the moment and still struggle with how inconsiderate neighbours are about noise - not the everyday household noises but talking at full volume in gardens/music on etc. I miss the peace a detached house and gardens bring!

I lived most of my life in older terraces and mostly not found them very noisy. There's usually more noise from the street - traffic, people walking past chatting, music blaring from cars, workmen etc. so it's more important for quiet to live in a quiet side street or rural area.

Yeah it’s great. This is the first detached house I’ve ever lived in and the lack of attached neighbours is amazing.

I do love Victorian terraced houses though (the big 3 story ones) but DH doesn’t want to go back to having neighbours.

A lot depends on your immediate neighbours in all cases. We've lived in two terraced house, then a semi-detached (technically, there weren't any adjoining rooms), and a detached. The first terraced hour was great, and we never had any problems. The second was a shithole, and we could hear the neighbours screaming and swearing at each other all hours of the night. The semi-detached had no house noise, but the neigbours teen son would have garden parties till 3am every weekend, and the detached we're in now is bliss.

Tbh, I actually think we were probably the noisy family throughout our childhoods and teens. The nicest thing about a detached is not having to worry about annoying next door - when the toddler is having another night terror and screaming for 7 hours straight, when the kids are being noisy, when you get in from work at past midnight and want to watch a film or play a video game etc etc. Not to mention "private" noise like arguments, sex, or losing your temper and bawling at the kids for the nth time that day. (Not me, but a DM who was long past the end of her tether).

It's all relative! I lived in a detached house before moving into the Victorian terrace I'm in now. Whilst we didn't hear the neighbours moving about in their house, we could still hear them in the garden. It wasn't totally serene and blissful. You would need to have a detached property in the country for that!

I quite like living in my terraced house, my neighbours aren't noisy at all and we get on quite well. I'd love my fences to be a bit higher, but that's on the cards to rectify. Apart from that I'm happy.

We moved from a flat to a detached house 16 years ago, it's bliss I admit! Our neighbours at the flat were pleasant but noisy, they had a massive tv with surround sound and laminate flooring, so you can imagine the noise, it was starting to affect our everday lives so much we used to dread them coming home from work because it was a full on noise fest!

I live in a flat and I am over it. No garden, hear everything that goes on, downstairs smoke drifts into our window...nothing to recommend it.

It is lovely to have a detached house, because of the silence from the neighbours. Now if only I could make my five year old be quiet too! If we ever move from this house, I’m not buying a house with the master bedroom above any room we’re likely to put a tv.

It's amazing. We have very big speakers and very good insulation. Being able to blast the music and know you are not bothering anyone is one of lifes simple joys.

Was only saying this last night to DH.

I live in a flat, and the only sound we hear is when upstairs flush the toilet in their ensuite. Never hear any neighbours walking or talking. The internal walls in our flat are paper thin, but at the least the builders did a good job on the other walls, floor & ceiling :).

It’s very good. We are detached with the surrounding few acres beyond the gardens, loads of space to enjoy, though you would be surprised how far noise can carry when there isn’t much to drown it out.

Don’t lose hope! My house is a small fully detached house that was cheap so they do exist! Just slightly more unusual. Music etc doesn’t carry at all :)

Over my life I've lived in terraced houses and detached houses. Hated the terraced houses with a passion. I'm very sensitive to noise and would get very irritated hearing other people all the time. My current house (detached) is on a fairly quiet estate but I am still bothered by noise from other neighbours although I know it could be worse. Now give me a detached house in the middle of the country and that would be pure bliss!

Moved mid terrace to detached last summer.
I've been thankful every day since lockdown. Space for us all to find our own space if needed. Can't hear the neighbours in the phone. Know the neighbours can't hear us. The garden doesn't back onto a car park. I can say yes without worry if the girls want to put music on and dance like loons.i don't have to worry about the trampoline disturbing the 16yo next door GCSE revision (I told him to tell me if he needed extra quiet last summer.) No listening to other children's instrument practice.

I’m very grateful that I’m living in a detached house ATM and I have a lot of sympathy for people living in flats during this lockdown.The (modern, purpose built) flats I’ve lived in seemed to have no effective sound insulation. You could tell when the man in the flat above came home from work - thump, thump, thump of running toddler feet - and at one place I’d swear the weed smoke leaked through the walls from the flat next door. It’s part of communal living but you’re not all usually stuck inside for 23 hours a day

I'm in a Victorian semi and I love it. So much space and noise doesn't sound all the time all over the house like when I lived in a flat.

Is it as great as I think it is?

Oh yes! It's fantastic. We have a gorgeous 1850s detached Victorian with ridiculously thick walls. No direct neighbours and it's heavenly.

Having lived in flats with paper thin walls and terrible neighbours , terraced houses and semi detacheds, we absolutely love our detached.

I'm in a 1920's semi with thick walls so I never hear my neighbours in the adjoining house. They say they don't hear us but I think they're just being polite! The best thing is that it's double fronted so the reception rooms are on each side of the hall which means we hardly hear the kids either. Being on a private road with a high front fence also helps as there's very little passing traffic. I think about how lucky we are multiple times a week at the moment.

Same here, live in a semi-detached house, but would love to live in a detached house. I’m not so much bothered about children making noise (mine do too), it’s the adults slamming doors, arguing and playing music loud that’s an issue, especially when they’ve knocked on my door and acknowledged that they do it and were going to stop.

Until I was 33 I always lived in a terraced house or a flat. Then moved to a detached house and it is really nice! We can still hear next door's annoying barky dog though.