Terraced/semi - how thin are your walls?

[Trulyatraditionalman]

I rent a very small 2 Victorian terrace. The walls are so thin, you can hear talking from next door and the occasional clear word (if the voice is raised). I know his is all part and parcel of living in a period terraced house. HOWEVER. New neighbour has just moved in (guy in his mid 30s) and was obviously keen to "christen" the house with his girlfriend this morning, so I just woke up to them having rather loud sex! Off to purchase some earplugs...

Just wondering, is this standard of most Victorian terraced houses? If you live in a terraceded/semi, how much can you hear your neighbours?

YABU - Can't hear much
YANBU - Can hear conversations and more

Hard to say. We have a late Victorian semi and hear very little But I am aware when their grown up daughter is visiting as the telly is louder, etc. So I think our neighbours are just quiet, and we reciprocate.

Though one time I was visiting the neighbours when DD was playing the violin in our living room. It was like she was in their living room! They say they don't hear us but they must just be being polite!

My house is 1904 and there is only one brick between us and ndn, I know this as ex drilled all the way through once by mistake . Luckily it's only my dd's room that is next to theirs , the rest is our landing. She does hear quite a bit and we can smell weed on the landing sometimes 😫

1930’s mid terrace sandwiched between 2 families with loud kids...I hear almost everything. I feel like I don’t have privacy in my own home.

This question comes up here every so often and people say ‘what do you expect living in a terrace’. I’ve always lived in detached houses and thought older properties would be well made and more sound proof. I thought it was quickly made new builds that had paper walls

Not a sound when I looked around presale. Now I know what everyone is doing!

I find it hard to live freely as I know they can hear but they don’t seem to be bothered the other way around. Maybe because I am quiet they don’t think any noise carries...

Semi detached built in the 90's. Can hear voices, coughs, phones beeping etc. Its like being divided by paper. I thought maybe it was because it was a newish house. But seems like it's an issue in older ones too. It's made me determined to get a detached house one day

I've lived in a couple of Victoria terraces, couldn't hear the neighbours at all - one neighbour even had a party there which we didn't know about until after the event!

I've also lived in a new-build terrace. I could hear the neighbour having sex a couple of times (though only with the one girlfriend he had - she must have been quite loud!), though that may have been the fact that my bedroom window was open and his was open. I did worry that they could hear me! I could hear them when they were having minor work done to the house and the other side, I could hear the child playing sometimes and the alarm going off in the mornings. I didn't hear conversations/phones ringing/TVs etc.

I occasionally hear my neighbour sneeze and shout back bless you!! It's a bit of a joke between us. I can hear them go up their stairs and shut doors, occasionally music too, but it really doesn't bother me. It makes me feel connected to people when I am alone in the house.

We also both spend a lot of time in our gardens so we inadvertently hear potentially private conversations too... For example I heard them get the call that she was pregnant from IVF as they took it in the garden whilst I was in mine. I live in a semi that was built in 1850

I'm in a 50s semi and I can only hear shouts and the bass of music. So it depends how shouty and music loving my neighbours are. The last lot played a war video game so I had the roar of tanks every night. Currently seems to be a quieter person (fingers crossed).

My bugbear is why the builders didnt build the stairs on the adjoining walls, so that bedrooms were on opposite sides and bit more private.

We used to live in a local authority Semi you could hear every word.
Now we live in a 1900s terrace and hardly hear a thing.

I think it's a bit intrusive shouting "bless you" when neighbours sneeze. It would make me paranoid that other bodily functions would get a reaction

I’d die if my neighbour shouted bless you

@Firstandsecondtimebuyers

I’d die if my neighbour shouted bless you

We both sneeze loudly and our other halves take the piss out of it, neither of us are embarrassed or paranoid about it at all, it's just neighbourly laughs.

Victorian terrace, very well-built and hear nothing from neighbours either side unless they're drilling.

I'm in a conversion though so I'm aware of upstairs a bit, as they walk about. Thank goodness they have carpets.

1800-1850 mid terrace with granite walls 1.5 foot thick. We just about hear next door playing piano/drums, and the other side loosing his shit at the teenage daughter occasionally 😡 and can hear when either side sort their fires (thinnest part of the walls. No more than that, thank god.

I live in a Victorian terrace and can hear raised voices, particularly loud coughing, random banging sounds, sometimes Alexa or loud music but not normal conversation, tv etc. Unfortunately one neighbour shouts constantly!

I live in a semi and my neighbours have sex pretty much every night, very loudly and always around 11pm! Makes me feel quite jealous !

I'm in a modern terraced house built 2003 and insulation between houses is pretty good. They have had a baby and sometimes hear it crying. Can sometimes hear them hoovering or noisy DIY but that's about it apart from their bloody dog! Insulation between floors is crap though.

1998 semi, we hear virtually nothing.

My old Edwardian mid terrace - not a peep from either side unless the drums were being played.
DHs old 1980 semi, every whisper.

1930s semi and we can hear everything.

1910 terrace. We can hear them plugging stuff in, and sometimes muffled talking if they're near a fireplace and we're upstairs near the chimney, but in general we don't hear much other than general muffled noises. There's a big difference between the back and front of the house. I think it's because the dining rooms at the back are hard floors and very little soft furnishing, whereas the front rooms of both houses have carpet and sofas, so lots of noise dampening.

The other side, we're next to their stairs, so don't hear much, though dh has had to endure their 18year old learning electric guitar next to his study for the last 2 years!

I live in a Victorian semi. Thankfully it’s a halls together design so it’s only the box rooms, bathrooms, hall ways and kitchens which are next to each other.

The bigger bedrooms and living rooms and dining rooms are on the outer side.

Dh uses our box room as a study and can hear the teenage boy having sex with his gf throughout the day. I think most of dh’s workmates can also hear our teenage neighbour having sex when dh is in a zoom meeting! 🤷‍♀️😂🙄🙈

Don’t normally hear day to day noise although the dad next door is a bit of a fog horn in volume so sometimes hear him booming away, thankfully the full fog horn effect seems to be only for phone conversations. He’s a bit like Dom Joly on the phone!

Most annoying thing is I can “feel” their sound bar on the tv when they watch a movie. From the far end of their house to the far end of mine. Dh barely notices it but it’s like a thudding inside my head and I hate it.

I live in a 91 semi. I was very nervous about moving in as I had only lived in detached houses prior.
I can barely hear anything! I can hear when my neighbour hoovers the stairs, and she sometimes slams her front door but apart from that, there is blessed silence.

Victorian terrace - all we hear is the kids next door running up and down the stairs.

I’m in an 80s end of terrace and tbh it’s pretty good. Might be something to do with the neighbors being pretty quiet, although they have a 1yo son and I can occasionally hear when he’s crying. But it’s very muted.

The woman in there before was really bad for ott porn style noises when she was shagging, but it’s almost as if she was trying to make as much noise as possible.

With the Victorian semi I was in before, it was probably worse, but I could see that this was more down to the subfloor cavity- there were some pretty big gaps in the party wall that I only saw when I lifted the boards. Might be where your problem is, op.

1930s semi. Depends on the neighbours how much we hear. First neighbour had quite a booming voice and we’d occasionally hear him on the phone or blowing his nose but nothing much else. 2nd neighbours seemed to live their whole lives at full volume and sounded like a herd of elephants stampeding about. Current neighbours have a young baby and we occasionally hear them playing with him but nothing apart from that. The baby seems a good sleeper!