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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate living in a terraced house

101 replies

Terracesarebad · 15/08/2021 11:17

Woken up at 7 am this morning by next door’s son pounding down their stairs. Could feel the vibration in my bedroom which is the furthest room from them. He then spent the next hour running up and down them, slamming doors & generally being noisy. He is 11.

I appreciate that he’s a child but my god I just want a lie in after working all week.

We live in a 1970s mid terrace or should I say “townhouse” which means 2 lots of stairs on our adjoining wall for people to thunder up and down. Last night we were trying to watch a film and all we could hear was next door moving around. It’s like living next to a herd of buffalo.

As I type this the pounding up and down the stairs has started again 🙄

Can’t ever have a lie in, have to listen to other people constantly, why do we built such shit houses in this country with no sound insulation and expect people to live decent lives?

OP posts:
lobsterkiller · 15/08/2021 11:24

Feeling your pain. I live in a 1930s semi and my next door neighbours seem to believe they live in a detached with spacious grounds.

The kids are loud but they're tiny. Its the mum who goes off on one at all hours. Last night at 3am. Last month 4am.

Ive looked into soundproofing, but im not sure if it would work.
Flowers For you.

thereisonlyoneofme · 15/08/2021 11:25

Totally agree, Im in a terraced house. Quite grateful at the moment I have quiet neighbours, but one lot moving and dreading new ones.
Have had horrendous noise problems. I firmly believe that a lot of the anger /selfishness etc now is because people are living on top of each other. Tiny houses, tiny gardens.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 15/08/2021 11:26

I don't understand why there is such a poor quality build in UK😭
Woken up at 8am on sunday by neigbours...

ShoppingBasket · 15/08/2021 11:28

I don't understand why they don't build houses so the halls are beside each other and so rooms are not adjoining as much. I'm in a new build but can hear next doors tv and light switches going on and off if I don't have my own TV on. I'm lucky in that it is an elderly person next door, I can only imagine what we sound like to her!

Cottonheadedninymuggins · 15/08/2021 11:31

I agree. One house we have lived beside for almost 25 years. Years 1 to 21.5 lovely husband and wife we got in famously with, just human neighbourly noise. Sadly husband passed away. 6 months after the boyfriend moved in. He's been an arse from day one and takes literal pleasure from being as loud and disruptive (behind the doors... too cowardly to do anything in the street) as he can be, blasting music into early hours, hanging and thudding on the walls, slamming doors and gates etc theatrically everytime he goes through them, screaming at the top of his voice when she's in the same room as him, shouting stupid noises at random. We are in the process of a long complaint about him with the council and police.

What happened to our little neighbourhood where everyone knew each other and looked out for each other? It's all breaking up now.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 15/08/2021 11:31

We had house adjoining living rooms and 1 bedroom back where my family lives and you could blast radio on full, the neigbours wouldn't hear it. I can actually hear normal volume tv in here... It's the shit build quality here which causes unnecessary issues between neigbours.

Onfire · 15/08/2021 11:31

We live in a 1900’s terrace and can’t hear stair noises or anything from next door

The only sound we can hear is a mild hum if they have their extractor fan on in the kitchen when cooking but we can only hear that if we stand next to that wall and are deadly silent

Why are 1930’s & 1970’s houses so noisy? Ours isn’t a posh townhouse, it’s a former workers cottage and wouldn’t have been built with soundproofing in mind I assume

Pumpkinstace · 15/08/2021 11:32

While we are at it 8am is too early for workmen.

I really didn't appreciate my kids being woken at 8am during the holidays by next doors kitchen fitters (terraced cottage here)

Goodthings · 15/08/2021 11:34

Agree. I moved from a Victorian terrace due to the noise from neighbours both sides. I’m now in a small modern terrace and it’s just as bad although the one side neighbours are generally quiet. The other side get up at 5am and are up and down the stairs 50 times before they leave for work.

TheLovelinessOfDemons · 15/08/2021 11:38

All the houses in our terrace are converted into flats, so no running up and down stairs, but even DS nearly 10 with ADHD has outgrown running around constantly in the house. He'd be told off if he did that.

CallmeHendricks · 15/08/2021 11:39

@Pumpkinstace

While we are at it 8am is too early for workmen.

I really didn't appreciate my kids being woken at 8am during the holidays by next doors kitchen fitters (terraced cottage here)

Last summer, next door's builders used to regularly start at around 7am. (They had moved out for the duration, leaving us neighbours with all the noise and disruption). One bank holiday weekend, they arranged for a roofer to turn up and he began hammering and scraping outside my bedroom window (heatwave, so wide open) at 10 to 6 in the morning. I was livid and may have let my feelings known.
Thighdentitycrisis · 15/08/2021 11:49

I live in a terrace from early 1800’s. I told DS for years not to run up and down stairs but he carried on.
Now 2 under fives next door and they wake me up on a Sunday morning and the mum calling them from the other rooms

We all have to live with each other I suppose

BarbaraofSeville · 15/08/2021 11:50

@Onfire

We live in a 1900’s terrace and can’t hear stair noises or anything from next door

The only sound we can hear is a mild hum if they have their extractor fan on in the kitchen when cooking but we can only hear that if we stand next to that wall and are deadly silent

Why are 1930’s & 1970’s houses so noisy? Ours isn’t a posh townhouse, it’s a former workers cottage and wouldn’t have been built with soundproofing in mind I assume

Same here. Nothing to do with a terraced house OP, we used to live in a back to back terrace which meant we had 3 sets of adjoining neighbours and we never heard any of them.

Now we live in a 1950s ex LA semi and we can hear far more.

cpjoli · 15/08/2021 11:53

Feel your pain. Next door one side is old and deaf and has the TV blaring (don't mind that so much) and the other side had their cement mixer and grinder going at 8.20 am this morning. It's Sunday FFS!!!

PattyPan · 15/08/2021 12:07

We live in a Victorian terrace and also have this issue so it’s not just more modern houses unfortunately. Some people just do not care how much noise they make. One of our neighbours asked us to let them know if their music is too loud but the other side shout at each other at all hours of the day and night. They are usually in the kitchen at the back of the house and whenever someone knocks on the front door they shout ‘who is it’ instead of getting up to look Hmm

PumpkinKlNG · 15/08/2021 12:13

Try living in a ground floor flat 😭 I moved into my property and it has a one bed flat above I thought great, will be nice and quiet will only ever be a single person or couple, nope a family of 5 including 3 children moved in. Well the noise has been horrific (they ride toys up and down across the laminate flooring)

DGFB · 15/08/2021 12:13

It’s not your neighbours fault, people should be allowed to live their lives. This is why we left our old flat.. but nobody was to blame really. Just rubbish quality housing

WTF475878237NC · 15/08/2021 12:15

My 1930s semi seemed to be much better sound proofed than the terraced townhouse new build I bought before. I used to think someone was changing the TV channel over when I was in the kitchen as I could hear something different to what I put on in the living room.

Original poster
Terracesarebad · 15/08/2021 12:17

We used to live in a 1920s terrace and oh my god the noise. Our “townhouse” terrace used to be ok in that we never heard our neighbours going up and down the stairs. As soon as the new neighbours moved in though that was it, the pounding started.

I have a 12 year old and he definitely doesn’t hurtle down the stairs like the boy next door.

The problem is it makes you start hating your neighbours.

OP posts:
2old2beamum · 15/08/2021 12:17

Terraced house here built 1872, beautiful! Next door 3 flats, otherside a residential home for people with learning disabilities never here a sound. The houses were built I think for the "upper middleclass people" as the top floor was the servants quarters. Walls are very thick. Sorry for the families having problems.

Mumofsend · 15/08/2021 12:19

It's the building. I live in a 2003 mid-terrace and can't hear a peep through the walls. Considering when I'm out in the garden I can here next door screaming like a banshee at her kids, I'm amazed we can't hear it through the walls

Piglet89 · 15/08/2021 12:21

The Victorian mid terraced house out of which we are scheduled to move next week was built in 1867. It’s exactly the same; so so so noisy. Walls seem as though they’re paper thin.

FizzyPink · 15/08/2021 12:23

I used to babysit for a couple in a £3m terraced town house in London. I honestly used to check on the kids several times during the evening because there would be so much noise only to find that it was coming from next door.

Freecuthbert · 15/08/2021 12:23

I live in a victorian terrace and don't really hear my neighbours. Only time really is when there is drilling/work being done. One side has two young children as well, never hear them. However when I lived in a 90s build previously I could hear my neighbour cough, sneeze, fart, everything!

DumbestBlonde · 15/08/2021 12:24

I have next door noise too - although from a semi-detached (I am not going to include the apatments on the other sdie in this --- essay). Music can be very bad (they use an amplifier), as can the screaming rows. For general noise - which I CAN hear, as they can mine I would suppose....- i have literally trained myself to tune it out. In fact, dead silence now worries me - the area around here CAN be very very quiet, but equally crazy drivers and noisy kids can also prevail on occasion.

The worst experience I have had of noise and flimsy build quality was on a trip to visit my father and his family many years ago when they lived in tiny hamlet in the Dordogne. The house was LOVELY - a single storey with French doors along the front from each room, out onto a terrace with a deep overhang, so I think, seven sets of them. The bedrooms/bathroom were on the back side of the house running the length of it. I stayed in the guest room, right next to the 4 and 5 year old sons' room. They were pretty spoilt, so allowed free rein; although they would stay in bed, they screamed at the top of thir voices (at about 6am) - "IT'S WAKING UP TIIIIIIIIME!!!!!" - effectively right next to my head. Let alone, the property - as lovely as it was - seemed to to have interior walls of balsa wood.

I spent most of my stay (not allowed to call it a holiday) wearing sunglasses a la Jackie O, to cover my tired eyes - and I was only 20.

Personally, I am quite considerate - even buying a digital piano, so I could use headphones (it's not the same though) - but occasionally forget myself and belt out a Lady Gaga Star is Born solo.... (oops!)