How soundproof are the walls in a townhouse? Your advice needed please!

[April2003]

We are very interested in a 1999 built townhouse. The only thing holds us back is the soundproof of the walls in common with neighbors. Can anyone advise on this? I know the house next door is for rent currently.

Many thanks!

Having lived in one we could hear one side (flushing loos, sneezing) but not the other side. Friends now living in a town house have just spent ££££ adding soundproofing to their town house.
I will only live in a detached house now.

Many thanks for your prompt response, Lifeofpo and spacegoat! This is very helpful.

Depends on teh build quality I had one and it was terrible!

I can't remember which year the building regs were changed so that there had to be decent soundproofing between properties. You might be okay - I had a friend living in a townhouse build around 2002 and the only sounds that came through were things like drills and hammer noises.

We used to live in one. It was terrible! We could even hear next doors text message alerts and light switches being switched on and off. My old next door neighbour once brought be some cough medicine because my cough was keeping her awake. We live in a detached house now!

Many thanks, all. The townhouse was built in 1999. I will ask the agent whether they could provide any details about the construction of the wall.

Our townhouse is 10 years old and we hardly hear anything. Next door neighbour has a baby and they've apologised to us for the baby crying all night when we've not heard a thing.

HTH

Another one who could hear conversation and light switches etc. hated it especially as I was always aware that they could hear ds when he cried/ screamed / tantrummed.

Ours was built in 2000. It's end of terrace but we don't hear a thing from our neighbours unless the windows are open. I occasionally hear the kids running up the stairs but they would have to be bounding up there for me to notice.

Ours was built after 1999 but I do not exactly remember when. If I was alone in the kitchen, I could hear our neighbour chopping stuff in her kitchen (tick tick tick tick....). We moved.

It's to do with the party wall solidity. We found that in our newbuild rental (late nineties) sound inaulation between floors is worse than walls but if they have cheap single layer bricks and stud walls you'd only be two plasterboards and a brick away from them...

Our 1930s terrace you could turn the volume up to eleven (our neighbour practiced the trumpet and was barely audible!). So I'd err towards an old terrace or a new detatched.