1920s/'30s Semi, noise?

[jakesmith]

My DW and I have been thinking about moving slightly further out from London for a while now mainly as we live in an area that suffers from aircraft noise and also I get bothered in our flat by the general noise of the lift, upstairs neighbours clumping about, the people next door etc. nobody is being inconsiderate but the noises just bother me and I can't block them out in fact they bother me increasingly as I become more tune into them, I wish they didn't but it's subconscious.

We've been looking for a while in a suburban area and just got gazumped on a beautiful detached house. We've just found another but it is a 20's or 30's semi detached. It's quite big (1900 sq feet, 4 bedrooms) and none of the bedrooms or main living rooms are adjoining in fact it's halls adjoining. Also the master bedroom is in the loft and the neighbours haven't had a loft conversion. Even the loft is insulated from the neighbours side by the bathroom and hall.

Can anyone give me their thoughts and experiences on how well sound insulated these types of properties are, and opinions on whether this is a good idea or if we should wait for a smaller but detached house to come up? I'm really nervous that we might move in and it won't solve my problem. Obviously we will say hello to the neighbours when we view it again and try and get a feel from them I how well the properties are sound insulated, and whether they are quiet or noisy people!

Thanks!

My least favourite house was a 1930s end terrace. In part because I had awful really noisy neighbours on both sides but I do think the walls on the attached side were quite thin (although she could be quiet when she wanted to).

I'm now detached and nothing would possess me to have an attached neighbour again. I'd go for much smaller but detached rather than larger and attached.

This is a 12 year old thread

I think it really depends on the house and how sensitive you are to noise. We live in a 1930s terraced house and I can barely hear any neighbours. Never been an issue in our house but I think this probably also depends on the neighbours.

I know people talk about detached house as the be all end all but where we live detached houses are only a short distance away from the neighbouring property, in some cases it's only a meter. You still have gardens touching and noise coming from the neighbouring properties. So I would consider how "detached" your propsective new house really is and does it provide actual privacy compared to slightly cheaper semis.

Definitely wait for a detached. I think I’m quite noise sensitive and it would drive me nuts. Years ago we did live in a semi where an old man lived next door and played Christmas carols throughout the year, starting at 6am occasionally. Think he might have had a bit of dementia. It was like water torture!! I’d always take a smaller detached than a larger semi.

Halls-adjoining semis are great, most of the benefits of a detached house but a much lower price tag. We live in one and never hear anything from our neighbours when we're in the non-adjoining rooms. We occasionally hear them in the kitchen but only when they have a lot of people around, that probably won't be an issue soon (it's not an issue now tbh) as we're having a new kitchen and that wall will soon be almost entirely covered in kitchen units. The only other time we hear them is that I sometimes hear there phone ringing when I'm in the bath - I think the adjoining room is an office and they obviously have a phone in there!

On a day to day basis we hear absolutely nothing and after being in a mid-terrace it's heavenly. When we moved we decided we would only consider detached houses or halls-adjoining semis. We didn't even view any regular semis. We're both quite noise sensitive, especially me, and this house has been great for us.