Please come and talk to me about semi-detached houses

[FinallyLearntToBudget]

We're looking for houses and our budget is tight (see username).

Round these here parts, our budget won't stretch to a detached.

In the world of semi-detacheds, are any ones post-war (1950s/60s/70s) likely to have paper thin walls?

Are 1930s semis likely to be much better, and Edwardian/Victorian semis better still? (In terms of thickness of walls.)

I'm actually concerned as much for us as I am our neighbours-to-be. My husband is a musician and although what he plays isn't electronic, it still makes a fair bit of noise. Don't want to cause any neighbourhood rows .

Our semi was built in the 1930s, we only moved here last year from an Edwardian semi (down sized). We get A LOT of tv noise from our hard of hearing neighbours. Occasionally i hear them loud talking and the dog barking. At first it drove me nuts, i specifically asked about noise when viewing the house and was told they didn't hear anything - like hell you do! I can often hear their tv above my own. I have actually learnt to live with it now, i don't like it but i can live with it. Funnily enough we had a puppy recently who has been howling through the night and they haven't heard a thing. If i had a choice i would buy a detached but on the same street a detached is over 100k more than ours with no bigger living space (the detached house do have 4 beds though whereas we have 3).

The difference between this and the Edwardian house is that the majority of the rooms were separated by the landing/hallway so noise was less, whereas our current house has back to back living spaces. i did used to hear our neighbours quite clearly in the old house in the rooms which were next to one another i.e. kitchen / master and smallest bedroom. Our neighbours in the old house also lived in the back of their house whereas we lived in the front so noise was bound to be less. We are considering sound proofing the adjoining walls now.

Or you could budget in a garden office building? 15k should get you a decent one with electricity, etc and the added benefit that you can use it as a spare room.

We rented a 1930s semi where the sound travelled through the party wall quite significantly. Now in a 1950s ex-council and never hear the neighbours. The layout helps as well as the house is wide but not very deep so the bit of wall that joins isn't very large, only 2 rooms plus hallway have a party wall.

Sadly, there are crap houses and there are decent houses. You can generalise all you want, but sometimes you just have to go there in person to see how well built a place is.

Hmm that's very interesting. Sounds like (no pun intended) it's less the period, and more the layout, by far.

Very helpful to know!

(To the posters with DIY enthusiasts next door... We have ones behind us. I know it's Sunday morning if I can hear sawing. They only have a small house so it's a wonder he hasn't run out of things to improve.)

We used to live in a semi detached as kids and my sister played the bagpipes......

We are now in an upstairs flat and Ds wants a drum kit. No way! The neighbours would, justifiably, go nuts!

We live in a 30s semi and our ndn's son plays the drums. it's hell.

DD had an electric drum kit in the loft room of our mid-terrace.

The neighbour insisted she couldn't hear it although my littlies used to head bang in time to the bass beat...

We lived in a Victorian terrace, could hear next door's piano even though not played in a room adjacent to us (and separated by both their and our staircases).

When our teenage son had drum lessons and needed to practise, we spoke to both sets of neighbours and agreed a set time (4pm till 5pm) and this worked well. No drumming outside the set time.

We live in a 1940's semi detached (the type with bay windows, red brick). We never hear a peep from our neighbours except in one room which is an extension built in 1995 which adjoins their extension built around the same time.

Thanks all, this is really helpful.

Set times are a good idea (if DH will comply).

at bagpipes!

We are in a 1930'single semi and can hear our neighbours' sex noises. We have friends in a 1950s semi and they have their music room on the side away from the shared wall with piano, drums and brass practiced regularly with reasonably good relations with their neighbours! I think you can't tell wall thickness by house age. Could you take along your DH's instrument and ask your potential new neighbours for their cooperation in a sound test?

I think you need to talk to other neighbours!
Layout is important but you really can't generalise. I live in a 1960s ex council 'terrace' -the stairs and a downstairs room and the bathroom are in a bit that isn't terraced - three external walls like it is 'detached'. In the main part of the house you really cannot hear anything - helps that the kitchen is next to their living room. Next door neighbour is having a new kitchen fitted - took them a day to lift a tiled floor -they apologised apparently it was really noisy but we could just hear faint banging - and I can only just hear the drilling into the walls.
But in the 'detached' part ...nothing from inside but if they were outside I could hear them coughing. We have railings attached to the main house wall and if you knock them the noise doesn't seem that loud to you but it actually travels right into the 'detached' part of next door - amplified. (Really weird effect - I knew next door were brushing their path if the brush knocked against the railings - so loud in the downstairs room it made me jump. And before I realised this I stripped and (electric) sanded my railings -they didn't complain at the time but later I found out it had been incredibly irritating for the other neighbour .)

I used to live somewhere with lots of stone tenements/flats built in the 1800s. Looking to rent I was told some of them were fine -you would
hardly hear the neighbours but others were dreadful -could hear people talking in normal voices through the floors. From the outside/layout etc they all looked the same but some were just built better.
Someone in a 1980s new build who could actually lie in bed and hear the neighbour's wee - never mind flush...
Talk to the neighbours!

Used to live in an Edwardian semi (in a row of similar houses) and both sides could hear the piano but loved it! I guess the problem is that it's very hard to tell in advance what kind of neighbours you'll have and just how much the sound will carry.

I live in a 1930's semi and I can hear everything that goes on next door and I mean everything! not just shouting or hoovering but just normal level talking... I can hear what they have for tea every night and when they shout it sounds like they are in my next room...

HATE it but theres nothing I can do about it :-(

1960s dorma semi detached bungalow here.

Very noisy me, DH, DD, DDogs and DCat in our house - 2 very noisy children and cats next door.

We don't hear a thing unless we're both in the garden. When next door did controlled crying with their very high pitched daughter it was silent on our side of the wall.

Fabulous sound proofing, just rubbish insulation on the dorma rooms and not aesthetically pleasing to look at as a house (I don't have to see my own house though so care not a jot).

We are roundabout turn of the century, and every now and then can hear heavy footfall on the stairs if I am near that side,but rarely.

Be carefully not to fall into the thought that old houses are better built, most have been thrown up at one period of time! We live in a late 20s house and our stairs back onto neighbours, we can only hear them when on stairs and in smallest bedroom. Generally 1950s ex council properities are built pretty bomb proff and seem to have good party walls. New builds have to meet current sound transfer regs so generally are good, however I would stay clear of timber frame homes on estates from the 1970s onwards.

My parents had a halls together semi with just the bathroom and kitchen attached with bedrooms and lounge on the outside. These are rare as hen's teeth but great if you can find one. We only had a dining room which wasnt joined - it was where we slept once our terrible neighbours moved in until the day we moved.

We have a late 80s house and never hear our neighbours - but for us it is down to layout.

Our house is two storey, neighbours are in a townhouse. So our living room is next to their garage = no noise, and then our bedroom is next to their kitchen. Never hear them there, either but that may be because by the time we go to bed, they've finished in the kitchen. Generally speaking, wherever we are - neighbours are on the floor above. As a result, we've never heard the neighbours through the walls, not even when they had a young toddler.

We are in a 70's semi with newborn next door and we've not heard a thing. The mum was very surprised. Occasionally we might hear the TV if it's very late at night and we have windows open.
Grew up in a 40's semi lots of kids both houses and never heard much at all. Again it was when all the windows were open.
Best kind are where the shared wall is the hall and stairs.

Ooh thanks all for further experiences. This is v v helpful.

I have now got my eyes peeled for houses with adjoining hallways. If only they had a search function for this on Rightmove!

I live in a semi built in the late 20s/early 30s. The living areas are next to each other.

I very seldom hear next door, even when they had 3 kids living there including two quite argumentative teenage girls! I do very occasionally hear the piano or the guitar, but I actually like those sounds. It makes me happy to hear them playing .

To be honest, the volume of sound through the walls is far lower than the volume of outside noise (strimmers, lawnmowers) through windows (even when closed). And the latter is inevitably in any area with any housing density, whether detached, semi-detached, or terrace.

Meant to add that I think what you learn from the thread is that it depends on the house, and the way the house relates not just to the semi it's attached to, but other houses in the street!

We're in a 70s semi with integrated garages in the middle. We can hear (very faintly) next door's dc practising some kind of wind instrument but that is all.

Next door have converted their garage, it would be interesting to see if we could hear more if we did the same.