How much noise can you hear from your neighbours?

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I live in a 1930's semi and since the new neighbours moved in a few years ago the noise levels have been awful. They have done loads of work to their house, including knocking down the internal walls, removing the chimney breasts on the shared walls between their house and mine, and replacing all their carpets with laminate/wooden floors. I am not sure if this is the cause of the increased noise, or if it is just normal family noise (the previous neighbour was an elderly widow). I imagine they can hear my noise too (especially my dog) so can't really complain, but wondered if any of you think the 'repairs' they have done have exacerbated the extent that the noise carries...?

Same as you OP- 1930's semi. We had a new couple move in last year and we can hear things daily.

The people before were an elderly couple and we never heard a thing apart from the odd phone ringing. It's made me realise now how loud we must have been as neighbours (dog, 2 kids) but I never thought about it as we never heard next door.

Since the new people have moved in we have had a few nights of loud tv (they've attached a sound system to the shared wall ) and the odd raised voice. It did start to get me down as I was conscious of it but I'm used to it now. It has made me more conciliatory of our noise as a family too. So I make sure dc keep it down before 9am in the morning.

They've removed the chimney breasts?

What's holding the chimney stack up now?

Sorry, I meant they have bricked over the fireplaces. I am assuming this, due to the knocking down and removal of bricks a while ago, not sure if this has made the noise worse!

I can hear every door open and close, including cupboard doors in their kitchen which they are seemingly incapable of closing without banging!

They are really nice people so I won't say anything but it does seem to have got worse since they did the building work.

Bricking in the fireplaces would be adding bricks, not removing them? If you think they may have removed chimney breasts on a shared wall, they should have got party wall agreement from you...

Laminate flooring, especially if poor quality underlay was used, can be louder than carpet, and I imagine bigger open plan spaces with less walls would deaden the sound less.

We're semi-detached and I hear neighbours kitchen cupboards when I'm in the kitchen, and can hear people going up and down the stairs (our hallways are in the middle by the adjoining wall).

Yawning
Coughing
Rattling coat hangers in the wardrobe
Talking

Dread to think what they hear from our side ha

Loads, to the point that I am selling up. Hammering up and down the stairs (adjoining hallways), banging doors, riddling the fire, playing loud music, shouting and shrieking. Probably a lot of it is normal family noise but fuck me they are loud.

1950s semi. I will be listening out very carefully when I view properties because I am terrified of being in this situation again - it has made me very anxious and depressed.

We’re upper floor maisonette - it’s a single retired man and thankfully can only hear the tv occasionally, and it’s under the bathroom so no problem.

Apparently he can hear us in the bathroom though

We've moved into a semi after living in a detached house. There's just a middle aged couple next door but when their grandchildren visit I can hear them talking or the sound of the TV if I'm in the sitting room by myself. I grew up in a farmhouse where the neighbours were half a mile away and can't cope! Dread to think what they must think of us, we have 3 noisy children and the sitting room and playroom are the adjoining rooms downstairs. The playroom now has cupboards on that wall and we're putting bookshelves on the adjoining wall in the sitting room so that will hopefully help. DH and I argue in the extension so they don't have to listen to us!

None. Churchyard is our closest neighbour and they tend not to party too often.
The shepherd sometimes brings the flock down the road and they are noisy briefly, because they come In the garden and up the drive.

We can hear our neighbour snore.
Luckily it's a soft and soothing, steady snore.
I took out my chimney breasts BTW (other side). There is now an rsj holding up the chimney stack.

1950s semi and we barely hear anything - apparently even when we had a 6 month old bawling in the bedroom that backs on the neighbours' they only realised it was us not their cat when we apologised.

Our houses were employer built and employee occupied for the first 30 years though, and they are very solidly constructed. I suspect we have a double thickness wall between the two houses, and our internal walls are all brick.

We are 1930s terraced. The old neighbours on one side never made a sound, and they were really rude to us for quite a long time about work we did to our house and about the children playing in the garden. They left last year and we have new neighbours who have done a lot of work and have 2 dogs who have barked a fair bit. But I feel so much happier having neighbours who are friendly and accept that we can't all be silent!

We live in a new build semi...i can here the Dad next door swearing at his kids pretty much all the time

New build, can hear one side watching tv she keeps it on all night
Other side I can hear every door opening and closing drives me mad!

1930's semi. Next door is a home of multiple occupancy of young professional with around 5/6 bedrooms. A few months back the banging of doors was horrendous- I think it was those heavy fire safety doors. The noisy ones must have moved out but the latest we hear is lots of shagging in the person whose bedroom is the downstairs front room (next to our living room 😳). Luckily we are extending out the back and new main living areas won't have any party walls

1976 built semi. We hear virtually nothing. This is either due to design, thick walls or the fact that our neighbours, like us, are retired, so no shrieking kids or hectic party nights!

The flat above mine was rented out on a few short term lets and one of them was to someone who snored so loudly every night that they woke me up and I could never get back to sleep. I'd try and get to bed before them and knock myself out with anti-histamines and melatonin but they woke me without fail. It was awful. I was permanently exhausted. It felt really personal being kept awake by the snoring of someone you don't actually know. But what can you do? It didn't seem fair to tell them to stop snoring as it's out of their control. I was just so relieved when they left. If they'd been a long term tenant, I think I would have gone batshit crazy.

When they argue I can hear raised voices but not the actual words unless they're really shouty. I can hear their patio door slide open. And that's about it.

Semi built in 1990s

1980s ex council semi
Canbhere them if they really slam doors but that’s it really

I live in a new build flat with people either side & underneath - barely hear a thing! Amazing really. They've done well building these flats... The sound doesn't really carry from one room to the other either.

1990s terrace. Always lived in old properties before this and it has been a shock. We can hear EVERYTHING.

Neighbours plugging a plug into a socket. Turning socket on.
Turning lights on and off
Chopping their dinner (can hear this even from our bedroom upstairs)
Their oven going on and them turning it off
Banging their kitchen cupboards
They talking (not even loud).

These walls must be paper mache.

I am so daft with my toddler, all day I’m singing, acting out characters - they must hear the lot! Not to mention the toddler crying and us in bed! Try to be quiet but they must hear as much as we do!

It’s horrible! I hate it!

(I swear I have not got super human hearing, it’s the walls that are paper thin)

Although I’ve just remembered, we lived in a Victorian house converted into four flats, we had the ground floor. The lady who lived above us had wood flooring (grr) and we used to joke she had opened a bowling alley. Have no idea what she was doing but it was bloody loud! Either the bowing alley sounds or it would sound like she moved every piece of her furniture an inch or so and then back again.

Maybe it’s me??? However the other four houses I’ve lived in I have heard barely anything from neighbours!

I'm in a Victorian flat. Downstairs lot are a family with kids and we hear their voices and moving around. It doesn't bother me too much as they're a nice family and kids being kids. The layout means we don't hear them much when we're in bed.

Upstairs, one side is an elderly lady that we don't hear a peep from. The other side is some 20-something professionals who are noisy and inconsiderate with loud music and TV - they've only been in a few weeks and I'm sick of them. Before them we didn't hear anything.

I spent lots of time searching detached houses on Rightmove

1970’s detached. No noise from either side. Bliss.

1930s terrace,newish neighbour with a new boyfriend. When her kids are away we can hear her entire bedroom performance (I think she’s auditioning for a porn channel) it’s particularly pleasant when I’m watching telly with my 13 year old Dd and have to turn up the telly to drown out the porn star groans as an extra treat in the summer she leaves all the windows open, so the whole street gets to hear