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...?

1940s semi. From our non-attached side, we can hear the arguments between her (occupant) and ex-current-occasional partner (visiting) when they spill out to the garden. From our attached side, we hear her calling her children back in for dinner. Weirdly also, we hear the vibration of a mobile phone, obviously sat on the mantlepiece of the shared wall. No ring tone, but definite mobile phone vibrations.

Grade II listed flat and it is awful. We can hear the guy upstairs talking, snoring, his tv, everything. He must hear us too which is awkward. He must be disturbed by my husband's 4.20am alarm, but then he blasts music and tv until 1am, so that's fun

Thankfully none, we are detached. Couldn't live in a semi again, it almost did for my sanity when some nutters moved in next door.
It all came flooding back on holiday recently. We had rented a lovely apartment on a beautiful complex. It was pretty much deserted but of course we had neighbours upstairs who came in at 3am every night for a month so I assume they were residents and working in a bar or something. Showering, housework and general clompimg around for an hour or so every night. Fab holiday but nice to be home for a good night's sleep!

My house was built 15 years ago. I hear everything. Neighbours have bare floor boards upstairs. The noise is dreadful. They also make no attempt to be reasonable.

At the minute he is shouting and singing - I can hear it over the tv.

I hear doors closing, them walking around, them arguing. She does not like his mother. Their headboard also bangs against the wall when they have sex🤢

I love living in the city and can’t afford a detached house here. But god do I hate them.

Used to live in a modern flat and could hear them turning light switch on, peeing, coughing, talking, front door opening, sexy time...it was like having flat mates!

I live in a semi. I hear them inside when they are drunk (which is regular). The worst is in the garden though. I appreciate we all have to accept a level of noise outside but these subject me to loud music, loud hot tub and drunken screaming throughout summer (and they are not kids, around 50).

All the other neighbours round here are lovely, quiet and considerate. They are awful

Does make me want to live in a detached but I guess you still have people right next to you in the garden

When we moved in, nothing except normal garden noise and the odd yell at the kids.
They then did a huge house renovation which consisted of removing every internal wall downstairs, removing all carpets, replacing curtains with wooden blinds and even chipping the plaster off the adjoining wall to create a bare brick surface. There is nothing left to absorb any sound.
Can now hear every damn movement they make downstairs, conversations, footsteps, the tv.
We are seriously looking in to moving to escape the noise! Which is crazy as they aren’t actually ‘noisy neighbours ‘, just living a normal life, but post-renovation their house has become a big, noisy, echoing box.

Victoria Tereace built in 1901, from one side we hear virtually nothing, from the other we hear quite a lot. The lady has a chronic illness so we hear her coughing all the time. Her house is also open plan where as the otherside is still the original layout (as is mine) so I guess that probably helps.

1920s mid Terrace and it’s worse than living in a ground floor flat! I can even hear the man next door pass wind from 2 floors up🤢 Can hear word for word their conversations when I’m sat on the sofa against the wall. I think there is only single brick between us so we might as well be sharing a house

You have just reminded me. They did the same, knocked walls down so that their whole downstairs is one big open plan room.

Also got rid all all carpets for hard floors. So I hear her walking up and down in heels all the time

That is how I feel about them in the garden, that I am actually living with them, particularly as they have nowplonked a great big roof terrace on, overlooking me

They really are inconsiderate

It is a shock to me as I have never experienced it before, have always had really considerate neighbours

I only hear her hall door to the stairs as I think it is attached to the joining wall, although I haven't heard that for ages. She has a dog visitor who barks when the Postie comes so occasionally hear that

People before had two very barky dogs so that was annoying but they moved.

Oh and any DIY drilling, but again that seems to be done and dusted, and we have some stuff ongoing so we're the noisy neighbours atm.

Old victorian property with walls like granite I reckon!

Old 18 something semi. Not a peep. Old retired couple.

Only two cottages, small village and set back from road so bliss.

This is so different to Australia. I’m on a typical surburban block, detached house, backyard, pool, typical regional Australia, and would only hear neighbors when we’re inside if they are mowing their lawn or something noisy like that. I do have some friends who live in duplexes or flats though, they can hear neighbors but it’s nothing like what others are reporting. Wow.

We hear them screaming and swearing at the kids . Crashing and banging and they have one door they are incapable of going through without banging . In the summer they are screaming and swearing at the kids and the kids hang over the fence while we are in the garden . Music used to come through but we found the off switch for that . Its playing Thrash metal through the walls when the children have gone to bed . Now its kind of a dull mumble that you can hear over our TV but not like it was . If it gets to loud we play music back. They seem to object to Slayer at 10pm at night . The repair cars on a Sunday afternoon and rev the engines but that annoys the whole street . Best was they complained they could hear our TV in the summer when the window was open so we make sure its closed but have to put up with this . They also moaned my stepson who visits once every four months has a light on in the man cave till 3am . No noise but the light disturbs them . Cant make it up

I’m in a 5 year old house & I don’t hear a peep.. they’ve got two kids & a dog and nothing. They are quite loud people as well, often have friends & family round and they are far more exuberant than we are!

Probably has paid off to buy a more expensive new build built by a local builder who seemed to really care about building decent houses. They are excellent quality. Unusual I know. But they really are sound proof!

Terrace, built 1880s, double fronted. I occasionally hear a radio from next door (I assume it's that) when I'm in bed, but it's not loud enough to bother me. Neighbours on that side are good friends anyway; if they did get too noisy on a regular basis we could ask them to keep it down.

The people on the other side are very quiet - even when they had young children there, we never heard them from inside the house unless one DC, who was autistic, was very distressed.

I live in a 1930s terrace - a solidly built ex-council house. I have been diagnosed with misophonia, so it's just was well that the walls mask most normal everyday noise. I feel terrible for my friends who live in newbuild terraces and can literally hear their neighbours peeing. I find noise levels much worse in the summer when everyone is out in their gardens.

My neighbours to the left smoke weed around the clock and for most of the year the smell permeating through the walls is the most frustrating thing about living next door to them. They also have a dog that frequently gets into our garden which is a nuisance, but fortunately, it doesn't bark much, so it could be worse. Their son is out of control and when the windows are open I frequently hear his parents losing their temper with him. Their language is foul and I hate my 3-year-old hearing it. A relative who frequently looks after the son yells at him in such an obscene way that it makes me feel sick. One time I snapped and told her it was vile having to listen to it. She told me to fuck off and screamed: do you not think we can hear you??!

Well yes, I've no doubt my neighbours can hear my daughter, who squeals when she gets excited. She has cochlear implants, which are programmed by her audiologist to minimise noise over 90 decibles, so she has no concept of how loud she's being. She was profoundly deaf before she got her implants last year and doesn't yet have enough speech and language skills to understand us when we plead for her to keep it down. I understand it must be annoying, but it doesn't come from a place of conflict, which is distressing to hear and to my mind makes other people's noise so much worse.

I've lived in my house for almost 20 years and my neighbours to the right had two young girls when I moved in. When they hit their teens they made a lot of noise, mostly loud music, and out-of-control parties when their parents were away, but I figured you're only young once, so didn't object. The older daughter was prone to meltdowns and had constant arguments with her mum and boyfriend but she was struggling with her mental health, so I never said anything. Now both girls have flown the nest and I rarely hear noise from that side, except in the summer, when the parents seem to make all their personal phone calls in the garden, seemingly unaware that they're sharing them with the entire neighbourhood.

We're saving up to move house. It's taking a while because I really want a detached house - both so we don't have to worry about the noise we make and so we don't have to be disturbed by the noise others make.

1950’s end house
All day long it’s ‘thump thump thump’ up and down the stairs which is the shared wall with our lounge
Their front door is next to our window-they can’t just shut it-they slam it every time making my windows shake
Tv on full blast
It was hot last year so I had to have my window open and they let the eldest play on his Xbox-I was treated to yells,screams and thumps all night-I was a delight at work the next day
We can’t use our garden as they just scream all day-the adults egg them on
Endless bbqs and parties
We used to try our best to keep it down but now I don’t bother-if they can hear us then it’s not my problem

Upper floor 1930's apartment. I can't hear much from the neighbours as the only shared wall is the kitchen wall. I can hear people banging their front doors and the external door to the building.

The building is not well insulated and has wooden floors, so the sound travels, if you drop something on the floor etc. I've previously had complaints from the downstairs neighbours (who were a highly sensitive duo) but the new people don't seem bothered - I'm not doing anything different.

Can I suggest that if you are troubled with noise at night - ask Alexa to put brown noise on loop. That blocks out any outside noise/birds/neighbours etc. If someone is having a party, I get Alexa to put it on full blast. There are also similar phone apps.

My Mum used to work as a nurse in a mental hospital. At the time (1970's) there was a huge new housing development in the 'catchment' area. She used to say a lot of their admissions for mental health problems was due to not only having to cope with your own marital difficulties, but with those of next door, and next door to them such were the nature of the paper thin walls. Makes me very anxious if I have to hear other people's noise. I am a bit on the autistic scale and noise really upsets me.

Detached house now so hear now't from neighbours - bliss!

Previous two houses were semi detached with adjoining lounges. Both times we had elderly neighbours whose hearing gradually deteriorated over the years. We could hear their televisions and eventually had to watch the same programme as them because their TV noise would drown out ours!

I will never live in a semi again.

@CherryPavlova

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.

Love it! 😆

1950s-ish semi. Virtually no noise from either side, except in the gardens or doing the bins. Long may it continue!!

End of terrace built 20 years ago, I don't hear anything really, the odd cheer if the rugby is on the TV.

Sometimes a high pitched phone ring if my house is completely silent.