Semi detached houses and noise

[housesearching]

We are house hunting and where we want to buy there is much more choice and more square footage available to us if we consider semi detached. We were really adamant we wanted detached this time but due to our budget and location preferences we need to open our minds a bit!

So what are your experiences of semi detached? Is there an age of house where the walls are thick and less likely to hear anything? I have to admit I am irrationally irritated by normal considerate living noises hence the desire for detached. We have a new build semi atm and it's actually pretty good, our neighbours aren't very noisy and only really hear them if their music or TV is occasionally too loud. But I would really worry about the impact if we had less considerate neighbours.

So interested to hear other views, and if you have any advice on what to look out for (ie if a certain decade was notorious for thin walls!)

My first property was a new built flat and that was the quietest. I never heard anything. Semis and terraced houses of any period I always found you could hear stuff.
We’re in a detached house now and I don’t think I could ever not be detached for my main home.

Front door to front door best I.e stairs to landing next to each other. Older properties tend to have thicker walls.

Can hear quite a lot, Victorian semi with thick walls. E.g tv, sneezes, cupboards

1930s semi. Could hear very little.

Victorian Terrace. Heard nothing until they had a stair lift fitted.

Victorian Villa - L shaped semi - occasional random noises where their hall was against our bedroom.

Relatives houses - 1960’s build - sounded like neighbours were in the same room.

Live in a 1930s semi. Have lived here for years and can hear very little through the walls. In the dead of night I've heard next doors babies crying but day to day I hear nothing really.

New build here and can't hear anything.

1930s end terrace here - can hear my neighbours cough and sneeze in bed at night and they absolutely definitely heard my OH do a massive fart the other night.

And I’m sure they hear all my toilet visits too. Yay

Victorian semi - only hear anything when a child has a screaming fit or Mr Neighbour has a karaoke party, which he only does twice a tear. Generally fine.
1930s semi was good too.

1930s / 1950s (the surveyor and solicitor couldn’t agree 🙄) ex-council house here. When we moved in we had to rip up the flooring and couldn’t carpet for several months, and our neighbour had dementia, was deaf, and had the tv on all night - loud. I heard who won Wimbledon that year without having watched a match - the tv was clearly audible through the wall. It was awful, we could hear it in our bedroom and everywhere. There wasn’t a single room to escape from the noise.

We added soundproofing and carpeting also helped, and obviously tried speaking to our (very lovely) neighbour. The dementia sufferer’s spouse was caring for them and doing their best, but it was a very difficult situation. Eventually the situation resolved itself when the sufferer had to go into a care home, as their spouse could no longer cope. It’s very quiet now, just normal semi-detached levels of neighbour noise (which are to be expected).

So beware of ex-LA houses of that sort of pre-/post-war era, is my advice! The upside of ours is the location (rural - these houses were for agricultural workers originally) and the plot size (huge compared to a new build) but it was built on a budget and that really shows sometimes.

Depends on layout.

New build stairs to stairs. Heard nothing.

1960s stairs to stairs. They had dogs, we had new born twins. We couldnt hear a peep, they said they couldnt hear us.

Victorian semi. Could hear them if they shouted and our baby monitor picked up their signal and their grandmother singing to their little one!

1930s semi. Occasional noise (if they're having a family party) or very loud cheering at a football game, but nothing that disturbs us.

Comes down to priorities - for us it was more important to have a bigger house than to be detached, but its a personal choice.

We've never had a problem with neighbours but I suppose if you have, it may make detached more desirable.

1960s and can hear EVERYTHING
if you don't want to hear noise/reduce chance of it and can't afford detached then buy a new build as they have to confirm to certain sound insulation standards through the party wall with your neighbour

Sadly no such standards in place in the 1960s

New build back in 1990 barely heard a thing and what I did hear was only ever joists creaking. Now in 1920's end terrace and I hear every raised word.

Thanks everyone, bit surprised as I assumed the newer the house the worse it was going to be, not sure why when ours is fine. I love the look of 1930s semis, sounds like it's a bit hit or miss?

If you get an elderly couple as neighbours you’ll be laughing but could end up being a noisy family (like us )

@Sotiredsomuch this is also what makes me nervous, the fact we are a noisy family and it would be nice to not be self conscious of our own noise too!

The downside to new builds is the more common shared parking, I hate our shared driveway I think I get more anxious about that than I do noise! It's too narrow for the fact it's two separate driveways.

I know what you mean, I get very overly stressed about it and am constantly on at my kids to not thump, not shout etc. Also needing to run the tap every time I want to do the toilet is a bit tedious. It does take away the enjoyment of your home.

Moved from detached to semi. Three teenage boys next door. Rarely hear anything, although older property.

Last house was a 60s semi, we heard so much. Reasons - shit build quality, layout, renovations. Layout - I don’t understand when given the choice of setting next to each other: living room, dining room, two bigger bedrooms; versus stairs, kitchen, bathroom, smallest bedroom why anyone would choose the former. Renovations - they’d opened up between the living room and dining room, and laid laminate throughout. The house was just intrinsically noisy.

Some of it is the actual family which is pot luck. During the time I lived in my last house, a spacious Edwardian terrace, we had several families next door. Some we never heard, others we could hear quite a lot. Some people are louder than others with normal family life. The only thing that bothered me is those that played musical instruments (badly).

1960s ( I think) semi here. Can’t hear anything unless there is no tv on/no noise in our own house and the ndn sneezes - then I hear like a muffled sneeze and occasionally kids when shouting loudly but otherwise nothing. Probably means we’re the noisy ones but we’ve had no complaints so far.

Just moved from a 1990s semi to a detached. Previously, when we had an older, widowed neighbour with one car, everything was fine. As soon as she moved and a family with adult kids at home and 5 cars moved in, it was awful and I couldn't wait to go. Every closing door, shout, bassline and washed up plate seemed magnified. I can't work out if they were exceptionally noisy or our original neighbour was exceptionally quiet. I was so pleased to leave. The cars were important because it was a shared driveway and each house had space for two

After an awful experience living in a semi years ago I vowed never again and all properties since have been detached. We moved to a still nice but cheaper area to go detached and it was definitely worth it.
My mum and dad had a halls together semi years ago where the lounge and main bedroom didn't touch. That was pretty good but a standard semi, no thanks.

We live in a 1930s mid terrace. Our house is double fronted with stairs going up the middle. On one side of the stairs our living room is next to neighbours living room, we can hear their TV in the evenings but not actually loud enough to hear what is being said on it. The other side our dining room/kitchen are next to neighbours dining room/kitchen and we never hear anything from them. Upstairs we can sometimes hear neighbour sneezing but to be fair I think he just sneezes really loudly.

Oh forgot the say, my parents live in a 1950s mid terrace and never hear their neighbours