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!)

Grew up in a 1970s semi and we could hear every argument the neighbours had (and they had a lot)... plus a child learning the trombone.

Live in a 1930s semi and we have neighbours with a sense of consideration bypass as a general rule (the garden noise from them is intolerable any time it's not raining or snowing) - but you rarely hear more than a cough through the house walls.

I bought a solid Victorian semi. The previous owner was an old lady. My neighbours were clearly used to no noise at all.
I had a normal alarm clock set a 7am and I played not very loud music but never after 10pm. The man next door complained about the clock on day 3. I moved it away from the party wall, and eventually changed the not very loud ring tone. But he worked shifts, had no children and objected to ANY noise.
Then one weekend my partner sawed up a tree that had fallen, at 11am on a Sunday morning. Man next door went spare - screaming, threatening.
After that he threw garden rubbish over the fence, dumped dog poo on my lawn, keyed my car. He was weird.
Before you buy, just check your new neighbours are normal - have kids so are used to at least some noise - and you should be fine.

1960s solid wall.. incase that makes a difference.. we’re not stairs to stairs either. And we hear nothing unless it’s a proper party and we’ve got nothing on to cancel them out. He claims they don’t hear us.. 3 dogs and a baby so I cannot guarantee more than 5 minutes of silence.

Worst I stayed in was an 80’s with stairs to stairs but smaller rooms.. all I ever feckin heard was her doing her stair work out or their energetic toddler throwing shit down the stairs. I know about the stair work out because the first time I actually went to check she was alright.. it sounded like someone dramatically falling down them not running down or up (our old neighbours wife was found at the foot of the stairs when I was a child so it stuck with me)

We have a Victorian semi and can only hear next doors grandfather clock which is right up against the dining room wall.
They say they can't hear our boys (both their rooms and the playroom are adjacent to them) or our piano in the dining room and I believe them.

My mum has one of those mean 15yo small 'detached' (has about 2ft between) houses and you can hear the neighbours all the time in their house from inside her house. It's a Charles church estate and frankly the build quality is shit so I'm not surprised that the sound insulation is also shit.

I used to have a late 40's semi and that was also very good for sound insulation and I would know as I had 4 student friends as lodgers and next door hated us. She would have told us if that had been a problem. I mean she complained to the police because I lived with all men so something 'dodgy' was obviously going on

We were living in a newly refurbished flat in a big converted house and never heard anything. But moved to a semi house and it's like we are living with the neighbours. It's also refurbished but we can hear everything.

I live in an Edwardian semi and only hear the neighbours when they shout and then only in the hall where we're joined. Otherwise it's pretty quiet.

1998 modern home, pretty shoddy finish when we bought it. Never heard next door even when they apologised in advance for putting in a stair lift and their sons house party. Really odd as the build wasn’t a high end spec.

OTOH DD told me she head the neighbour and her partner having a shag as their bedroom walls were shared.

Guess it depends upon the noise, the time of day, background noise and the room.

I've lived in many semis over the years and the crucial element to noise is your neighbour. Our current home is 70's build concrete and steel construction (experiment by the council at the time) and it's brilliant because our ndn are brilliant .
If you live in a semi with obnoxious cunts next door then you will hear noise. End of .

1950s semi was awful, could hear everything - it affected my MH terribly. Lounges and bedrooms were next to each other. We put heavy duty soundproofing in downstairs which made a huge difference.
1910 end of terrace - hardly heard anything.
Now in a detached. It’s a big house but the gardens are quite tightly packed. Our neighbours have 4 kids aged 16, 18, 20, 22 so they’re loud in the garden sometimes. Hopefully half of them will have moved out soon (surely no one wants to be living with their parents in their mid 20s). My ideal would be to live with no one in close proximity to my little family unit 😂

I suppose there is nothing to stop you asking your prospective neighbours to make some noise.

We are in a middle terrace and the thing that works for us is that we all have different floor layouts/extensions.

Maybe it is because I am in a small city, but the thing that really annoys me when visiting family and friends is the evening/weekend noise of lawn-mowers/leaf blowers or kids having fun and stench of barbecues as soon as it isn't raining. Our lot all just head to a park or restaurant.