Is it normal to get woken up a lot in a semi/terrace?

[everyleafy]

I've lived in 2 1930s semis, and in both cases I have frequently been woken up.

My current neighbours get up at 6am 7 days a week, and I quite often get woken by them. If they go downstairs and put the telly on I can hear it in my bedroom as clear as day. People talk about having a lie in at weekends and I find it depressing that I can't. I'm always tired.
I put some soundproofing in and it has hardly helped, because the sound seems to come through the floors.

Is this something most people joined with neighbours have to deal with??

Surprised about the old semis having noise. Mine was built of thick stone and nothing got through.

We are in a modern semi and we don't hear much at all. Very rarely DIY noises but I think that's only if they are being especially loud.

I’m currently in a 90’s built semi and the walls are thin. Can hear the neighbours music, can hear them coughing, laughing, talking (not words but general talking noise) dog barking and front door closing and back door sliding open and cheering when England scored.

We are currently in the process of buying a detached house, not because we can hear them but because they can hear us and they hate us for it. I have 2 young children and we’ve had them banging on the wall if the kids have a tantrum or when they cried at night and if they cry during the day their music gets switched on for half an hour. I hate it and I’m constantly telling the kids to be quiet. So we’re getting out.

I will never be attached to another house again if I can help it, it’s caused us so much stress living with the crappy thin walls here.

70s semi. We hear everything. For some reason when I'm in our bedroom I can hear them in thier lounge clear as a bell.
We hear the light switches, TV, vacuum, dogs, voices, sex and baby. Actually the baby us s toddler now and I can also feel a slight vibration when the tot runs up and down thier upstairs, when I'm in bed.

Luckily my twat soon to be ex husband wants to move in with his pregnant mistress, so I'll happily move out once he coughs up enough money and let the pair of them suffer or out shag my neighbours.

I've lived in Scottish tenement flats, mansion conversion flats, 1990's flats, 1930's semi, 1960's semis, 1970s semis, 1990 semis, Victorian terraces. In all of them I could hear the neighbours talking, footsteps, shutting doors, going up stairs. If noise bothers you, then it is very unlikely that an attached house will be quiet enough, unless the neighbours creep about in slippers whispering.
Also, even in a detached, you might get party people next to you who like to use their garden noisily.
I don't know what the answer is, since in many cases these things are only obvious once you have moved in. The quality of housing in this country is generally shockingly poor.
I've tried to soundproof before also and it didn't work. The only thing that works is to move house. Good luck!

I currently live in a 1930s semi and have only been woken up by next door when they had a baby. When I lived in a terrace I was never woken up.

DF lives in a 30s semi. I don't hear a thing when I'm there - and didn't even when it was single glazed.

I live in a terraced Edwardian tenement flat and hear nothing from my next door neighbours. I only hear my upstairs neighbours when they're in the shared hallway / engaging in DIY / singing. I can't hear everyday noises like the TV / weeing / coughing.

1880s terrace, I occasionally hear music through my bedroom wall when I go to bed; it's not loud and doesn't stop me sleeping at all. Apart from that, nothing.

1930s semi. i hear a lot from next door. I think we share joists so that doesnt help either. They are quite a loud family but as the kids are young it does quieten down by about 8pm. Im an early riser so im mindful of the noise i make and theyve had to put up with me WFH diring lockdown.

Id love a noise reducing solution for the floor though.

1860 terrace and it’s sounds at a certain pitch that travel through the walls. Currently being woken up at around 1am every morning by the 1 year old baby opposite who is being sleep trained. Too warm to close windows so getting some earplugs today

@JayAlfredPrufrock

Surprised about the old semis having noise. Mine was built of thick stone and nothing got through.

Same here. 1890s end terrace and we've literally never heard anything - even though they have small children - but the walls are very thick good old Yorkshire stone.

1880s terrace here. We never heard a thing until this year when a family with a toddler and a very loud 5 year old moved in. There is a lot of shouting - not angry shouting, just shouting, but it’s loud.

Also their stairs adjoin our bedroom so we hear it if they go up to see the toddler in the night/early mornings.

However. Up until a couple of years ago it was us with the night time/early morning waking toddlers. And our neighbours on the other side with older kids were soooo tolerant. So it’s karma/we are paying it forward.

We're in a 1910 Victorian semi and we barely hear a thing, but I think that's more to do with the couple who live there who are so quiet. The previous tenants were much louder by comparison - we could hear their shouty conversations through the walls.

I’ve never lived in a house that wasn’t terraced or semi detached. I used to be able to say I’d never lived in a house that wasn’t terraced as I bought my first semi when I was 29.

Large Edwardian terrace, never heard anything. Didn’t even know we had neighbours.
Tiny Edwardian terrace. Used to listen to the neighbours having sex.
Medium size Victorian terrace, no problem unless they were REALLY SHOUTING
Post-war 40s terrace, again no problem unless really shouting.

1970s semi - shit and hated knowing so much about the neighbours. Current 1920s semi - back to no problem unless SHOUTING

19320’s terrace here and we can only hear some creaking when the neighbors go upstairs. Our old neighbor was into DIY and that was a pain when he got his drills out at the weekend-but you’d expect to hear that level of noise.

The walks are pretty thick, brick and plaster, though.

Oops, fat fingered typing- 1920’s terrace!

I live in a 1940’s ex-council semi and the soundproofing is rubbish. Can hear next door get up for work, hear loud conversations and frequently get woken up by their dogs. I’ve taken to having a fan running at night for a bit of white noise which means I can sleep past them getting up. They’re not particularly noisy (dogs aside as they drive me crazy!), but I can hear things like them rummaging through wardrobes on the adjoining walls etc. On the other hand, they can probably hear every noise from us as well, although I do try to be as considerate as possible, but I think it’s just something you have to learn to live with.

Live in a Victorian terrace and rarely hear anything. Our neighbours baby had colic and they came to apologise for him crying the whole night. But we'd not heard a thing. Then other side hear our dog on the laminate in the lounge, when she gets zoomies so we're saving for a big thick rug.

We live in a large Victorian house sliced up into semis in the 1950s, the joists run across the house so we hear footsteps etc from the house next door - sad to say the neighbours struggle with hearing our movements as we are a young family recently moved in, & they are a retired couple who have been used to living next to another retired couple for the last 20 years - think we have come as a disruptive shock.

It's a bit of an issue as we are only walking around our house/stairs, it's hard to stop that from happening, but I appreciate that it's really disturbed them... had we known we wouldn't have bought this house tbh. They are selling up & we really hoped it would go to another young family who would also be up at 7am, but another retired couple have bought it!

We live in a 30's semi. We don't really hear the neighbours. They don't really hear us. We are friendly so know they would say. We hear if they are shouting, which isn't often or sometimes if the baby nextdoor is really crying and our house is silent (doesn't happen much). Never been woken by nextdoor though

2000s terrace. Can hear the baby crying but very muffled. Our toddler is much louder

1995 terrace. Also don't hear a thing. Stayed in my parents 1970's end terrace and could hear some noise from the neighbours.

Interesting thread because this is a point of discussion between me and dh. We're in a 1940s mid terrace. We can hear the neighbours TV and occasional talking, their dog, their music. It doesn't bother me overly. Although the thigh slapping sex was a bit grim! All this really does bother my husband. He's talked about asking them to turn their TV down, but my view is that's not fair as they are honestly just living normally. What really bothers him worse though is feeling like he needs to keep our noise down in case they can hear us back. We have a 4yo & 6yo so I'm sure they do hear us a lot more than we hear them. They've never complained. Dh was constantly telling the kids to stop making noise, in the end I told him this is his issue and he needs to get over it. He thinks this is not normal and doesn't remember another house like this.

@40somethingJBJ that's interesting! Also 1940s ex council.