Victorian semi

[sleepyhoglet]

If you live in a Victorian semi, what's the sound like between the two houses. We are hoping to buy one but currently live in a detached. We have musical instruments and a young baby so am worried about being too noisy for the neighbour.

We live in a Victorian semi. Older single man next door. We never hear him. Very occasionally late at night in bed we can hear a tiny murmur from his bedroom tv when everything is quiet outside.

He says he can’t hear us, and we have a decent sound system on the tv and stereo.

Our neighbours that back on to our garden have a drum kit in their brick garage. It’s bloody awful and can be heard from our living room at the front!

IME having rented a couple of different ones, it varies. But I would say that musical instruments will pretty much be out unless you want your neighbours to hate you.

I don't know. My wife plays the piano and the neighbours ping us requests on WhatsApp 😊.

You can hear everything. Four kids next door but it's just household noise and nothing particularly obnoxious. Other neighbours had a home birth and I'd say we were also present when their youngest was born.

Ours is an Edwardian semi & we haven't had many issues. I think the key is we are stairs adjoining - so although we hear their kids running up the stairs, the living room & dining room are separated by the hallway and stairs.
The master bedrooms do share a wall; we've put a row of ikea pax wardrobes along that wall which I'm sure helps deaden any sound. We occasionally hear the odd noise - kids playfighting, rarely an alarm clock.
We hear a little at the adjoining kitchen wall - if cupboards are slammed or someone is crashing about with pots and pans - but they probably hear our washing machine taking off spinning

Can hear music in their kitchen sometimes.....our front doors/halls are side by side ( Victorian semi) so we never hear each other in reception rooms. Can hear neighbours in one bedroom ( the other two are on different side of house) ..... usually just hear the Mum shouting at kids to get ready/ brush their teeth....type of thing....never bothers me

Victorian terrace here built for the working classes and don't hear much from either side, though new neighbours in the side we don't adjoin at the stairs have just brought their piano home, and I'm currently listening to them playing (I'm in my kitchen, newly extended to the side return and they are in the living room). It's rather lovely.

1900 Victorian semi, not halls adjoining, chimney stacks on adjoining walls. Our neighbours are similar to us, older, no kids. I rarely hear anything. The things I do hear are they like to have a drink, play music and have sing song at weekends, and I'm aware of it, but it's muffled and not intrusive. In the morning I can hear the light switches go on and off on the adjoining wall very clearly. Sometimes I hear the washing machine, but very faintly. Only voices and laughing if it's very loud, but again muffled.

I was worried about noise before I moved in, but its been one of the best sound proofed places I've lived.

It won't stop us buying As we love it just trying to temper my expectations noise wise having lived in detached.

Used to live in a late Georgian / early Victorian (1840 ish) and never heard a peep from the NDNs

Edwardian converted flat (1910 ish) and had noise from upstairs neighbours (walking about, playing instruments) but none from NDNs

Ours is only attached upstairs as there is a passageway between the 2 houses on the ground floor, so we have been fine for all the years we live here.
I don't think I'd want to go from detached to a semi though. I've spent 25 years worrying about disturbing neighbours. I would LOVE a detached house.

@Kite22 it wasn't our intention. We may not get it. We are waiting to hear.

Previous house was a Victorian end of terrace. Could hear baby crying, TV, etc. Agree with pp that it depends what side the stairs are (ours were on the ‘outside’ so not providing a buffer)
I’d say they would hear instruments. If one of them is a piano, look to put it in the outside wall.

All that said I wouldn’t mind hearing instruments (I do mind hearing our current next door neighbours drum kit though!)

We can't afford detached in this street! We are moving from an average to slightly above average area to a very expensive area.

One of the instruments is a trumpet. They are gonna hate that but this house has a big extension which isn't joined so should be OK

Overwhelmingly though, people who live in anything other than the remotest of isolated farm buildings expect to hear neighbours at some point. The key is, being considerate, and, where you know you are going to be noisy, chatting to neighbours first and getting a 'feel' for their lifestyle.
I am friends with a family where between them they play drums, a trumpet a cornet a guitar and keyboards regularly, and their neighbours are fine, because they practice at sensible times and are otherwise lovely neighbours.

Previously lived in one in London - my neighbour once banged on the wall when she felt my baby was crying to loudly🙄. Other than that incident it was mostly ok as the were mostly quiet - but I reckon if you find yourself living next to another family it could be quite loud!!

Edwardian end terrace, hallways adjoining. Not all houses of this and Victorian period were not created equal and built to a standard where thick walls prevent noise, although Hall to Hall does help.
We hear ordinary family noise in the kitchen extensions which share a wall, but nothing outrageous. Have had 2 families next to us, from little ones to teenagers and their boyfriends and it was all ignorable. I’m sure we make a similar amount of noise.
However, if neighbours are having building work done it can be horrendous. Completely different to a house not sharing any walls with you having work done. New neighbours seem to be incapable of leaving the damn place alone and we are looking to move, mainly because of that. Detached only for me, from now on.

You can put soundproofing on the adjoining walls - it's fairly easy (you buy panels) and can be done yourselves (I think - my neighbour did it anyway and he didn't seem to have any problems!)

The other thing to mention is sound carrying over gardens. I'm in a Victorian house with a very audible trumpet player in the next street. We don't mind at all (i much prefer it to the ever barking dog...), but the houses are generally quite close to each other with smallish gardens, so good to bear in mind.

Great info on here if noise transmission is bugging you. I added some deadening to my FIL chimney alcove walls and it made quite a difference.
Can be done by a reasonably competent DIYer.

www.soundproofingstore.co.uk/

Victorian terrace here, the type with no hallway - come straight into the front room.

Rarely hear much at all. Neighbours on both sides have had a baby (one also has a teenager) and I almost never hear them.

No musical instruments though!

Following on from soundproofing comments above, yes, not all Victorian houses are built equal. I owned a semi in the late 1990s, not halls adjoining, upstairs it was landings adjoining. Our neighbours were amazing, but 3 small kids screaming down the landing was horrendous. I'd wake up thinking they were in our bedroom.

We broached it with them, came to an suitable agreement, and we soundproofed 2 rooms downstairs and they did their side upstairs. It was very dense plasterboard, can't remember specific make bugt there will be tonnes of alternatives.Just took off skirts etc, put up plasterboard, replaced skirts, decorated, job done.

The sound proofing advice is great. The living room doesn't have build in bookshelves in the alcoves but we were thinking of doing that. Maybe we could soundproof before putting in the bookcases.

My Victorian terrace is 1840s and we can't hear anything. I worry that my neighbours can hear us, but have never had any complaints. Occasionally I hear music coming from the first floor room which is next to my bedroom on the first floor. Never hear anything at all from the other (hall-adjoining) side which is alongside our kitchen.

Mid Victorian terrace and I once heard my NDN (couple in their 50s) sneeze but thats it. The hall side is much thinner for some reason but fortunately for me the neighbours with young dc just moved out (sounded like they had a heard of screaming elephants living there) and a very quiet single lady moved in, now its bliss.

I have lived in lots of period houses - Edwardian semi, other Victorian terraces and I have always heard neighbour noise its just dependent on how noisy said neighbours are.

I used to live in a Victorian semi and play the piano pretty badly. My lovely neighbours kept good track of my progress with the piano and used to say things like 'you're getting much better at that one from the film' and 'you need to go slower on the twiddly one, you'll get there' so I'm pretty sure they could hear every note. I could certainly keep track of the progress of the board games their grandchildren would play when they came round, especially monopoly.