Why are houses in the UK built like this?

[crazygirl0237]

I live in a semi detached and my soundproofing is terrible I can hear my neighbours cough

All the houses in my street are built where living rooms etc are next to each other and the front doors are on the outside.

Why are they not built the other way around it makes no sense!

Rant over

Reading with interest. My new build is just stupid like me for buying it. I can hear the neighbours laughing and hoovering ( separate not at same time).

Neither layout is ideal if the build quality is poor, or your neighbours are particularly loud.

I'm in a terrace with living rooms either side of me and staircases furthest away. It is nice not having front doors right next to each other.

Luckily the noisy neighbours with the thinnest wall are on the other side of my hall rather than next to my living room. The house on the other side of them has the living room next to their staircase and the previous occupant had to move because the sound of the kids running up and down stairs and screaming drove her nuts, but I don't hear the stairs at all.

Ours is built like that we don't hear a thing from next door. New build, our kitchen is on their hallway/front room and our front room is on the kitchen. Only one bedroom is next to one of theirs and you can't hear anything in that room.

We lived in an old terrace before this and we heard everything on both sides.

If a house is built properly it's not an issue, I'm in a townhouse and can't hear either side (sitting room adjoins both neighbours!) crucially they say they can't hear us and we are not quiet, 4-6 adults hear typically, it varies

Late Victorian stone built semi here, I have never heard a single noise from my neighbour - but luckily it's a 60 something woman on her own - same wasnt quite true with our previous house which was also Bath stone built. We had neighbours with 3 noisy kids and our lounge adjoined their family room with piano. We didn't hear them talking or hooveringcetc- but we did hear the kids piano practice an awful lot

When you think of the price of houses in London where the majority are semis as described or mid-terraced.....
I always keep an eye open for halls adjoining.

This situation is so common it seems, so I'm wondering if there is anything a non-professional could identify from a Level 3 survey that would flag potential issues with the construction that can lead to noise problems, or a particular type of construction that is better?

Building regs for sound proofing changed around 2001, houses built in the 1980s and 90s are generally pretty poor for this. When people say "new build" I'd be interested to know how new they mean. I lived in a house built 2004 and the soundproofing was good (aside from slamming doors). A house I lived in built in 1988 was bloody dreadful - could hear bathroom lights being switched on/off, talking and even stand-up weeing

Ours was great till new neighbours moved in and took out their chimney breast and put in wood flooring

Could you show me an example of what you mean?

I haven't seen houses like that before

1950 estate with very poor sound proofing - seems to be chimney related and many have subsequently taken them out.

Oddly IL Victorian terrace - one side is passage way to backs - so only bedrooms touch and other side it has their staircase next to IL hall and stairs - and every room once has a fireplace there - while 1950 it seems to have just been the main room.

Current house - 1910s - hall/stairs are the adjoining bits of the semi.
Previous house - 1925 - lounges adjoined and the soundproofing was shit - could hear next door having his morning coughing fit (insanely heavy smoker) and also smell the cig smoke.

I live in a detached house that was built in the early 90s by an architect who clearly had never been in a house before.

Sounds interesting @TropDrôle. I have a theory that a lot of people who are angry with neighbours perceived unreasonableness actually just have poor construction issues. Sound proofing etc isn't really complusory and companies don't think a house with higher spec plasterboard etc will make them any more money. We have rennovated including sound proofing and much can be done when building but its much harder afterwards. The standard of housing at so many levels in this country and many others is very low imo

Funnily enough I noticed on a new build estate that they are building semis with the stairs adjoining and living rooms on the outside makes far more sense

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work unless you build ‘a room within a room’ which is very expensive and space-reducing. You might get some noise reduction by increasing mass on a wall, but noise also comes up and over ceilings, underneath floors. There is also air-borne and vibration noise which are two different things requiring two different methods. Rock wool is apparently very good, but a whole new structure would need to be built against an existing wall, and it would neeed to be done professionally.

With semis I presumed it was because cheaper to have a shared chimney stack. Ours is a lot quieter upstairs since having fitted wardrobes installed in the bedroom alcoves either side of the chimney breast. Haven't heard any noise from next door since then. We will eventually do the same downstairs but with cupboards or bookcases.

We did live in a very modern terraced house though which didn't have this layout but was really noisy though. You could hear children/teens thundering up and down the stairs and the doors and windows were so close together and poor quality you could hear entire conversations at normal not shouted volume from next door, especially in the summer!

This isn't to scale, obviously and I can't rotate the image after a recent update, but this is roughly what I mean

I do think people often live differently now though. Children who would once have been playing out for much of the day are now at home thundering up and down the stairs and playing on devices.
TVs are now huge and attached to chimney breasts or adjoining walls. Sound systems are powerful. Gardens seem to be viewed as an extension of the house - I remember my neighbour in a row of terraces just brought her music out with her to the garden in summer!

What I am taking from all this is that you can't pin the noise-from-neighbours houses to one particular era, or even layout. Some people eg say their 1930s semi was fine, not a peep from next door, some say it was a nightmare. The last house we owned was a 1970s semi, badly built I suppose, you could hear the neighbour pulling her curtains! And hear voices (not the actual words usually). It was so annoying that we sold up and have been renting detached houses for a few years (couldn't afford to buy detached).

However we are now in a position to buy again, I think it will have to be detached, even though there are some beautiful, more spacious semis. They could be fine but it is a bit of a gamble with a semi you just never know until after you move in.
I would have thought that the semis with stairs adjoining would have been a safer bet, but apparently that might still not be OK? Why is building in the UK so crap?

I’m currently house hunting and this thread is filling me with horrors! Can only afford semi detached/end terraced. So I should be looking for somewhere where the hallway is adjoined ideally and not the main rooms, ie sitting room?
Have been mostly looking at old Victorian houses so far. Any tips appreciated!

We live in an end of terrace now (built 1900)

So no neighbours on one side.

We're separated downstairs from the other neighbours via a shared passageway. Which means downstairs (reception room, living room, kitchen, extension) are "detached" from our neighbour. Upstairs, only the 2 bed rooms are attached to my neighbours wall, but for some reason we never hear them.

We're really happy about this, it's really fantastic, as in our last house (a 1935 semi) we could hear the neighbour talk and their TV.

Where I grew up most semis are as you describe, op. I am talking about predominantly 1920s builds. I used to live in one and rarely heard the neighbours through our adjoining living room and bedroom walls. A modern benefit of the hallway being on the not adjoined wall was that a lot of people put a two story extension on and got a fourth bedroom upstairs. If the stairs were on the internal adjoining wall that would have been much harder.

i now live in a modern (2022) semi where our adjoining wall is the stairs ifswim. We hear very little of next door except when their teenage daughter thunders up the stairs.

Halls adjoining semi here, was a big draw of the house.

Currently investigating fitted wardrobes and realising the downside is the less insulated main bedrooms/living areas - fitted wardrobes aren't great against external walls but for a number of reasons (chimney stack, layout of the bay) that's where they make most sense.

I’m curious, are the noisy houses also cold houses? I would assume poor sound insulation would mean poor insulation full stop? That would further support the poor build theory I guess.