Our neighbours renovated - and now we can here EVERYTHING

[2dogs2many]

We have lived in our mid-terrace house for a few years, and while you could hear the occasional thudding up the stairs or slamming of the front door the noise between properties has always been limited.

Without notice, our neighbours to our right started extensive building work four weeks ago. I am talking wall-shaking, picture-breaking, sounding like they are coming through the wall-building work. On a day that I was WFH and realised the extent of the work, I marched next door and asked what exactly it was they were doing and how much longer it was going on for. I then confronted said neighbour as to the extent of the works and whether a party wall agreement was required - they disagreed. Claiming no structural work was taking place, just plastering and a new kitchen etc.

We have had a bit of a back and forth about the work as the builders in the last two weeks have been working out of normal hours (weekday evenings until 11 PM, all day Sundays), she's now assured me that the work is nearly completed except for the new carpets upstairs(!).

My stomach dropped when she sent the message as I assumed they must have much more work to do as there is now NO soundproofing between the two properties anymore. We can hear everything, and I do mean everything from their side - in all corners of our house. I mean their downstairs toilet is at the back of their house but I can hear the flush in our bedroom located at the front of ours a floor above. Our properties are staircase to staircase but I can hear the phone conversations she has in her first-floor bedroom in our lounge. This means the noise is travelling through the party wall, across the hallway and down through the wall on the opposite side.

The neighbours on our left renovated last year and now their works are completed we've experienced no change in the noise that we can hear between properties.

Surely she's lying through her teeth about touching the party walls/structure?

Can you contact building control, they might have breached regulations?

@Makemydaypunk I will give them a try on Monday.

I live in a converted building and have had the same neighbours for over 20 years. The soundproofing wasn’t the best to start with but they ripped up all their flooring and put down some sort of karndean flooring. Now we can hear everything, conversations, phone calls. I’ve been in their house and they had also minimised down to just sofas and tv on the wall. I think the lack of things in the room is working as an amplifier.

The same thing might be happening to you, it’s still possible that they will put stuff in the room and put carpets down and that might reduce the noise. But, if it continues I’d be asking them more about what they’ve done.

What do you think they might have done that has impacted soundproofing and might require a party wall?! pWAs are for loft or other form of extension which is attached to a dividing wall that is owned by both parties.

Perhaps removing a chimney breast, which would affect sound transfer and require party wall consent. It's not just for extensions.

@Eggmanatee oh yes I hadn’t thought of that.

We renovated our house. It's a 1930s house. DH removed all the old lathe and plaster and several layers of wallpaper from the ceiling and walls. We are now having to put a lead soundproofing layer on the bedroom floors as there is zero soundproofing now.

Before the renovation we heard nothing from between the floors. The dividing walls are still soundproofed as they are solid walls so I am suprised you hear everything. I agree with PP lack of wallpaper, curtains, soft furnishings, furniture and carpets will make a tremendous difference to noise levels.

They could have knocked through some rooms? In our block of flats we barely get any noise complaint issues except from the people who live above and below a flat where the owner knocked through the kitchen and living room and two bedrooms (so turning a 3 bed flat with a separate kitchen and living room in to a 2 bed with an open plan kitchen/living area).

Or taken the carpet up?

A few years ago we had an old broken built in cupboard removed from our hall and had to have the top layer of screed replaced on the concrete floor.

We lived with the bare concrete floor for a couple of months until we could get the replacment cupboard installed and then the floor carpeted. It made the hall so loud and echoey.

Go and tell her you can hear everything and ask to see what they've done.

Repeat some of her phone conversations to her if need be. That should get the message across that you can hear everything.

If the works were that loud it sounds like chimney breasts being removed to me, which does require a PWA and approval from building control. Unless they hacked off every bit of existing plaster back to brick, I can't think what else would cause so much noise. My neighbours removed a chimney breast upstairs (although they went through the proper channels) and I can hear much more than previously.

Removal of carpets will also make a difference. Hopefully the new carpets upstairs will help.

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your helpful replies.
@WinterDeWinter Given the nature of the work, we also assumed a PWA wasn't necessary but work has created such a dramatic change I thought they surely must have done more After speaking to her my suspicions have been confirmed!

They removed some internal walls (@Ginmonkeyagain you were right!) that they claim were not load-bearing but did intersect the party wall. Additionally, they knocked off all the old plaster and replaced it with dot and dab. DH thinks the newly created cavity isn't helping!

@WearyLady I might just do that 😂but first I am going try to get her to come over so she can hear things from our side. She's currently listening to music in her kitchen, perhaps I should text her a song request?

We repointed all the bricks - very noisy.

It will be the dot and dab, ignore the party wall notice as that's unlikely to help. But the old plaster will have filled all the gaps and been heavier, now the cavity has no weight in it and any cracks in the brickwork will not be covered so it will just echo through.
Our neighbours removed all the plaster downstairs throughout due to damp and replastered like for like and it's still reasonable. But it sounded like they were chipping through the wall on our side! We could even smell the water proofing paint very strongly from our side while they had it off, I thought someone spilt white spirit in our house! But it was just coming through the cracks I guess.
Good luck.

Text her a song request

Surely if you can hear everything from her side she can hear everything from your side too?

@Banjaxx She can but she is convinced once the flooring is in all will be well.

If they have removed walls, that is going to massively impact what you can hear. There is nothing to stop noise travelling through their home. Also, if they've replaced carpeted flooring with wood, vinyl or tile, that will only add to the problem.

I would be very upset if I were you. I would let them know you can hear absolutely everything, and even quote some things you've heard them say. That may spur them to either make changes or be really quiet.

We have the same issue. In a terrace house, 3 levels and neighbours top floor is kardean. We also hear full conversations. Every foot step that the kids make, scrapping chairs, vacum scrapping all the time. Everything dropped on the floor. Constantly used as a playground. It destroys your soul after so many years.
There is nothing between the floorboards so the sound will echo and travel. Travels down walls wherever there are gaps. There is nothing to soften the sound. We get bass sounds constantly even during the night.