Anyone bought a new build semi in the past few years? What’s the noise isolation like with next door? The ones I’m looking at are one room wide so no hallway or anything between adjacent bedrooms.

Ask the builder what the construction of the dividing wall is, you would be looking for a solid block wall not just a plasterboard partition.

15yo flat is terrible, breeze black and paster board (Berkley Homes). My expectations for a new build would be worse but with good heat insulation etc, that’s definitely improved.

15yo flat is terrible, breeze black and paster board (Berkley Homes)

Why is breeze block and plasterboard terrible – what do you want your wall made out of?

Btw I doubt it’s “breeze” block – ime breeze block hasn’t been used as recently as 15 years.

Ask the builder what the construction of the dividing wall is, you would be looking for a solid block wall not just a plasterboard partition.

Never heard of a plasterboard partition between two houses…, at least not in the UK.

They have to comply with part E of the building regs these days, I was just wondering in reality how good that actually is.
No one would build a party wall out of plasterboard!!

We brought one a year ago. We don’t hear anything from next door apart from the front door slamming. We have a screaming 3 year old toddler and they said they haven’t heard him so they are either polite or it’s pretty good.

Introduction of part E of the building regs means they’ll have to either use approved details or have it acoustically tested. This means that a home constructed in the last 10 ? years will be significantly better than older properties for sound insulation.

Thanks guys, that’s reassuring.

I put up the odd kit , party walls are constructed with 140 deep timber , 50 ‘m cavity with rock wool inside, 9mm osb to cavity ,140 mm glass wool to kit panel, 18 mm thick planking and 12 mm plasterboard … and yes if you’re neighbour was on hol you could cut through to their house in 20 mins with an old saw , 10 with a reciprocator ……..

Ernie from a sound insulation perspective. Maybe it should be double thickness, not sure what has changed re the new spec above ? Yes you are quite right it’s that other more modern grey block material. Swiss and French apartments seem to be much much better sound insulated in my experience.

Never heard of a plasterboard partition between two houses…, at least not in the UK.

It’s standard in timber frame construction.

Never heard of a plasterboard partition between two houses…, at least not in the UK.

I remember working on a site early 2000’s and the party wall between two ‘penthouse’ apartments was only double layer plasterboard and timber with insulation between. They cost a fortune as well even for back then.

We moved from one a year ago because of the noise. We had a series of issues with loud music but we could hear voices and slamming drawers in the kitchen, whigh was the full width of the house. Bedrooms also adjoined an you could also hear keen sex. In short it was a nightmare.

“keen sex”. Great description.

Having spent some time in friend’s houses that have bought new builds in the last 5-10 years I wouldn’t buy one, all have had too many faults and poor noise insulation. They’re very pokey too. One friend has to sit quietly downstairs after putting their kids to sleep as any noise like a quiet TV or boiling the kettle wakes them, you can also hear what someone is up to on the loo anywhere in the house! They can’t hear the neighbours at all though.

Loads of variables. Each will be better or worse than another. Sound testing is commonplace. Just a load of white noise blasted out in one property and recorded in the next. Absolute load of bollox as it doesn’t represent “real” noises such as keen sex.

Loads of variables. Each will be better or worse than another. Sound testing is commonplace. Just a load of white noise blasted out in one property and recorded in the next. Absolute load of bollox as it doesn’t represent “real” noises such as keen sex.

Sound should be recorded over a range of frequencies and not just one or two headline numbers to demonstrate how ‘quiet’ it is.

Or maybe an army of ‘keen’ sex volunteers.

Bought two new builds, horrific levels of noise coming through…depressing, stressful and ultimately bad for our health having constant intrusion. Both builds had solid cavity walls and both had the joists running between the party walls which I think contributed to the problem.

Ended up buying a plot of land and doing a self build. Now living in stw wood burner, log shed, home pump track heaven

Barrett Home 92 Semi.

Shit, you can hear everything from next door. Crap front door, paper thin walls and thats the party wall, poor heating (noisey).

Low grade cheap housing and it needs underpinning.

We rented a 2007 house for a while where next door’s stairs were right next to our living room; I was really impressed, you could only hear them go up or down if it was very quiet in our house and they were really going for it.

Now, sitting here in a 70s semi listening to next door’s dog bark incessantly so clearly it might as well be this side of the wall, I miss it sometimes!

Our semi is 9 years old. Can hardly hear a thing from next door, just their front door. The occasional muffled sound if we are lying in bed, might be her dropping stuff in the shower. Once or twice may have heard the previous couple doing it, but it was that quiet we couldn’t really tell what was going on, and our heads were on opposite sides of the same wall. But then there haven’t been kids next door yet.

Wimpey home.

Sound should be recorded over a range of frequencies and not just one or two headline numbers to demonstrate how ‘quiet’ it is.

Because that’s what always happens when a builder needs to get a completion certificate 😉

We could hear light switches being used, toilet flushes and cutlery on plates 🙁

I live in a 140yr old terrace with 3ft thick solid stone walls. Mostly can’t hear a thing from either side except if someone drills into a wall, then you can hear it right through the terrace.

With builders under increasing pressure to build lots of houses quickly and to a lower price I wouldn’t expect standards to be improving much.

Our house was built in 2008 and sound with the neighbours is OK tbh we don’t hear them and have not had a complaint (must be saints!) from them even with our children who I’m sure are crossed with elephants! The problem with ours is the floors, the noise down stairs from anything heavier than a feather on the floors upstairs sounds like thunder.
The houses are always warm but let down by shite soft wood windows which lets in the odd draft, and I don’t think the water pipes were fitted by a plumber….

Cheers, Steve

I am amazed.

How can there be so many people on STW who don’t own detached homes?

I now own two if that helps redress things

gobuchul – Member
I am amazed.

How can there be so many people on STW who don’t own detached homes?

Living in Cornwall (and from Cornwall) I feel lucky just to be able to afford my own home!

Cheers, Steve

After the keen sex incident I am now renovating a mid 1900s detached house

I am amazed.
How can there be so many people on STW who don’t own detached homes?

I am amazed. How can there be so many people on STW who don’t have a butler?

OP, we live in a new build semi. We have never heard the neighbours. I build stuff in our (integrated) garage and use power tools all the time. I once asked them if the noise bothered them. They said they hardly heard me.

I used to live in a big Victorian terrace. Ah, good old fashioned craftsmanship, you say?

The walls must’ve been a single layer of lath and plaster from what I could tell. Not only could you hear people talking next door, you could hear what they were saying.

I visited the development today and registered my interest in one of their three bed detached homes. I’m not prepared to take the risk on a semi given that noise is why I want to move from my existing house!
It’ll be ready in June/July.

Our previous place was a 1905 terrace. I think the walls were brick, 2 deep with no cavity.

You could hear absolutely everything, which wasn’t great when both sides were of the shouty type and not particularly considerate with loud music, TV’s etc. We could have talked through the wall just by raising our voices!

The estate agents considering them as good properties as there are always willing buyers. The buyers are because they are the first rung on the ladder, I’d counter that good properties would have a low turnover. I’d be willing to bet that the main reason for the high turn over is the noise.

Our current place is a little over 100 years old, it’s a grand old thing – internal walls are thick enough to make me think the party walls would survive a direct hit from a tank shell. We can hear the neighbours now and again, their dog barking especially and their freestyle disagreements.

Old place was glued together in 2011 – it was not only new build but cheap and cheerful housing association house. Never heard the neighbours unless it was summer and we both had the windows open.

My experience of a new build semi wasn’t good. We bought it off plan (so, first owners) in 2004 I think. Walls were so thin (amongst other issue) we moved to a detached within 2 years. Apparently it was built to regulation standard (which implies the standard is useless). In my experience older properties have much better sound proofing. I have to say, I would not buy a semi again if unless I didn’t have a choice.