Living in a terrace house

It's not just old houses with paper thin walls. New builds are even thinner. Remember your brand new spanking executive new build home was still built to a minimum cost with all materials used being the cheapest available.
 
We bought a terrace last year. We had the option of one quite large detached place that was on a a bit of a main/busy road, although was set back. As well as a couple of semi-detached places we were looking at too.

I knew the risks of a terrace - particularly as neighbours can be problematic (especially if you've got big renovation plans) but my wife completely overlooked the terrace aspect despite me highlighting it several times. Since we moved in she's admitted that she should have focused more on it, and whilst she's very pleased with the house and area, she maybe feels that it might have impacted her decision to opt for the current house when comparing it to the others.

On a positive note, many of our neighbours have been in their respective houses for many years - our next door neighbours have each been there fore ~25 years - and raised families in them, so that bodes well to a degree.

We bought this place to do up and potentially stay for as long as we wanted, but I've got a feeling we'd look to move in a decade or so.
 
Couldn't live in anything but detached if i'm honest. I've suffered with noisy neighbours in the past and it can quite easily turn into a living nightmare!
 
I believe my terrace is a Taylor Wimpey timber frame with brick facade. Internal walls are plasterboard dry-lined and on evidence very well insulated. I'm coming up to 20 years and so far all my neighbours have been decent and despite having screaming babies each side I could hardly hear them. Mainly when we all had windows open in summer.

Yeah some times it's a bit busy and some neighbours sit in the garden talking for hours ... I literally couldn't believe how one previous neighbour would sit and talk for 2-3 hours straight on the phone to friends without pause and make no meaningful contribution to human advancement :)

Worse case I would just use 3M ear plugs and actually get some extremely good sleeps in. On the plus side deliveries get signed for. There's practically no crime around here as there's always someone around and heating my house is extremely cheap.

Only downside to timber frame construction for example is a slammed door reverberates down the terrace.
 
ants83 said:
Yep same here. I'm only after a move to a detached which will cost an extra 50k round my way but we'll well worth it. I guess for some it's 100ks for this type of upgrade
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This is our issue there are hardly any detached houses in the area and those that are detached are huge Victorian piles that go for 800k plus so while I could probably blag the mortgage I’d be paying it off in my 70’s!
 
No chance of affording a detached in this area and we had certain requirements so the terrace we bought fits them all.
On one side, I can hear the baby crying/screaming and the dog barking, on the other I can just about hear their TV in the bedroom at night but it doesn't bother me (elderly couple).
Next house will be a semi at least. The good thing about this area is that its always in demand so we should have no problem selling.
 
Love my 1930's terrace, its a 2 up 2 down which was my other half's grans before she died and it was inherited, before we moved in we gutted it brought it up to spec and all open plan, that was 25 years ago, the neighbors either side are great and living there before we moved in bringing up their own families.

In my case the walls are thick, if the music is pumped up very loud you can hear the base, but other than that we dont hear one another, i guess you have to be lucky with neighbors, talked about moving to a detached, but think we will just stay where we are and extend into the loft space instead.
 
my semi in west yorkshire was hell on earth ,utter scum bags on both sides and intentional noise ,and what happens if you complain ? it has to be declared on selling
im in a semi here buts its built bedroom to bedroom on the party walls so the living rooms are way apart ,never heard a tv .
my mum and dads is a 60s built semi but so well built its silent inside

edit, i know its a terrace thread but just discussing been attached to others
 
To expand on my other post

Rented a 4 places in 4 years until buying this month (detached)

3 of 4 has annoying neighbours. Nothing horrific, but one of 3 could hear the dad and mum swearing at each other in front of kids, and her being sick all the time (eating disorder I guess), doors slamming.

You never know who is going to move in next. Didn't want to chance it on a new house.
 
Amplus said:
Been in my first home for 3 years now. It's a beautiful Victorian terrace close to 2 train stations to get to Manchester in 15 minutes. Was looking to sell this year to move to a nicer area but think we are going to wait it out another year.


As much as I love the house to look at and the old antique furniture looks great in the house, having never lived in a terrace I would advise against buying one again.

Worst thing about a terrace is it feels like I'm living with other people. The walls are paper thin and we can hear everything, from low level talking to the kids running upstairs next door. Paranoid to talk in my own house in case the neighbors can hear what I'm saying. The narrow kitchen and stairwell can feel claustrophobic as well. Parking is a pain in the arse as well.

Would never live in a terrace again despite how much character they have.

What's the experience of living in a terrace been for people?
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Hello if you're still a member on here and see this , could you tell me what area this house was in and how old was the terrace house ?
 
Semple said:
Exactly this.

When you consider a lot of houses even built from 1920s-1980s probably only had parking for a single car, because that's all people had in those days. Whereas nowadays you'll find a lot of households (especially when children have grown up but can't afford to move out) require parking for 3/4 cars.

When we were looking for a house, parking was one of our top MUST-HAVE priorities. As i can only see parking getting worse over the next 10-15 years before driverless cars start to become the norm.

We even turned down arranged viewings on a number of houses where we'd do a casual drive by to check the house out and notice that the drive way was absolutely tiny - photos made them look considerably longer.
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On the topic of parking, every house from my builder from their lowest 2 bed linked that I have up to 5 bed detached have 2 parking spots, and occasionally the houses with a single detached garage only have 1.

I had some people from one of detached houses ask me if they could use mine / my neighbours always empty shared 4 car driveway, I told them they could if they wanted to pay for it but then they didn't want to.

I then looked into listing it on 'park on my space' type sites, before realizing I wasn't allowed to rent it out on my shared ownership terms anyway.

So the two smallest 2 bedroom houses with neither occupants owning a car have a shared and empty 4 car driveway all the time, meanwhile said people that asked to use it for free have 2 cars on their driveway, 1 in front of their house, and a fourth parked at the side of my house on the opposite side of the road from them.

Then again if you have the need for more than 2 cars, maybe you should have looked for a different property with parking for 4 in the first place.

The driveway for my house is behind the property / garden too, so even if I did drive it would still be much more convenient to park next to pavement in front or at the side, which the other people with 4 cars are already doing anyway.

Been looking into if I should put a shed on my driveway, but being behind my property its not convenient for that either.
 
krooton said:
This is why we did everything in our power to secure a detached. Even if you luck out with good neighbours initially, anything can happen in the future, and a few of my friends are currently suffering with neighbours from hell. :(
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And on this note if you cant afford without shared ownership, you cant get anything more than a no garage linked house.

I literally had to beg and plead to get the house I did because two out of the 4 rooms aren't along the shared wall.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Lived in a terrace for 15 years and will probably never leave! Detached houses are so few and far between in our area you are looking at 800k for a decent one.
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I've bought a terrace last year, absolutely no problems, around 1890 this one. I never hear the neighbours....except for very occasionally if I'm sat listening in a quiet room I can hear the lady next door playing the piano faintly. I'd never live in a modern rabbit hutch house, but these old terraces are great, I could comfortably swing a cat both horizontally and vertically with these high ceilings in every room :D It does help that I have a ginnel/alley between the houses, so downstairs is effectively only semi-detached. Anyway, I don't hear the neighbours and I can crank up the tunes and not bother anyone.

I also quite liked in lockdown just chatting to neighbours over the fences, across several houses, which can you do when you have narrow terrace gardens!

This is a nice area mind, and you're paying a premium for the location, age of the property, the peace and quiet. If you've bought a terrace on a main road in a rough part of town....probably quite different...

A detached house would be nice, but not an extra 3-400k nice which is what it would cost for a similarly well-located house here. I am saving a bit for the next year or so I'm in a position to buy the house next door if the old dear snuffs it....
 
Lived In a terrace until I was 15 then we moved to a maisonette or what ever they are called (3 houses in a row). Biggest issue was being overlooked by neighbours, and the cramped streets with nowhere to park.
Could never go back to living in houses like that. Currently looking at buying 40 acres in maine so I have zero neighbours :)
 
Definitely will move to a detached house when I can. Hate the noise and having other people close by and the intrusion of it.
 
On this topic, are detached houses still better if they are built as close together as they can fit them? Normally now there is only the tiniest walk way between each such house, so its paying for a double wall separation vs a single one.

I was previously wanting to get a second hand rail put in for my stairs along the shared wall, which the council advised me not to do and to make do with the handles they put on the banister due to it being a party wall. Reading into this now its a good idea I didn't get a second handrail put in on the shared wall because any holes would completely ruin the current level of soundproofing.
 
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