Impact noise from neighbours

[Joe Jones]

Wait, what? You have noise issues with neighbours and you are in a detached!? :O This is literally the reason I want a detached in the future if possible. Tell me this is unusual for the love of god.

I have a new build detached which we paid good money for. Walls are at least 40cm thick so have dense brick and thick insulation in them and we don't hear anything through the walls. On the one side we have a driveway between houses so plenty of space, on the other there is just a small path that the neighbor owns for access to their garden. He's retired, so no running and we don't hear anything except sometimes when the wind catches the gate and slams it shut but even then I think most of the noise is from our windows being open if it happens.

Unfortunately I can't say this is unusual or not. Seeing some newbuilds built like matchboxes and squeezed in like a game of dominos I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bit more common.

 

[Reesespieces92]

Wait, what? You have noise issues with neighbours and you are in a detached!? :O This is literally the reason I want a detached in the future if possible. Tell me this is unusual for the love of god.

I don’t think it’s very common to be honest. However the soundproofing company that came round did say that about 1/3 of their customer enquiries are from detached.

It’s shocking really, but the only thing we can do is find a solution or move.

It something I think about every day, and whilst some people may think it’s funny or say ‘just get over it’, it’s very hard to do when it’s present in your life every day of the week.

I’m convinced the wall and ceiling structure is a huge part of the issue. Tap it with your knuckle and it reverberates through the house.

 

[Reesespieces92]

Also what might be worth adding is that whenever a car door shuts outside the house, this also sounds a lot louder in the house. Almost like we can feel the vibration through the house. Whilst this doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much, I think that soundproofing for one will definitely help for the other (I hope)

 

[Richie]

This is our plan and we're about to move into a detached house that has driveways separating each property on the edge of a village that has only 948 residents. The only noise will be tractors passing through occasionally at this time of day. We have no need for a mortgage but the buyers of our house mortgage lenders have been a pain in the rear.
We can't wait...

Just don't complain about the smell if the farm start spreading slurry/muck

 

[Steeps]

I feel your pain, my property is on the side of a drive through car port to a car park with a flat above it, blockwork right up to my external wall. Cars driving through is not an issue but there's one kid on a scooter who loves to do laps every morning and afternoon at school time and the vibration/echo goes all the way through the property due to the block construction and dot/dab walls.

 

[mattyfez]

Dig out a flower bed along your side of the fence.

If it doesn't work then you've still got a flower bed so not a waste of time.

 

[Dutch777]

A couple of years ago our detached neighbour went from a tarmac driveway to a block driveway with a small gravel border between us, the noise difference of someone walking up and down went from hardly audible to sounding like they were stomping up and down with boots on it drove the misses nuts but we did get used to it.

Maybe get some advice from a builder if your 3ft path is dug up and gravelled etc to the correct depths this should reduce an awful lot of the noise.

 

[Reesespieces92]

I feel your pain, my property is on the side of a drive through car port to a car park with a flat above it, blockwork right up to my external wall. Cars driving through is not an issue but there's one kid on a scooter who loves to do laps every morning and afternoon at school time and the vibration/echo goes all the way through the property due to the block construction and dot/dab walls.

I hate how dot and dab has become to new standard in building houses. Seems like anything to throw up houses quicker.

 

[gingergundog]

A couple of years ago our detached neighbour went from a tarmac driveway to a block driveway with a small gravel border between us, the noise difference of someone walking up and down went from hardly audible to sounding like they were stomping up and down with boots on it drove the misses nuts but we did get used to it.

Maybe get some advice from a builder if your 3ft path is dug up and gravelled etc to the correct depths this should reduce an awful lot of the noise.

That's weird I'd have said it would be the other way around.