Living in a terrace house

[Amplus]

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?

 

[Slade2]

It really depends on what you want from a house. I did a property survey on a house recently that I found out was built on or around 1870. It`s crazy to even think that when this house was built people didn't even have lightbulbs! Water mains were made out of hollowed out tree trunks! So much as changed over the years and houses like that were never built to cope with the modern requirements of how people live nowadays, hence the paper thin walls.

 

[Semple]

It really depends on what you want from a house. I did a property survey on a house recently that I found out was built on or around 1870. It`s crazy to even think that when this house was built people didn't even have lightbulbs! Water mains were made out of hollowed out tree trunks! So much as changed over the years and houses like that were never built to cope with the modern requirements of how people live nowadays, hence the paper thin walls.

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.

 

[Steampunk]

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?

It totally depends on the house. Some terraces are build so solid that you never hear the neighbours. There's nothing to stop you putting soundproofing in which can help a lot, and it's not a lot of money given the price of a house.

 

[hornetstinger]

Depends. I'm in semi detached Victorian, quite thin walls. But neighbours are never in so not a problem with my home cinema.

Brothers 1950/60 council house end terrace does have thicker walls.

 

[mid_gen]

Really depends on the structure.

I've spent the last 10 years living in apartments. Some of them you hear a lot, others have never heard a peep from anyone, with with neighbours on 4 sides.

 

[alexakasloth]

I find with noise that on one side we can only hear the neighbours when their baby is crying and it's barely audible to us. On the other side one of our elderly neighbours is deaf and we can hear them talking through our bedroom wall, as they talk very loudly. Our solution that though, is when we redecorate our bedroom to use some sound insulation panels. I'd still prefer this over the new builds we viewed.

 

[Fluke?]

Both sides of my place have one or more young kids but luckily they're all really good and we never hear anything. Having moved from a flat a couple of years ago the lack of noise is bliss. No more communal intercom being ran at 4am or parties starting at 3am next door.
Our place is a 70's wooden frame mid terrace so cant imagine the walls are particularly thick..?

 

[Mr Joshua]

It totally depends on the house. Some terraces are build so solid that you never hear the neighbours. There's nothing to stop you putting soundproofing in which can help a lot, and it's not a lot of money given the price of a house.

Exactly this, my parents house is a terrace and the grandson of their neighbour used sing/shout in a death metal band. You could only just hear him if you listened carefully when he was rehearsing in the adjacent bedroom.

 

[Orionaut]

Other people are mostly overrated!

Its bad enough living in the same house as your own family.

Doing so with complete strangers, all around you!

Old Boer Farmer saying...

"If you can see the smoke from your neighbours chimney, his house is too close!"

 

[Haggisman]

Currently live in a 1950s mid terrace, lovely thick brick walls, decent size (but not too big) garden, and space on the drive* for easily 4 cars (5 at a push).

Sure we'd love a bit more space & privacy, but got no complaints otherwise.



* actually half of it is grass, but could be paved if we needed more than 3 cars parked

 

[413x]

Is never buy a non detached. To much not under my control.

Taken a while to save for a detached though

 

[wesimmo]

Depends on your neighbours I guess.

Mine are fine on one side that completely adjoins mine, to the point I apologised this morning as I'd been playing very loud music in a bare room, "Oh no worries, barely heard it."

The other side which half the house adjoins, the flat upstairs have a whippet they walk about 5 yards a day, leave it in so it howls and he tried to drive out the street one day when he could barely walk and I ended up threatening to drag him out the car if he didn't get out.

He also ended up walking round in his pants he was put of it so badly...

 

[Dolph]

Our edwardian terrace house has 16" thick stone walls. Unless the neighbour is drilling into them, we can't hear them.

 

[Rroff]

I lived in an 1885 terrace house for a bit - the only real problem was damp - always seemed to be places where over time things had shifted a bit causing it.

The walls were decently thick so noise isolation wasn't a huge issue a lot comes down to the neighbours though - some haven't evolved enough to live alongside other people.

 

[krooton]

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.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Paranoid to talk in my own house in case the neighbors can hear what I'm saying.

The trick is to have some fun with this... **** with their heads a bit!!

 

[a1ex2001]

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.

 

[ants83]

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.

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

 

[flea.rider]

first house was a 2 up 2 down affair .. with a bathroom like a rabbit hutch..
after a yr we moved .. but it was a good home seeing I wasn't earning much and was my own ..