Mid terraced houses

Lived in midterraced house ,for most part it was ok.

Parking was the main issue ,but that was the neighbour tbh.

Bought an end of terrace with a driveway , nextdoor neighbour continually parks about a foot over the driveway entrance, I've to continually ask them to move the car. I don't drive that much so wouldn't be going out every day but it's a pain in the hole.

I wouldn't buy a house without a driveway though.

Neighbours can make or break it regardless of the style.

You'd be swapping noise above and below for noise left and right. Can't see how that would be an improvement.

There is really little that bothers me about living in a terraced house. It can occasionally be a pain bringing stuff through the house, but you get used to that very quickly.

We've not had any major construction work done, but we have had the garden done and a shed installed. Neither was an issue. Our neighbours who are end of terrace have been very kind in allowing us/contractors to use their side passage to access our house when needed (removing a fence panel)

No real issues with noise from either side and both have kids. I won't say we don't hear anything but it is nothing that is disruptive. Security, whilst always something to consider is less of an issue as there is no easy access.

The thing with your own house is that you can add sound insulation.

It really depends on the design.

My midterraced house had backdoor access. So bins , oil delivery etc all came through the back gate. The only thing that came through the house was the lawnmower which didn't have to , could always walk it around the block.

The design was door window ,door window etc so the double bedrooms bordered nextdoors bathroom, stairs and box bedroom.


Plus there are plenty of semi-ds that due to extensions now are terraced and were built that the back garden backs onto neighbours on the next road back garden so everything needs to come through those houses too.....

I think each individual house needs to be taken on its own merits as there's no standard style build for each type.

It really is a bit of a gamble when it comes to knowing how noisy a house would be. Our house was built around 1900 and ridiculously noisy. I swear there was only one brick between us and the neighbours.

Perhaps you could knock on the doors of several other houses in the development and ask whether they hear much noise?

My experience is older houses tend to be quiet, no noise from neighbours
99 per cent of the time.
eg houses 50-100 years old.
houses in the 80,s ,90s will be not so quiet ,in terms of hearing noise from next door.
If you are buying a house ,try and view it at 11am, 6pm, different times
see can you hear any noise radio, tv etc
its even more important now, since it looks like many companys will allow workers to work from home in the future even after the pandemic is over.
many office workers may go to an office 1 or 2 days a week.

SNNUS wrote: »

[Deleted User] wrote: »

If I was to ever buy a semi-d, thats something I would look for.

I bought the same and can never hear anything in the main living areas so it's great, my other neighbour bought the main living areas back to back type house and complains of the noise, they never even thought of the noise issue between the 2 types of houses..

I have to say thats a brilliant point - I never would have thought of it and the post with the images of the 2 types of houses shows it perfectly - in fact aesthetically I would have definately made the mistake!!

OP - you can have bad neighbours anywhere A bitnof wind in a bigger garden of a semi-D and pot/cigs/strawberry flavoured vapes - they might as well be in your house. I have a terraced and semi - and for years I had NO problem at all with noise - then knacker neighbours moved in and you absolutely cannot mitigate for that. Even with extremely insulated walls and double glazing if they leave their patio doors open or bedroom windows ipen and yell and scream about you moght as well have them in your kitchen with you. My house is extremely well insulated but that is exactly the issue I had. I couldn’t enjoy my garden for two years until we (adjoining neighbour) teamed up and started making waves. In this case the house was jammed full of 13 children and adults - in a 3 bed terrace - total nightmare.

I play instruments and prior to buying I had a friend go next door and I played while they listened. I was quite surprised to find they couldn’t hear at all ( and that was before there were carpets down!) but in the semi d my garden away neighbours can hear - maybe because I was worse then or maybe cos the air vents were on the garden side and the windows were only single glazed at the time!

There is another thread on here atm about terraces versus semi-d’s : might be well worth a look.

I’d also say old versus new for thicker walls and actually having a hallway as additional sound barrier - many new houses are built as open plan without hallways and with a stairs in and off a main room to make them seem larger.

Also gardens - narrower houses, possibly narrow grdens and smaller gardens backing into each other can mean more and more noise especially in the summer/ if we are locked in for much longer and the weather changes. If like me you are noise intolerant after two or so hours of kids screaming angrily at each other a relatively high density jammed estate may not suit and you may be better off to hedge your bets in a more isolated type of house or one in an older area where every other house has a pensioner in it and not a bevvy of screaming kids and deaf mothers who leave them to their own devices hour after hour.

Next time I buy it will be abroad or deepest darkest detached in the country.