Moving house, neighbours, etc

I'm still on my impossible search to find an affordable house in a nice area....

So far terraced housing is looking more and more likely. How do people deal with neighbours in relation to hifi? Currently in my flat I run a self-imposed 10pm curfew, but I'd really rather not have to do this (but I'm not looking for conflict either). Does anyone here have problems with noisy neighbours? Do they have problems with you?

 

Ask Tone about my neighbours opinion of late night listening

 

My previous house was a mid-terrace but it wasn't a real problem because of the way the house was built. Each house had a separate stair-well (i.e. not stairs in the lounge as happens on so many small houses these days). This meant that I was insulated on one side by one stairwell and on the other side by two stairwells. This meant I could play the hifi fairly loud without significantly annoying my neighbours. Still had to keep it down late at night though.

 

my house is a semi but my neighbors are great. even with the ipl's plumbing the depths they've not complained - probably because of the odd bi-monthly saturday soiree they throw until about 1am. they don;t complain about me and i don;t complain about them. yes it can be a bit annoying if i'm trying to sleep at 12.30 and there's some country and western blaring out distortedly however i'm sure that they are just as annoyed by some chillout trance booming away at 9 am the following sunday so it all evens out.
cheers


julian

 

I have a self-imposed 10pm curfew for playing music loud in my flat also. The neighbour who lives on the foor below has their bedroom at the other end of the flat so it hasn't been a problem and the amount you can hear below is surprisingly little. I cranked it up once and then went downstairs to see how audible it was.

The flat above is empty so that's not a problem

Michael.

 

Until recently I had a flat with pretty minimal sound insulation between us and downstairs. Fairly shortly after the bloke downstairs moved in (about a month i'd guess), he decided to enter into a volume war with his midi system and well, yes, it made an audible row louder than my TV. So I went downstairs, we had a civilised, if frank exchange of views and sorted everything out, I moderated my volume and self imposed a 10.00 curfew. Since then we got on fine and developed quite an understanding to the point that he was quite upset when he found out we were moving .

Now we've got a semi-detached house, I'm still fairly considerate re volume levels in the eve or when I know the neighbours are in but do play stuff a bit later I must confess.

 

in my house - one one side there is a shop - so no issue there, the other side the house is being done up by some bloke (for his mum) - I say done up, its being totally stripped out and refitted...so, at the moment, he's the one making loads of noise...he seems to work beside out bedroom on the weekend mornings, and next to out living room in the evenings...sigh..!
so, as for loud music etc, I guess it isn't really an issue for me just now - but I don't play it that loud...I usually watch films louder...

 

We looked at a 3 bedrooms Detached house in a nice village it was up for £190k.

we could stretch to that but not right now, unfortunatly 2 offers have been put on it

 

I used to have a detached house and it was wonderful not worrying about the neighbours, listening to whatever I wanted until whenever I wanted. A detached house is one of the best hifi upgrades you can get.

Then nearly 2 years ago, the wife decided we had to use the equity from her old flat in Bristol and my house to buy someplace closer to town.... eventually we got a new build three storey townhouse with good bus routes, shopping nearby etc. Its much bigger than the old place and I now have a seperate music room, and a big big lounge. But its a mid terrace.

The people next door on my music room side are decent people, and have never complained about noise. I have been into their house to check how loud I can go before they would notice, and I was surprised to discover that actually the soundproofing is not bad at all - in most places in the house. I curfew myself at around 10-10.30pm.

They have 2 teenagers.... they are not bad but occasionally they have friends round and play teenage music quite loud, but happens so rarely that its not worth worrying about. Live and let live and all that. The real problem is the sound proofing between their 15yr old son's room and our back bedroom, which luckily we do not use much at present. There is definitely a weakness in the sound insulation here, and we can here even normal conversation through the wall.... we need to get this sorted but the builder is sticking to line that council building control tested it and it meets the legal requirements and that's all there is to it. So will probably do something myself as our toddler daughter will probably get this room in a few years, or sooner if we have another child.

At beginning of this year they got a home cinema system in their living room, one of the small bose-like AE systems..... unfortunately they are not hifi aware so we had several weeks of thumping and banging until we managed to persuade them to move the speakers just a few inches from the walls, and move the subwoofer away from the party wall! That done, we don't hear it at all anymore.

The worst regular noise we get from them now is their daughter's boyfriend's car... its a heavily customised original beetle and its as noisy as hell, especially when he leaves at 1am.

On the other side, we hardly hear a thing despite there being 2 grown up kids, we hear them banging up and down the stairs sometimes but the main problem is them arriving in Taxis at 3am at the weekends. My music room doesn't share a wall with them so I'm not too worried about them.

 

Headphones

 

Another person with a self imposed 10pm curfew here (it's interesting to note we've all picked that time). Soundproofing through the floor to the flat under mine isn't the best unfortunately; I reckon a terraced arrangement where you're seperated from neighbours by solid walls rather than just a floor is a much better arrangement. I'm basically forcing myself to listen at quiet volumes all the time at the moment , but I'm going to have to have a chat with my neighbours to see if there might be some times when I could listen at a proper volume without pissing them off...

Good luck finding a new home with decent soundproofing Isaac.

 

Are sadly not the same, although I do make good use of mine .

 

I don't listen very loud, by choice rather than obligation. I live in a flat with neighbours above, below, and to one side of my living room, but it's an all-concrete construction and pretty solidly built. After about 10pm I use headphones, but I've always listened a lot through headphones anyway, so it's no problem to me.

-- Ian

 

I share a house with several people and everyone is very considerate when it comes to noise. Coincidently, 10pm is also my curfew for using speakers - I just use 'phones after that. Only ever had two complaints from people - once when trying out various genres of music when I got my new CDP (I'd been listening to some quiet classical music with the volume up and had forgotten when I went to listen to something a bit heavier). The other was when trying to determine differences with some new speaker cable. Not bad in 2 years or so really!

 

In the flat I've had no complaints or issues, and I've spoken to the people downstairs (they mentioned the washing machine, but had no issue with music, said they hadn't heard any... )

Hopefully I'll find a solidly built place...

 

End of terraces are good, as are old houses with solid walls. You can't hear mine next door even when it's cranked up. Mind you we've got solid walls 3 bricks deep, not just between houses but between rooms.

 

Best of all are detached, super-solid, well-insulated, double-glazed Swiss houses right on the edges of small villages.

Totally wasted on me, because I'm a classical listener, who never plays anything very loud!

 

Spanish houses are dreadful,all concrete,hard tilled floor,or marble,a brick thick wall to wall,outerwall will be double.I bought my townhouse at a good price new,but ended up being 99% Spanish community,meaning alot of noise,kids screaming thier heads of,just a few noisy inconsiderate people around.

One neighbour is very quite,other noisy,when the guy moved in he was drilling the walls at 2am,had to go and sort himout,hear his TV till 1.30am most nights,and she walks around all the time in high heel shoes,till all hours aswell,so that p1sses me off.

Don't play music loud as I don't like it,low to moderate,the law here is until 23.00,but I doubt you can hear mine anyway.

After 4 years of living here,decided to take my profits and sell,as I would like something quieter,with more space,so found a superb house close to me,4 bedrooms,with a huge basement,that would need some work on it,such as windows,door,false celing,but once done,it will be one hell of a good room,read awesome for hifi listening home cinema,I hope I can sell my house fast enough to get a deal on it before someone else takes it,quite exspensive,due to size and garden,but after 17 years grafting with 2 weeks holiday in that time,would be nice to have a good house to enable you to do your hobbies without,to much worry if neighbours.

 

adam - you sound like you're living in an Almodovar movie!

Michael.

 

Well I'm quite happy living in my four bedroom detatched house, but then silly prices haven't caught up with the crazy prices you guys in the south pays, it may piss with rain a lot up here, but there is little congestion, beyond rush hour and housing is affordable, so I can play as loud and when I like, don't know how you guys with party walls manage to impose these curfews and such, I don't have the restraint.