Noise through party wall

Hi Everybody,

Live in a hundred year old mid-terrace house. We get so much noise up into our bedroom at the front from the neighbours lounge at the bottom at the front. Raised voices and laughter just carries straight up to us.

I have noticed that the front of their chimney breast has been removed in their lounge leaving just the sides to form part of some shelving. Would this lack of chimney breast have anything to do with it. Or would it just be poor sound-proofing in these old buildings.

A quick fix would be nice but maybe no such thing.

Any help would be grateful. It is becoming a nightmare to get to sleep.

Thanks

Can't imagine removing the front of the breast would make much difference, it is after all just a hole up through. We used to have the same problem and could hear some weird and amusing things at times...
Have since moved to a 1890's semi and still get a bit of a problem (mainly from dogs). Not a lot you can do except sound proof your bedroom (or become the neighbour from hell and drive them away). Acoustic plasterboard with insulation between on walls and something sound absorbing under foot, kingspan/celotex between joists, good thick underlay and heavy carpet?

Definately no such thing as a quick fix.

Sound is transmitted in two ways: either directly through the air or indirectly via something that vibrates and passes it on. High frequency sounds tend to travel further through the air whereas low frequency sounds can travel through things. Think of a window, when its open you can hear lots of sounds from outside but when its closed you tend to only still hear things like the rumble from car wheels.

So if you're hearing lots of different noises then its likely that there is a direct route from your neighbours house to yours, gaps in brickwork etc. but if what you're hearing is more of a low level background noise then the reason is more likely to be walls that are too thin to absorb the low frequency sound. There's lots more to it but thats the basics.

To prevent high frequency transfer you need to find out where the leaks are and plug em. To prevent low frequency transfer you need to put in thicker walls.

Its not always bad news though, I remember staying in a french hotel once where the walls were paper thin and I was kept awake for 2-3 hours by a young woman who had the most noisy orgasms you could imagine. It was funny at breakfast the next day when her and her fella got a cheer when they came into the dining room!

julesmountain said:

Its not always bad news though, I remember staying in a french hotel once where the walls were paper thin and I was kept awake for 2-3 hours by a young woman who had the most noisy orgasms you could imagine. It was funny at breakfast the next day when her and her fella got a cheer when they came into the dining room!

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