I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached bungalow.

From external measurements, from the edge of my window, to the edge of my
neighbour's, is 103cm. Internally, there's 27.5cm from the edge of the
window, to the wallpaper on the party wall.

Assuming the same arrangements next door, there seem to be 48cm of wall and
plaster between my house and next door. And from inside the loft, the wall
appears to be built of breeze blocks.

Can a breeze-block wall really be that thick? (It would appear to need 4
courses of blocks.) Or is there likely to be a gap (of some 20cm?)?

At the minute the wall might as well not be there...

What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of two dogs
barking next door? (Apart from wearing earplugs, moving house, or, my
preference at the moment, machine-gunning both dogs)

Thanks,

--
bartc

On 20/12/2010 14:36, BartC wrote:
I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached bungalow.

From external measurements, from the edge of my window, to the edge of my
neighbour's, is 103cm. Internally, there's 27.5cm from the edge of the
window, to the wallpaper on the party wall.

Assuming the same arrangements next door, there seem to be 48cm of wall and
plaster between my house and next door. And from inside the loft, the wall
appears to be built of breeze blocks.

Can a breeze-block wall really be that thick? (It would appear to need 4
courses of blocks.) Or is there likely to be a gap (of some 20cm?)?

Experience with how well builders follow plans suggests it is more
likely that the distance from wall to window is not the same in both
properties.

At the minute the wall might as well not be there...

What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of two dogs
barking next door?

Brick up the window. With only about a metre of separation, a lot of the
noise will be travelling out of his window and into yours. Otherwise you
should be looking for air gaps in the partition wall, for example around
floor or ceiling joists, and blocking them up with something heavy, like
soundproofing felt.

Colin Bignell

BartC wrote:
I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached
bungalow.
From external measurements, from the edge of my window, to the edge
of my neighbour's, is 103cm. Internally, there's 27.5cm from the edge
of the window, to the wallpaper on the party wall.

Assuming the same arrangements next door, there seem to be 48cm of
wall and plaster between my house and next door. And from inside the
loft, the wall appears to be built of breeze blocks.

Can a breeze-block wall really be that thick? (It would appear to
need 4 courses of blocks.) Or is there likely to be a gap (of some
20cm?)?
At the minute the wall might as well not be there...

What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of
two dogs barking next door? (Apart from wearing earplugs, moving
house, or, my preference at the moment, machine-gunning both dogs)

Thanks,

My knowledge of party walls is this:
Pre 1960: two bricks, no cavity ( 9 in solid)
1960 - 1976 - anything at all, sometimes studs and plasterboard, but mostly
100mm block
1977 onwards block - cavity - block (11in wall)

All this is dependant on where you live in the country


--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

On Dec 20, 2:36*pm, "BartC" wrote:
I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached bungalow.

From external measurements, from the edge of my window, to the edge of my
neighbour's, is 103cm. Internally, there's 27.5cm from the edge of the
window, to the wallpaper on the party wall.

Assuming the same arrangements next door, there seem to be 48cm of wall and
plaster between my house and next door. And from inside the loft, the wall
appears to be built of breeze blocks.

Can a breeze-block wall really be that thick? (It would appear to need 4
courses of blocks.) Or is there likely to be a gap (of some 20cm?)?

At the minute the wall might as well not be there...

What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of two dogs
barking next door? (Apart from wearing earplugs, moving house, or, my
preference at the moment, machine-gunning both dogs)

Thanks,

--
bartc

This is a common bungalow problem. You will find the sound is coming
"over" the party wall in the roof space I f you get up in the loft
you will find there is a rafter running down close to the party wall
but not actually touching. the sound comes in here and thence throught
the ceilings.
So, get a can of foam and fill this crack up, making sure you shove
the pipe up as far as you can. Trim off and then put on a cement
fillet.
You can only use this foam in warmish weather BTW. Screwfix is the
cheapest place I know for foam. Also put down more roof insulation,
the rigid board is more sound proof.
The slightest little hole lets in lots of noise so do a good job.

The reason for putting down more roof insulation is that even with
filling the gap you don't get it all. There is a further higher gap
between the roof tiles an the roof felt (assuming there is any).
Unless your prepared to cut the roof felt and foam this up as well.
Not a good idea.

"harry" wrote in message
...
On Dec 20, 2:36 pm, "BartC" wrote:
I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached bungalow.

What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of two
dogs
barking next door? (Apart from wearing earplugs, moving house, or, my
preference at the moment, machine-gunning both dogs)

This is a common bungalow problem. You will find the sound is coming
"over" the party wall in the roof space I f you get up in the loft
you will find there is a rafter running down close to the party wall
but not actually touching. the sound comes in here and thence throught
the ceilings.

The rafters are the sloping bits? The last rafter is six inches away from
the party wall, with roofing material just above it, and the tiles just
above.

This bungalow's also had a loft conversion (as has my neighbour I believe),
occupying most of the loft space except for some 9 feet at front and back,
so there is already an extra floor and ceiling between the downstairs, and
most of the roof space.

What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block wall,
with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next door better
than downstairs in my own house!

So perhaps there is some place the sound is getting in as you say.

--
Bartc

On Dec 20, 10:49*pm, "BartC" wrote:
"harry" wrote in message

...

On Dec 20, 2:36 pm, "BartC" wrote:
I'm investigating noise from next door in my 1960s semidetached bungalow.
What's the simplest DIY solution to largely drown out the sound of two
dogs
barking next door? (Apart from wearing earplugs, moving house, or, my
preference at the moment, machine-gunning both dogs)
This is a common bungalow problem. You will find the sound is coming
"over" the party wall in the roof space *I f you get up in the loft
you will find there is a rafter running down close to the party wall
but not actually touching. the sound comes in here and thence throught
the ceilings.

The rafters are the sloping bits? The last rafter is six inches away from
the party wall, with roofing material just above it, and the tiles just
above.

This bungalow's also had a loft conversion (as has my neighbour I believe),
occupying most of the loft space except for some 9 feet at front and back,
so there is already an extra floor and ceiling between the downstairs, and
most of the roof space.

What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block wall,
with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next door better
than downstairs in my own house!

So perhaps there is some place the sound is getting in as you say.

--
Bartc

Well converted or not, there is still a gap over the party wall. Just
makes it harder to block.
It 's probably concrete blocks, breeze is made from coal ash and went
out in the early sixties. It's very soft, you can poke a screwdriver
through it.
There's no way you'll get airborn domestic sound through an 18" wall

BartC wrote:
What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block
wall, with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next
door better than downstairs in my own house!

It would be astonishing if true, unfortunately it isn't, your party wall is
probably 4 inches, possibly 9 or 11, but there's not a cat in hells chance
it's 18.


--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
BartC wrote:
What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block
wall, with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next
door better than downstairs in my own house!

It would be astonishing if true, unfortunately it isn't, your party wall
is probably 4 inches, possibly 9 or 11, but there's not a cat in hells
chance it's 18.

Have a look at a Smith's house that has been fixed.. block-cavity-original
wall-cavity-block and its probably dry lined too.

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
BartC wrote:
What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block
wall, with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next
door better than downstairs in my own house!

It would be astonishing if true, unfortunately it isn't, your party wall
is probably 4 inches, possibly 9 or 11, but there's not a cat in hells
chance it's 18.

I've now tried to put my hand over the top of it near the rafters, and
there's a space on the other side. I would need more tools (ie. a stick) to
know if that space is my neighbours loft, or the cavity.

But if it was a single skin, then where they made a big hole in it to put
the RSJ through for the loft conversion stuff, it would have come out the
other side!

So probably it's two skins of 4" wide breeze block, with an (as yet) unknown
cavity width. If the houses are symmetrical, then the gap would be 8"
(allowing for an inch of plaster each side).

Regarding the way the sound is transmitted, if I put my ear against it, I
can definitely seem to hear through the wall, rather than through my other
ear if the sound path was more circuitous. But I need to do more tests.
(Typical, the dogs aren't barking at the minute..)

--
Bartc

On Dec 21, 5:19*pm, "BartC" wrote:
"Phil L" wrote in message

...

BartC wrote:
What's astonishing is that the sound gets through 18" of breeze-block
wall, with or without a cavity. In fact in the loft I can hear next
door better than downstairs in my own house!

It would be astonishing if true, unfortunately it isn't, your party wall
is probably 4 inches, possibly 9 or 11, but there's not a cat in hells
chance it's 18.

I've now tried to put my hand over the top of it near the rafters, and
there's a space on the other side. I would need more tools (ie. a stick) to
know if that space is my neighbours loft, or the cavity.

But if it was a single skin, then where they made a big hole in it to put
the RSJ through for the loft conversion stuff, it would have come out the
other side!

So probably it's two skins of 4" wide breeze block, with an (as yet) unknown
cavity width. If the houses are symmetrical, then the gap would be 8"
(allowing for an inch of plaster each side).

Regarding the way the sound is transmitted, if I put my ear against it, I
can definitely seem to hear through the wall, rather than through my other
ear if the sound path was more circuitous. But I need to do more tests.
(Typical, the dogs aren't barking at the minute..)

--
Bartc

Well that's the source of your problem.

The gap is also a fire/smoke hazard if the other house caught fire.

I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same and its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get options but I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to put tv on wall and drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their behaviour esp banging back door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally sleep ...its changed my whole life ...I hope you know your not alone and that sadly some people you just cant talk to......at least you still have your sense of humour x

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...ss-676361-.htm

On 19 Jan 2021 at 18:00:58 GMT, "nancy"
wrote:

I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same and
its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get options but
I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to put tv on wall and
drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their behaviour esp banging back
door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally sleep ...its changed my whole life
...I hope you know your not alone and that sadly some people you just cant
talk to......at least you still have your sense of humour x

I realise Nancy is replying to a 10 year post, but it's always amazed me how
little care is taken with soundproofing between joined-up homes. Well,
disappointed more than amazed I suppose.

--
Cheers, Rob

On 19/01/2021 18:00, nancy wrote:
I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same
and its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get
options but I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to put
tv on wall and drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their
behaviour esp banging back door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally
sleep ...its changed my whole life ...I hope you know your not alone and
that sadly some people you just cant talk to......at least you still
have your sense of humour x

I strong recommend you read this before you reply again to to a 10 year
old post:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Home_owners_hub

Most of us will have absolutely no idea what you've just read.

nancy wrote

I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same
and its soul destroying ..

He has likely either slashed his wrists, moved or done
something else in the 10 years since he posted that.

I have soundproof people coming tom to get options but I fear it's
expensive....

Yep, guaranteed to be.

my latest and only option is to put tv on wall and drown them out...
but sadly they are aware of their behaviour esp banging back door up until
12.30 a.m when I can finally sleep ...its changed my whole life ...
I hope you know your not alone and that sadly some people you just cant
talk to......at least you still have your sense of humour x

On Wed, 20 Jan 2021 06:51:27 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread

--
John addressing the senile Australian pest:
"You are a complete idiot. But you make me larf. LOL"
MID:

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 19:22:42 +0000, Fredxx wrote:

On 19/01/2021 18:00, nancy wrote:
I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same
and its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get
options but I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to
put tv on wall and drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their
behaviour esp banging back door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally
sleep ...its changed my whole life ...I hope you know your not alone
and that sadly some people you just cant talk to......at least you
still have your sense of humour x

I strong recommend you read this before you reply again to to a 10 year
old post:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Home_owners_hub

Most of us will have absolutely no idea what you've just read.

.....are you saying the problem no longer exists ?

Some people seem deaf to their own noise, honestly.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"nancy" wrote in message
roupdirect.com...
I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same and
its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get options
but I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to put tv on wall
and drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their behaviour esp
banging back door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally sleep ...its
changed my whole life ...I hope you know your not alone and that sadly some
people you just cant talk to......at least you still have your sense of
humour x

--
For full context, visit
https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...ss-676361-.htm

On 19/01/2021 19:20, RJH wrote:
On 19 Jan 2021 at 18:00:58 GMT, "nancy"
wrote:

I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same and
its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get options but
I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to put tv on wall and
drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their behaviour esp banging back
door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally sleep ...its changed my whole life
...I hope you know your not alone and that sadly some people you just cant
talk to......at least you still have your sense of humour x

I realise Nancy is replying to a 10 year post, but it's always amazed me how
little care is taken with soundproofing between joined-up homes. Well,
disappointed more than amazed I suppose.


In a 1960's bungalow it's par for the course.

Building Regs Part E should have 'cured' the problem in newer
houses and flat conversions. The sound transmission requirements
for the latter are particularly strict, and expensive if you
get it wrong.

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
I realise Nancy is replying to a 10 year post, but it's always amazed me
how
little care is taken with soundproofing between joined-up homes. Well,
disappointed more than amazed I suppose.


In a 1960's bungalow it's par for the course.

Building Regs Part E should have 'cured' the problem in newer
houses and flat conversions. The sound transmission requirements
for the latter are particularly strict, and expensive if you
get it wrong.


Our previous house was a 1930s terrace and we had great problems with noise
(mostly of the TV) from our neighbours. Either the TV in their living room
or else one in a bedroom was on so loud that we could hear every word of
EastEnders or Coronation Street some days. Soundproofing standards in the
1930s were probably less stringent than nowadays - and also the neighbours
in those days were probably less inconsiderate!

On 20/01/2021 07:08, jon wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 19:22:42 +0000, Fredxx wrote:

On 19/01/2021 18:00, nancy wrote:
I just read this and had to write ..how awful for you I suffer the same
and its soul destroying ..I have soundproof people coming tom to get
options but I fear it's expensive....my latest and only option is to
put tv on wall and drown them out...but sadly they are aware of their
behaviour esp banging back door up until 12.30 a.m when I can finally
sleep ...its changed my whole life ...I hope you know your not alone
and that sadly some people you just cant talk to......at least you
still have your sense of humour x

I strong recommend you read this before you reply again to to a 10 year
old post:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Home_owners_hub

Most of us will have absolutely no idea what you've just read.

....are you saying the problem no longer exists ?

Who knows, the OP has has 10 years to sort out their problem, or even move.

On Wed, 20 Jan 2021 12:07:54 -0000, "NY" wrote:

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
I realise Nancy is replying to a 10 year post, but it's always amazed me
how
little care is taken with soundproofing between joined-up homes. Well,
disappointed more than amazed I suppose.


In a 1960's bungalow it's par for the course.

Building Regs Part E should have 'cured' the problem in newer
houses and flat conversions. The sound transmission requirements
for the latter are particularly strict, and expensive if you
get it wrong.


Our previous house was a 1930s terrace and we had great problems with noise
(mostly of the TV) from our neighbours. Either the TV in their living room
or else one in a bedroom was on so loud that we could hear every word of
EastEnders or Coronation Street some days. Soundproofing standards in the
1930s were probably less stringent than nowadays - and also the neighbours
in those days were probably less inconsiderate!

If they were lucky they might have had a radio and/or a gramophone,
and I don't suppose their amplifiers were very powerful.
A few years ago a guy who did some work on my house told me that he
had bought a plot of land and was going to build a pair of semis on
it, for sale. He had been surpised, he told me, by the amount of work
that had to go in to designing the party wall - it, and its
construction when he came to do it, increased his build budget by an
amount that he had not allowed for when he first worked up the scheme,
several £1,000 was implied. Haven't seen him since, to find out how he
got on.