Semi-detached house yes or no

We are very happy to receive input from you and hope to be able to make a decision more easily this way.

We moved into a semi-detached house from 2006 four years ago. We hear absolutely nothing from the neighbors. No music, no TV, no footsteps, not even the children! Our entrances are located on the sides, so we never have to run into each other if we don’t want to. Our properties are legally divided, so everyone can do whatever they want as long as it is permitted by building regulations. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that our terraces are actually next to each other and only separated by a half-height brick wall, so we can quite easily hear each other’s conversations. If you want to quietly read a book on the terrace and the neighbor is standing there making a phone call, it is quite annoying. You just have to weigh how often something like that actually happens.

I would like to briefly point out that the plots of land in today's new development areas are usually so small that even in a detached house, you can hear conversations from the neighbors in the garden. Even with older, larger plots of land, depending on the location, layout, and furnishing, you can hear noises from the neighbor. This simply cannot be avoided.

I haven’t read everything because time is short

We built a semi-detached house and are very satisfied. The most important thing is the separation of the houses, meaning there should be NO continuous floor/ceiling slabs. Then, each has its own wall anyway. It is also important that if bathrooms/toilets are on the wall to the neighbor, the pipes (supply and drainage) should be placed in a false ceiling level. This is also important for bathroom planning/space requirements. In the toilet, we didn’t do this with the neighbor’s agreement because it is so small anyway. There, the sink is each next to the neighbor, pipes in the wall. We don’t hear anything. However, in the bathroom, we insisted on the false ceiling so that you can shower/bath at night without being heard.

We have been living here for a year now and we don’t hear anything from next door – they sometimes hear us: they have a concrete staircase, we have wood and if one stomps hard, you can probably hear it next door if you happen to be in the staircase.

For the design, you have to check – that is stated in the development plan. We had to have the same roof tiles, the same facade, same windows (colors) and it should look "matching." That is debatable and it’s different everywhere, I know plenty of semi-detached houses where one has white and the other yellow plaster.

What you do in the garden doesn’t matter, the same applies as with all other neighbors. It makes sense to share a middle fence with the direct neighbor, for example, so you don’t waste space.

Today's terraced and semi-detached houses have long since ceased to have a common partition wall ("Kommunwand") – but that also depends on whether they are legally individual semi-detached houses on actually divided plots. Actual division means that each house has its own plot with a boundary. However, if it is a condominium community (WEG), then each "apartment" is only "individual property," the path in front of the houses is "common," and the "neighbor" would be called a "co-owner" and would have to agree to the garden shed. Without a "Kommunwand" you would have to make quite foolish construction mistakes to hear your neighbor’s footsteps on the stairs.

Once the shell construction is already standing, changes are generally more difficult. Load-bearing walls must then be accepted as they are, and non-load-bearing walls – even if (as is often the case today) lightweight walls – are usually only available until the heating engineers and electricians start their work.

What we have seen from the outside now is that a wall has been erected between the two houses.

How should one imagine that?

The roof is already on it and is one; you can’t see a separation just like with the gutter.

That would rather suggest a "two-family house" on a common plot – however, I am not an expert on how "invisible" fire protection requirements can be met.

That would rather suggest a "two-family house" on a shared property - however, I am not an expert on how "invisible" fire protection requirements can be met.

No, that is common practice. All neighboring houses that are semi-detached look from the outside like one large house with two front doors including a continuous gutter and without any other visible separation. Our house is also being planned that way.

The only thing that bothers me is the fact that our terraces are actually next to each other and are only separated by a half-high brick wall, so we can easily hear each other's conversations.

I would definitely try to fix that by moving my terrace. Just put a pavilion in the other corner of the garden and you'll have peace. I just built one (Ø 3.70m) including paving = 5000,-€.