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Noisy Neighbour: Any Advice

by Dal.K
21 replies
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Hi guys,

I'm posting this at around 22.45pm Uk time. I'm sitting in bed with my laptop on. I can hear my neighbours television on quite loudly next door and it's beginning to drive me insane.

My neighbours are nice people. They are a small familiy, a couple with 1 young child and I have spoken to them once before about the noise, which they promptly apologised for and turned down.

However, the problem seems to have got much worse this past 2 weeks for some reason and I'm not sure what I can do about it.

One thing to note is that I do live in a fairly modern semi detatched property where the walls are pretty thin, so generally noise can be heard whether loud or not.

I've began looking online for soundproofing materials, but that stuff costs at least 1000 dollars from what I can see, which I am reluctant to spend my cash on.

Can anyone suggest any materials or home made remedies to dull the noise from the wafer thin walls in my bedroom.

I've considered putting some curtains up to absorb the sound, but maybe that's a daft idea.

Anyway, suggestions would be most welcome. I'm getting sick and tired of the noise.

Thanks
Dal
  • Profile picture of the author glchandler
    Where I live the best sound deafening result is achieved by Uhaul (truck or trailer) and it doesn't really matter whether you rent it for them or yourself!

    Reality? Might get a bit of benefit from lining the wall with something like a bamboo curtain.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    THICK curtains might help. We used to use blankets hung about an inch from the wall. The dead air helped muffle the sound.

    Another suggestion: Try one of those mattress pads made of egg-crate foam rubber. Same general idea as the sound-proofing material, but a lot cheaper.
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  • Profile picture of the author valerieSONORA
    Play the most awful music very, very loud. Then when they come over to complain tell them you'll keep yours down if they keep theirs down.

    I could not live with hearing all the noises of the neighbors, it would drive me nuts, especially if it interrupted my sleep.

    That happened once. I moved into a ground floor apt. and it must have had the worst insulation. Soon after ppl moved in upstairs and I heard EVERYTHING. I never talked to them, but knew their names. I heard their TV, their loud conversations and they had a thing about vacuuming every single night between 12am-1am. So I packed up and moved, breaking the lease. I'll never live where anyone lives above again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Patterson
      Originally Posted by valerieSONORA View Post

      Play the most awful music very, very loud. Then when they come over to complain tell them you'll keep yours down if they keep theirs down.

      I could not live with hearing all the noises of the neighbors, it would drive me nuts, especially if it interrupted my sleep.

      That happened once. I moved into a ground floor apt. and it must have had the worst insulation. Soon after ppl moved in upstairs and I heard EVERYTHING. I never talked to them, but knew their names. I heard their TV, their loud conversations and they had a thing about vacuuming every single night between 12am-1am. So I packed up and moved, breaking the lease. I'll never live where anyone lives above again.
      Ughh....party pooper.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by valerieSONORA View Post

      Play the most awful music very, very loud. Then when they come over to complain tell them you'll keep yours down if they keep theirs down.

      I could not live with hearing all the noises of the neighbors, it would drive me nuts, especially if it interrupted my sleep.

      That happened once. I moved into a ground floor apt. and it must have had the worst insulation. Soon after ppl moved in upstairs and I heard EVERYTHING. I never talked to them, but knew their names. I heard their TV, their loud conversations and they had a thing about vacuuming every single night between 12am-1am. So I packed up and moved, breaking the lease. I'll never live where anyone lives above again.
      When we were first married, we lived in a cheap apartment, and I got to know a lot about the folks who lived upstairs. Like when they argued, and when they made up - the springs squeaked and she was a screamer , if you catch my drift. And she didn't always "make up" with her husband.
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      • Profile picture of the author valerieSONORA
        Originally Posted by Dave Patterson View Post

        Ughh....party pooper.
        That was nooooo party!!

        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        When we were first married, we lived in a cheap apartment, and I got to know a lot about the folks who lived upstairs. Like when they argued, and when they made up - the springs squeaked and she was a screamer , if you catch my drift. And she didn't always "make up" with her husband.
        LOL Don't tell me she was also making up with you
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas
    This might help:

    Noise nuisance and neighbour disputes : Directgov - Home and community
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Wright
      Originally Posted by Thomas View Post

      I agree Tommy

      It has certainly worked in our town and other places.
      Its a bit of a process, at the end of which a fair number
      of persistent offenders were silenced by officialdom
      arriving and siezing the offending equipment and handing
      out a sizable fine. Some even got evicted when their
      landlords chose to end or not renew their tenancy.
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  • Profile picture of the author thunderbird
    LOL, I misread it. I thought it it was "nosy neighbor" and I was ready with advice on how to deal with people getting nosy with your life.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    How about wearing ear plugs? They're cheap and work great!
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  • Profile picture of the author ritaj
    We had a problem with neighbours who started to party every weekend, and it got longer and louder over a very short period of time, till it was overlapping into the week and going on until about 5 or 6 am.

    One Sunday morning I slept in, having been kept awake until about 5am, to find my husband had moved our sterio system over to the adjoining wall (it was a semi) and had turned the speakers flat against the wall. He was playing a record called "Music of Port Siad" (do not know where we got it from but it was
    terrible) over and over at full volume. You could hardly hear it in our room but next door it must have been something else.

    Shortly after the people who had stayed over after the party began to leave, and from then on we had very peaceful neighbours. Nothing was ever said, but they got the message, loud and clear!
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    • Profile picture of the author ARVolund
      Heavy drapes will help.

      Personally I might be tempted to record all the noise for a couple of days and then play it back to them when they are trying to sleep.

      Keep them up with their own sounds and make them realize how loud they really are.
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  • Profile picture of the author thunderbird
    I am actually quite familiar with this problem. The apartment we lived in had a couple of young women who had loud parties all the time. When I called them about it, they would play dumb and say, "Noise, what noise?"
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Are they really all that loud or is it just the walls are too thin to prevent sounds from normal living activity to come through? If they are just making normal amounts of noise and it's driving you bonkers, you should tell your landlord to do something about sound proofing your apartment. If he/she refuses, seek a lawyer who can force them to do so or make them reimburse you for moving expenses and to nullify the lease. People have a right to expect to live normally according to their own schedules. It would tick me off just as badly to have to sneak around abnormally just because others sleep earlier than I do as it would to be able to hear every move the neighbors make. If they are just plain too loud, then eavesdrop sometime and say something to them sometime that reveals that their personal conversations are being heard with ease and I'll guarantee they'll start keeping it down a bit.
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    • Profile picture of the author Al-Leyson
      Well, call a cop and tell them that they are disturbing public peace. LOL!
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by Al-Leyson View Post

        Well, call a cop and tell them that they are disturbing public peace. LOL!
        Or, in the case of my former upstairs neighbors (see above), it would actually be "disturbing the piece"...:rolleyes:

        Valerie, rest assured, if I touched that one with a ten foot pole, it wouldn't be MY pole. I saw what was going up and down the stairs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jared Alberghini
    Get a Pet Rooster... like my "Buddy"...


    Your neighbors will love you for it... not to mention, you won't hear their noise over the sound of a constantly crowing bird.

    .jrd
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  • Profile picture of the author Mr. Enthusiastic
    Give the neighbors Valerie's kitty-cat. Two problems solved!
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Motley
    I had a noisy upstairs neighbor like that once. I tried to be nice and ask them to turn it down a bit but that didnt help. Then my redneck side poked out.
    I went out and bought the most hillbilly pickin and grinnin bluegrass cd i could find, some eye hooks and rope. I screwed the eye hooks into my ceiling, wrapped the ropes around my speakers (big house speakers) and pulled them tight to the ceiling, pointing up. Then I cranked my stereo up to 10 and ripped off the knob, then went to the movies.

    when i came back you could hear a pin drop
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  • Profile picture of the author GrantFreeman
    I'd knock on their door and kindly let them know the walls are thin, I do business from my home and we'd get along better as neighbors if they kept the noise down.

    Some craft stores sell this foam sheet (the rubber foam) that's a thinner version of the audio acoustic stuff that's found in places like Guitar Center.

    It's only about an 8th of an inch thick, and about 16 bucks US.

    I've seen youtube vids where people use the foam sheets for dampening computer noise, but I have no idea how effective it would be against loud neighbors.

    Grant
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  • Profile picture of the author SeanStuart
    when I lived in Hongkong couple years ago,police always be my best friend to handle such situations
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