Condo Noise Complaints - Bay Area (Oakland, Berkeley: wood floors, to buy, movies)

[Matadora]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

In my experience next door noise still beats upstairs or downstairs noise hands down.

Noise is noise and if it keeps you from sleeping or jolts you awake while deep asleep, it really does not matter if it's coming from horizontal ceilings and floors or vertical walls.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by Matadora

I disagree. People have the right to quite enjoyment of their home. The complainer has not complained about any of this: "talk as the walk up the road, they turn on their cars, doors and gates sometimes slam. They cut their grass trim their hedges, remodel, so saws and hammers. They have parties. They watch tv with their door open. Babies cry".

I simply think the construction in the building is crap if you can hear someone's bed squeaking.

Yes, absolutely. But they are not afforded complete and utter silence. When you live in a condo with shared walls and ceilings, you have to expect normal noises traveling. At least here. I do agree the construction is very inadequate. We do Janitorial at condo complexes, and every single place we have worked at has sued the builder for defects. Including our very high end buildings.

And we’ve run into residents who want our help with noise. There’s nothing we can do, but I’ve seen some snowflakes. I had one person tell me she was getting nasty emails from the neighbor below her about noise. She forwarded them to management who washed their hands of it.

Then she wrote management again, with a photo of her plane ticket. See, her daughter had been in a major accident and she had flown to DC to be with her. And would be there for much longer. All the neighbor’s complaints were when she wasn’t there. No one was.

I’ve seen my share of this. Lived it. The reason we bought a house? Is because our wonderful landlord sold the place we lived and we had to find a new place, and the new place was similar to OP. The people above us were nightmares, but if we made a peep, we got a call from the landlady. If I called about their knock down drag out screaming fights, I got lectured about wasting her time. When I thought I was losing my mind about stuff moving in my apartment, the neighbor in the next building asked if we were having a lot of trouble, because our “dear” landlady was in and out of our unit a lot. With no notice, and us not there. And I changed the locks on the door, and got screamed at about that.

2 months in on a six month lease, I looked at my husband and said We’re buying a house.

We did, with a five percent down, and a 15% owner carry back and a crappy adjustable mortgage. Best decision ever.

[Matadora]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

There’s nothing we can do, but I’ve seen some snowflakes. I had one person tell me she was getting nasty emails from the neighbor below her about noise. She forwarded them to management who washed their hands of it.

Then she wrote management again, with a photo of her plane ticket. See, her daughter had been in a major accident and she had flown to DC to be with her. And would be there for much longer. All the neighbor’s complaints were when she wasn’t there. No one was.

I hear you but we need to be careful not to ignore the people who have legitimate complaints simply because snowflakes exist.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by Matadora

I hear you but we need to be careful not to ignore the people who have legitimate complaints simply because snowflakes exist.

True.

[dtran103]

The issue is with thin walls and floors. I’m sure you’re not stomping around your apartment, but that’s what it sounds like when you live beneath someone in a crappy built construction. Living on upper floors you just need to be more careful than usual, including in conversation. I live on a first floor and I can hear EVERYTHING, including what they’re doing in bed.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Ceece

Cheap construction is the bane of society. We are being forced by economics to live in high density housing, and that's the bulk of what's being build that is "affordable". Then because it's cheap and poorly planned we are stuck with noises that have no remedy and it's not just a little annoyance, noises can literally drive you batty.

I start laying the blame on the materials used, then on the design choices that put wood or laminate on upper units that amplify every sound 10 fold.

I couldn't agree more. The State of CA is so gung ho about forcing solar panels on new homes, but they don't give a cr*p about stuff like noise reduction in high density housing.

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Ceece

Cheap construction is the bane of society. We are being forced by economics to live in high density housing, and that's the bulk of what's being build that is "affordable". Then because it's cheap and poorly planned we are stuck with noises that have no remedy and it's not just a little annoyance, noises can literally drive you batty.

I start laying the blame on the materials used, then on the design choices that put wood or laminate on upper units that amplify every sound 10 fold.

Also, don't forget modern sound systems with subwoofers with low frequencies that penetrate everything. And flat screen TVs that have their speakers in the rear, facing the rear and projecting 180 degrees away from the direction of the image, so people end up increasing the volume even higher. And of course often, the flat screen is placed against the common wall, so that the speakers project onto the neighbors wall before they finally reach the viewer.

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Yup. Because as soon as a new tenant moves in, it will start all over again. Maybe with luck, there will be a child or two involved in the next tenancy.

Most of Europe lives in condos or apartments. How do they manage? Is the construction better quality? I've stayed in apartments there; no neighbor noise whatsoever.

It's way, way, way, and did I mention? WAY better in Europe. Even today, buildings are built with not only exterior, but interior concrete walls. Sure, wifi reception is spotty and you need to buy repeaters for every room, but man, you don't hear anything. The only western country in Europe that has pretty **** poor construction is England.

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

In my experience next door noise still beats upstairs or downstairs noise hands down.

I've had sh*t experience from both: crappy construction paired with douch*bag neighbors.

[jencam]

Originally Posted by sc322

Thank you all for the feedback! Glad to hear both sides of the situation. I actually got another noise complaint last night citing that pretty much downstairs neighbor can hear every time a foot touches the floor and questioned if I had carpet flooring (my unit is all carpet with the exception of kitchen and bathroom which is allowed) and saying that she can hear any movement I make in bed... tossing/turning, etc due to the creaking of the bed.

I went back to her stating that it's never my intention to stress her out and I have taken considerable measures including purchasing a sound decibel reader which is actually reading that the outside traffic is louder than the footstep noises in my room ( I'm aware that due to the structure of our building the sound may be completely different for her. For my testing purposes I had my boyfriend who is nearly 6 ft walk around so I could measure the sound of his footsteps both with average footsteps and heavy footsteps). She usually starts her emails with "I do not understand how to make my requests more clear" and I did go back saying that for each complaint she sends I try to come up with solutions to mitigate the noise. In this specific instance I informed her that my entire unit is carpeted and that i'm happy to try out adding area rugs on top of my carpet - but again this seems pretty ridiculous. Not sure how else to stop the noise of foot steps unless I don't walk at all or tip toe around the house. The bed creaking noise will go away once I move out (i've owned this bed since high school so it's probably not as quiet as a new bed), so I don't think it's worth it for me to purchase a new bed for the time being just because she can hear me moving around in bed late at night (mind you while boyfriend stays over there are no "fun" activities going on after 9pm in the bedroom).

I've informed her that I no longer feel comfortable living in my unit and I am planning to change my living situation in the upcoming month and think it's the best resolution for the both of us (aka I listed my place and have pretty much given up on this living situation). I hope that for the remainder amount of time that i'm here she'll just acknowledge that i'm leaving and not send anymore requests because at this point it's been 3 requests in a span of a couple/few weeks.

I hope you really didn't list your unit because of this neighbor. I worked out with my DS neighbor what I can control and what I can't. She has adjusted to the normal living sounds. If she didn't, I would pay attention to the parts of the emails I could do something about and ignore the rest.

There is -0- concern of getting in trouble with the BOD for normal living sounds. I would run the dishwasher earlier in your position, that is an easy concession to make.