For the light sleepers (apartment, lease, condo)

[thesilo]

Hi all,

As the title passively alludes, I am a pretty light sleeper and easily disturbed by footsteps in above units. I have been in the market to buy a home for the past four or five months, and on several occasions have found something I've really liked, only to hear footsteps above or an El or Metra train zooming by in the background as I was touring the space. This has lead me to start looking for units on the top floor or at least three blocks away from a train. As you can imagine, this has really started to limit the pool of options. If I were doing a short-term lease instead of buying, I probably wouldn't care as much.

For those of you who are also light sleepers, I'm curious what your solution has been. From everything I've seen, soundproofing a condo is not particularly easy or inexpensive. And I have used those white noise machines to limited effect.

So I recently found a nice 3rd floor unit in a 7-floor building (newer construction - 2007) near Lakeview that I wanted to make an offer on. Randomly, right after looking at this unit, I ran into and spoke to one of the neighbors on the same floor, asking her if she had any issues with people above, and she remarked, "Yeah, I can hear him walking all the time! It's really bad." She was very candid, but also seemed to have an axe to grind with the association. We were later told by the property manager that the building had concrete floors. I was also told that there had been no formal complaints made to the condo board. My initial reaction was that it seemed really unlikely that a new building with concrete floors would have these issues, but I also looked at a unit on the 5th of this same building and "believe" I did in fact hear footsteps. (I didn't hear any footsteps when looking at the 3rd floor unit, but it could be that the tenants above were gone when I was touring or were just stationary).

Any thoughts?

[ChiGuy2.5]

My condo building is nice and quiet from noise like footsteps and I am not close enough to hear the train. The downside though is that I am near LSD where I hear a lot of sirens. I am not sure how you will EVER avoid that without moving to the burbs.

What are your thoughts on the occasional police siren? If you live in a high concrete floor condo like I do then you can avoid all but those darn sirens.

[prhill]

I always make sure i am on the top floor of apartment buildings I move into that way I do not have to deal with noise from anyone above.

[thesilo]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

My condo building is nice and quiet from noise like footsteps and I am not close enough to hear the train. The downside though is that I am near LSD where I hear a lot of sirens. I am not sure how you will EVER avoid that without moving to the burbs.

What are your thoughts on the occasional police siren? If you live in a high concrete floor condo like I do then you can avoid all but those darn sirens.

That's a tough one. Personally, I feel like I could get used to the sirens - especially if you have the ability to add some thicker, soundproofed windows in and can deafen the sounds somewhat? I can see how that would be jolting though! I guess that's all relative though. You're right that some of this stuff is just unavoidable in the city.

[thesilo]

Originally Posted by prhill

I always make sure i am on the top floor of apartment buildings I move into that way I do not have to deal with noise from anyone above.

Those top units go fast! I wonder if a person can really get de-sensitized to those sounds over time.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by thesilo

Hi all,

As the title passively alludes, I am a pretty light sleeper and easily disturbed by footsteps in above units. I have been in the market to buy a home for the past four or five months, and on several occasions have found something I've really liked, only to hear footsteps above or an El or Metra train zooming by in the background as I was touring the space. This has lead me to start looking for units on the top floor or at least three blocks away from a train. As you can imagine, this has really started to limit the pool of options. If I were doing a short-term lease instead of buying, I probably wouldn't care as much.

Any thoughts?

I have found these things are the best methods to hold off noise -

Carpeted floor in the apartment above.
Cement walls
Dont live on a busy street and dont live in a building that has a bus stop.. it is VERY loud even on a higher floor.
Live on a top floor yourself.

If the landlord shows you an apartment you should open the windows at different times a day, it will give you an idea of the noise coming from outside. Landlord will tell you - the noise level is great (when you close your window). so open the window and listen a few minutes. Or, stand on the sidewalk below different times a day and listen. This same noise you will hear above in your potential apartment.

To help absorb the noise, get a white noise device which will help absorb the sounds. Its pleasant to fall asleep with such a device.

Take an Advil PM or melanonin to help you sleep better/deeper.

[xsboost]

I'm a somewhat light sleeper (woken up from getting a single vibe for a text message at times) and can tell you that for me, I got used to:

- fire station four houses down
- busy street (two lanes in each direction) with cars even at 3/4 in the morning

I don't have anyone living above me, but it would be annoying to be able to hear a noisy neighbor above. Worse during the day than at night IMO.

[ToriaT]

Live in a quieter neighborhood in a smaller condo or two flat on the top floor. Where you are talking about is very busy and there will always be more noise there.