How common are very thin walls in apartments, and if you've experienced them how do you deal with them? (home, living)

[disgruntled la native]

I have to always be on top floor or single story because of it. Upstairs neighbor noise is the worst.

[Ruth4Truth]

I've read so many cheap-apartment/neighbor noise stories on this forum, it makes me think we should start using the Soviet pre-fab concrete apartment unit construction methods. Outstanding insulation. You can't hear anything, through the walls or the ceiling, from the apartment above. And the units have high ceilings, and a separate kitchen. None of this cooking-station-in-the-corner cr@p, like apartments and even homes have these days. "Open concept"!" It's modern! Everything in one room! " Translation: the builders are too cheap to build interior walls.

/rant

[SeaOfGrass]

One time a neighbor asked me if I was feeling any better. Apparently he had figured out I had a cold/flu because he heard me coughing all night. That made me feel kind of uncomfortable, and I felt bad for also ruining his sleep. Then I started wondering what else he might have heard all along.

[Silver_Surfer]

Originally Posted by SeaOfGrass

One time a neighbor asked me if I was feeling any better. Apparently he had figured out I had a cold/flu because he heard me coughing all night. That made me feel kind of uncomfortable, and I felt bad for also ruining his sleep. Then I started wondering what else he might have heard all along.

Possibly sexual intercourse sounds.

[jawanterrell2019]

Fairly common unfortunately. Unless you want to pay twice or triple the amount of rent you're currently paying...because it would basically cost a building owner twice as much per unit to add soundproofing construction into it. Say a unit costs $25,000 to construction without soundproofing but would cost about $75,000 with soundproofing....now multiply that number by 10 units (say a 10-unit apartment complex)...the owner would then have to pay $750,000 instead of $250,000 to build. So who do you think thery're going to offload those costs to? You. Don't look at any apartment complex under $2000 in rent(for a 1bedroom) if you want to void thin walls.

Originally Posted by UniqueSoCal

I've been living at this apartment for about 2 months, and thus far it seems like a great place. The neighbors and apartment managers are very friendly, and it's very reasonably priced. However, there is one thing that I'm having a tough time getting used to: Very thin walls. I actually heard somebody in another apartment snoring a few times. When somebody nearby is watching a movie, my apartment gets blasted pretty heavily. I can hear people talking on the phone, so I assume they probably hear my phone conversations too. I already use headphones to listen to the radio and/or to music, and also to block out other music/TV sounds that I don't want to hear.

My question: This is the first apartment I have rented. How common is this level of wall thinness? If and when I move next time, I want to take wall thickness into consideration when I choose an apartment. And for those who have experienced paper thin walls, do you have any advice for a thin wall newbie? Thanks!

Edit: In the title, it should be "experienced" not "experience"

[jawanterrell2019]

Originally Posted by Ceece

The bane of high density living....through the wall noise! A fan or white noise machine will help you and will not disturbe your neighbors. I'd like to say the the newer complexes are built better but I know people who complain about them as well. Sometimes old, I mean really old, places are built like rocks. I don't know how you can know this before moving in however. Best bet...be on the top floor, corner unit. The fewer walls you share the better.

Fortunately, in 2019, we have several apartment review sites to browse through, including Google Reviews. I always start with the lowest rated reviews first. I feel those are the most honest ones. All across the board noise complaints is a big issue. every single complex I've looked at.

[jawanterrell2019]

Agreed. Noisy inconsiderate apartment neighbors who can easily reduce the issues (and that includes lots of owners of constantly yapping dogs), are akin to people who drive slow in the passing lane despite a steady stream of cars building up behind them when they should be accelerating to move to the slow lane and clear the way. a lot of humanity is just unfortunately very ignorant.

Originally Posted by ca_north

It seems fairly common and the web is full of long lists of complaints. It irritates me that people can't be reasonable and accept that everyone wins when everyone's quiet. And many noisy people are cowards, especially the younger, self-absorbed types. They'll subject you to all sorts of racket through shared walls, but if you see them in person they'll just look away and mumble or pretend to be using their smartphone. This means the landlord becomes a middleman, and the whole situation becomes passive-aggressive hell.

If you people (the noise perpetrators) know that apartment walls pass noise (especially bass) and you know that it bothers people, why do you keep doing it, other than being evil? Selfish, low-morality people will always try to see what they can get away with, and pretend to forget that they were already asked numerous times to turn it down.

Apartment living is not a good way to improve one's view of human nature.

[jawanterrell2019]

Originally Posted by Ceece

The frustrating thing is that it's entirely possible to soundproof multiunit dwellings to the point where this isn't an issue. But sadly the whole state is covered in cheaply built crap because everyone wanted to save a few bucks. If it had been done right everyone's lives would be better for it today, but noooooooooo.

I wonder how much poor building construction contributes to the violent crime rate in a lot of errors. Our cities in America at least are designed in a way that increases stress levels tremendously. There's just a lot of anger and resentment built up in people due to inconsideration and lack of common sense.

[jawanterrell2019]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

It's also possible for land owners to decide to build only 25-30 units on the property instead of cramming in 50-60 units (in which the "living room" is barely bigger than the master bedroom!), but they never do that. They figure, "I don't have to live there, so I'll go for the maximum return on my investment no matter how miserable the tenants may be." This is partly why I usually prefer an older building.

It's not just that. It's just that they want to get as many people in the limited building space they have, meaning they must stack units. The best way to deal with that issue is to move to a smaller city that isn't seeing rapid population growth. Cities where people are flooding in are more likely to have huge multistory units built.

Originally Posted by SandyCo

New construction is no more sound proof than the old construction, although at least the windows in my current apartment filter out most of the traffic noise. I looked at one apartment on the second floor in a different building; I checked the windows to make sure they were closed, because it sounded like the traffic nearby was going through the apartment!

Agreed on that. The apartment I'm renting is just shy of $1000/month but I read reviews of newer apartments nearby that start at $1300/month for a 1B (whereas im paying $925 month for the same), and a major complaint of the tenants is noise from adjacent apartments. I figure why pay more for the same problems. I'm currently waiting for my white noise machine to arrive and will suck it up until I save enough to move to a house. If I complain enough maybe my landlord will move me to a top floor unit...although I'd hate becoming the one causing the loud stomping that I myself hate...

[TexasBound19]

Originally Posted by UniqueSoCal

I've been living at this apartment for about 2 months, and thus far it seems like a great place. The neighbors and apartment managers are very friendly, and it's very reasonably priced. However, there is one thing that I'm having a tough time getting used to: Very thin walls. I actually heard somebody in another apartment snoring a few times. When somebody nearby is watching a movie, my apartment gets blasted pretty heavily. I can hear people talking on the phone, so I assume they probably hear my phone conversations too. I already use headphones to listen to the radio and/or to music, and also to block out other music/TV sounds that I don't want to hear.

My question: This is the first apartment I have rented. How common is this level of wall thinness? If and when I move next time, I want to take wall thickness into consideration when I choose an apartment. And for those who have experienced paper thin walls, do you have any advice for a thin wall newbie? Thanks!

Edit: In the title, it should be "experienced" not "experience"

This is what you do:

1. Buy this:



2. The moment you start hearing bull$hit from your neighbor, blast this towards the wall.

You're welcome.