Advice Needed - How do I Completely Block Noise from the Upstairs Neighbor Stomping?

[jen5276]

Originally Posted by breeinmo.

Great post, I totally agree. Yes there are buildings that are so cheap no matter what you do, there will be noise from normal living. But I think most noisy neighbor issues are due to just plain rudeness and not caring about others. Sounds like yours are nice and so are you.

It is great when people are considerate of one another. So while you can't help walking around, etc., i.e., daily living noise, it's nice to be aware that if there are people below you, maybe you shouldn't stomp around at 2AM on a weekday. I lived on top floor for over eight years. If it was late at night, or at any time for that matter, would I have stomped around my apartment and tortured the person below me and said oh, I am just living? No. When my cat used to run around late a night, as they tend to do, I would make him stop because I realized it probably sounded like a heard of elephants downstairs.

But I agree that construction of these places is the real issue a lot of times, because there are some places where you can't hear a thing from your neighbors, and others where you hear every sound. My girlfriend lives in four story condo building and is on the second floor and the only noise she hears is people going up and down the stairway, she hears NOTHING from upstairs or downstairs. I told her she is very lucky!

Where I am now, I hear everything from the people above me, and I know it's because of shoddy construction. I don't plan on staying here longer than my lease, I will prob be out before the end of the year, so I am just tolerating it. I sleep with earplugs so that the constant walking and squeaky floor doesn't wake me up.

[deschew]

I had the same problem, my neighbour upstair their kids likes to run and stomp their feet, I've tried to talk to them but they doesn't wish to talk to us as it doesn't bother them at all. The kids like to run around the entire house and throw their toys and usually on weekends it's always at the same time and location of the house. Nothing helps or goes into their ear, I've tried lodge a complaint to hdb, and often called the police as the kids upstair doesn't seems to sleep when it's already midnight. There's once I knock the nails on my wall since the kids doesn't seems to stop jumping on my ceiling they even start jumping non stop and throw all their toys on the floor. And the saddest thing is that they like to run and play in the master bedroom when it's midnight and it's very hard to sleep as you could hear the sound of slow footstep stomping on the floor and I could often hear extreme loud noise of water rushing down the the waterpipe at the master bedroom toilet and could even hear them cooking very loudly from the master bedroom and knocking on the wall and the window frame doesn't help cause they would do it even harder and loudly, whenever I'm having my meals at the dinning area I could hear them cooking extra loud with the cooking utensil and when they're chopping their food it's so loud that there's no difference as chopping roasted pig and could even feel the pressure from them. It's pretty hard to sleep at night no matter which part of the house I tried to sleep at. At night it felt like someone keep on stomping on the head and heart sometime even hard to breathe. My entire family felt so helpless cause no one could help us to settle this problem and there's once I even went to see whether is it them who makes the noise, my Neighbour told me that they didn't even hear a sound and tried to argue w me. It's so weird, I could hear loud and clear the kids shouting even when I had my window close while sitting on the sofa. When I had my window open, the sound is extremely loud and they often likes to play w the main door, everyday open and close door none stop, more than 10times an hour

[underated9]

Best thing to do is buy a pair of shotgun range/construction work earmuffs on amazon that block out 34db or more. They work really good for all non stop stomping, running, ceiling cracking from walking, voices, plumbing problems and probably music too. I've got every problem except for music but they're made for jack hammers, shot gun blasts and lawn mowers. So pretty sure they'd get rid of music too.

Only problem. They're tight as hell and not built for sleeping or comfort. So sleeping with them kills all noises if you can handle the pressure around your head and jaw.

https://www.amazon.com/Fnova-Highest...cm_cr-mr-title

[LMCity]

Is stomping considered a violation? I have a downstairs neighbors...yep downstairs who decides to start stomping around for 2 hours after 11pm! I am peacefully trying to sleep and then I hear the first stomp and it jolts my nervous system. I'm about to choke some ***** out and be on the 9 O'CLOCK news. I agree in that I take it personally, that these people are doing it to simply annoy me...because why do I only hear it late at night? People need to be mindful of their neighbors. Hell I am mindful. I wear slippers I don't put the tv on loud. I am definitely not meant for apartment living..no no no..It's comforting to know I am not alone.

[Melodica]

Originally Posted by LMCity

Is stomping considered a violation? I have a downstairs neighbors...yep downstairs who decides to start stomping around for 2 hours after 11pm! I am peacefully trying to sleep and then I hear the first stomp and it jolts my nervous system. I'm about to choke some ***** out and be on the 9 O'CLOCK news. I agree in that I take it personally, that these people are doing it to simply annoy me...because why do I only hear it late at night? People need to be mindful of their neighbors. Hell I am mindful. I wear slippers I don't put the tv on loud. I am definitely not meant for apartment living..no no no..It's comforting to know I am not alone.

You definitely aren't alone! We also have downstairs neighbors who are loud. They slam the front door and interior doors so loudly that it shakes the floor, they stomp around so much that it sounds like a herd of elephants down there and they start thumping and banging around every morning around 5:30. Glad I'm finally moving into a house in a week and away from inconsiderate jerks like them.

But just wait for the regular old "if it's normal living noise you have no right to complain" or "it's the construction of your building, not your neighbors that are the problem" or "if you don't like it, move" posts.

[In2itive_1]

Originally Posted by LMCity

Is stomping considered a violation? I have a downstairs neighbors...yep downstairs who decides to start stomping around for 2 hours after 11pm! I am peacefully trying to sleep and then I hear the first stomp and it jolts my nervous system. I'm about to choke some ***** out and be on the 9 O'CLOCK news. I agree in that I take it personally, that these people are doing it to simply annoy me...because why do I only hear it late at night? People need to be mindful of their neighbors. Hell I am mindful. I wear slippers I don't put the tv on loud. I am definitely not meant for apartment living..no no no..It's comforting to know I am not alone.

Originally Posted by Melodica

You definitely aren't alone! We also have downstairs neighbors who are loud. They slam the front door and interior doors so loudly that it shakes the floor, they stomp around so much that it sounds like a herd of elephants down there and they start thumping and banging around every morning around 5:30. Glad I'm finally moving into a house in a week and away from inconsiderate jerks like them.

But just wait for the regular old "if it's normal living noise you have no right to complain" or "it's the construction of your building, not your neighbors that are the problem" or "if you don't like it, move" posts.

Well, just happened to see this pop up as I was searching web regarding neighbor's bass noise, and know this is older.

First, so happy to hear you will be able to have a house, Mel. (I would love to be off on my own).

Some do not realize how nerve-wracking it is to hear STOMPING, that can sometimes rattle a window, make a floor shake, just the pounding alone can make one crazy. It just appears to be so abnormal. And I have had some "normal walkers" up there, so it comes down to the person, awareness and consideration. I wish management could somehow possibly figure out who will be more appropriate in which units beforehand, or not appropriate for apartment living, period! As said, there can be the usual responses about apartment living by others.

So, I have both issues currently of a stomper, who also has to play his TV and Music bass noise EVERY night, when he arrives at 10:30 pm thru 3:00-4:00 am. On his days off, it goes on all day and night. (I have posted about that aspect elsewhere, here). No resolve due to management or the Police yet, either, I will go into more in the other topic, though.

[987654321aabbccdd]

Dropping something every now and then is normal. But on a regular basis? That's intentional. Also heavy walker or not, there is something called consideration. Pacing your place all day is with minute breaks in between?? That's inconsiderate. There are people who do this on purpose. You're not crazy. I'm a heavy walker, I've lived above someone and whenever I got a complaint I made an effort. I put on socks, became mindful of how hard my footsteps were... any nice respectful person would do the same. Some people instead choose to be even louder if you complain. They have a right to move around as they please and you have a right to silence. They should be willing to compromise.

[987654321aabbccdd]

Originally Posted by tilli

There is only one way. You must become the upstairs neighbor.

If that is not an option, the other thing is to just get used to it. Now, I know, don't rip my head off, you shouldn't have to, blah blah blah. This isn't about what's right or not, it's about what keeps you from going insane. When you hear someone drop something - don't assume they are doing it to irritate you. I see this accusation leveled in this forum all the time. It was probably an ACCIDENT. Who drops stuff on purpose? I'd love to never drop something ever again, but these things happen. Whenever I accidentally drop the TV remote control, it sounds like I dropped a bowling ball, not a little piece of plastic. The structure just really magnifies these sorts of sounds. Have you ever gone to confront someone over the bass in their stereo but when they opened the door the volume was not excessive at all? Low frequencies are transmitted through the building's structure even when the volume is not too loud.

When you hear "stomping", you should consider that some people are heavy walkers. You don't get to dictate their gait, they are allowed to move freely within their own space, even if you can hear every move they make. Sometimes they have medical issues which cause them to move with an unusual gait. There is absolutely nothing you can do to control that, but it is a lot less irritating when you don't interpret it at something they are doing to annoy you, so stop thinking of it as "stomping" - they are "walking". When you hear cabinet doors slam, maybe the door got away from them and the hardware is crappy. This happens to me a lot, I never mean to bang the cabinet door but sometimes it happens anyway, and its not like they use that fancy silent hardware. I've had neighbors who always slammed the front door, it was soooo irritating. Turns out that they had to slam the door to get it to close because the wooden frames swell a lot during the rainy season. But when they had the staff adjust the door to compensate, once the dry season came there was a big gap so they had them put it back the old way and just dealt with it during the summer. It had nothing to do with me, and once I learned why they were slamming the door I hardly even heard it anymore because I stopped taking it personally. You see the theme? The only way to block out the noise is to wear industrial earplugs, but your ears get sore after awhile and they still can't block out all sounds like those deep frequencies because you can hear those in your bones. In the future, don't live underneath other people, and in the meantime adjust your own attitude to get through this lease and move on.

Regarding the link to apartment soundproofing:

Very few landlords are going to allow you to make structural changes to a unit like decoupling or creating structural breaks within the wall, adding sound absorption material inside a wall, adding extra layers of sheetrock, etc. There are no ways to do this that will not break most leases.

Dropping something every now and then is normal. But on a regular basis? That's intentional. Also heavy walker or not, there is something called consideration. Pacing your place all day with minute breaks in between?? That's inconsiderate. There are people who do this on purpose. You're not crazy(OP). I'm a heavy walker, I've lived above someone and whenever I got a complaint I made an effort. I put on socks, became mindful of how hard my footsteps were... any nice respectful person would do the same. Some people instead choose to be louder if you complain. They have a right to move around as they please and you have a right to silence. They should be willing to compromise.

[Pablog314]

Originally Posted by deschew

I had the same problem, my neighbour upstair their kids likes to run and stomp their feet, I've tried to talk to them but they doesn't wish to talk to us as it doesn't bother them at all. The kids like to run around the entire house and throw their toys and usually on weekends it's always at the same time and location of the house. Nothing helps or goes into their ear, I've tried lodge a complaint to hdb, and often called the police as the kids upstair doesn't seems to sleep when it's already midnight. There's once I knock the nails on my wall since the kids doesn't seems to stop jumping on my ceiling they even start jumping non stop and throw all their toys on the floor. And the saddest thing is that they like to run and play in the master bedroom when it's midnight and it's very hard to sleep as you could hear the sound of slow footstep stomping on the floor and I could often hear extreme loud noise of water rushing down the the waterpipe at the master bedroom toilet and could even hear them cooking very loudly from the master bedroom and knocking on the wall and the window frame doesn't help cause they would do it even harder and loudly, whenever I'm having my meals at the dinning area I could hear them cooking extra loud with the cooking utensil and when they're chopping their food it's so loud that there's no difference as chopping roasted pig and could even feel the pressure from them. It's pretty hard to sleep at night no matter which part of the house I tried to sleep at. At night it felt like someone keep on stomping on the head and heart sometime even hard to breathe. My entire family felt so helpless cause no one could help us to settle this problem and there's once I even went to see whether is it them who makes the noise, my Neighbour told me that they didn't even hear a sound and tried to argue w me. It's so weird, I could hear loud and clear the kids shouting even when I had my window close while sitting on the sofa. When I had my window open, the sound is extremely loud and they often likes to play w the main door, everyday open and close door none stop, more than 10times an hour

Hi guys, first time here. Writing from Argentina, where I am living the same experience as the one I quoted. The mentioned quote says "My entire family felt so helpless cause no one could help us to settle this problem", and that is what I am interested about:

I've been thinking over and over about demanding my upstairs neighbours for the 16-continuous-hours-a-day noise they make: toys falling all the time, ridiculously loud screams, stomping around (the kind of stomp a young kid makes when he runs), the wife (who doesn't work, but also NEVER EVER in 8 months took her children out of the house except for kindergarden) doing karate on furniture at 7 a.m even on weekends (IDK how early/late that is in USA, but here it IS early). Also, she yells, at least 10 times a day "pelotudo" to her 5-year-old kid (pelotudo is something like "*******"), among other insults. I've been recording them for 8 months, I sleep with earplugs+ construction earmuffs, and I still hear her beating the sh** out of every single chair, sofa, etc.
So I was planning on demanding her on the noise thing but ALSO on psychological violence to her child, caue I have already tried EVERYTHING I could (the imported, really expensive earplus+earmuffs, brown white and every-single-color noise, listening to stupidly high music on my headphones, started taking ansiolitics to try to sleep and also just leaving the apartment to go nowhere, just to not listen to them)

To the person who posted that message I quoted: is my idea really that silly? in the sense that it will get me nothuing. cause lawyers are expensive, and I'm scared of doing that since never in my life have I had that kind of problems.

Sorry for the long post and thank you guys! somehow, seeing that there is people living the same situation as me has lightened my mental load

[Eeko156]

IME, nothing drowns out this type of noise. I have recently read that those earplugs that musicians use (sorry, I can't remember the tech name) combined with high-quality noise-cancelling headphones can work, but I have not tried it yet.