Advice Needed - How do I Completely Block Noise from the Upstairs Neighbor Stomping? (apartments, lease)
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I have a very loud upstairs neighbor that lives above me who stomps around all the time, drops heavy items on the floor, moves furniture, etc. at all hours of the day, everyday, and very late at night as well. The landlord is unwilling to accept responsibility as outlined in the lease to ensure quiet enjoyment of my residence.
What are some ways that I can COMPLETELY BLOCK OUT (not somewhat) the ridiculous stomping, dropping objects, and other noises coming from the devil himself who lives above me? So far, I've used a white noise application on my Mac to generate peaceful sounds during the day, but it only works to an extent. I wear earplugs at night, and can still hear his sorry fat ass.
Please recommend cheap, effective options for both during the day and night to COMPLETELY block out the noise. Moving is not an option (too expensive and there are no other vacant apartments available in my building). I'm also not going to get involved in a legal battle. Please only provide advice on how to completely block out the noise.
Mod Cut: Unrelated Comment
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 12-10-2011 at 07:19 PM..
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:
Quote:
There are four common approaches used to soundproof an apartment. The four ways are: adding mass, increasing or adding air space, decoupling or creating a structural break within the wall assembly, and adding sound absorption material within the wall/ceiling cavities
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.
Last edited by tilli; 12-11-2011 at 06:27 AM..
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