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I'm trying to prove to my apartment manager that the 3rd floor is causing noise problems when I'm trying to sleep at night (the people on the 2nd floor don't complain about noise), but she doesn't believe it's possible. I put my phone up to the wall one night and recorded it and it picked up the noise coming from the TV on the 3rd floor. It's unfortunately not enough to show somebody who wasn't there listening when it was recording because they wouldn't recognize the sounds that I heard. I can hear the noise standing out on the grass outside the apartment, which I thought was necessary to consider it a noise complaint, but the security guard didn't try to verify it himself.
I'm not sure how to prove this. When I hear the noise, I go outside and I can see their TV going on the wall. When it's not happening, their TV is not on or their blinds are closed. This is consistent no matter what is going on in the 2nd floor. The people on the 2nd floor are very quiet and never say anything to anybody about any problems except when I put a note on their door saying to call security if the noise was bothering them. I wish I was deaf and mute like them, but fortunately I don't have that solution.
Is there a mic I can put on the wall that will pick up the TV noise and decibel level? I remember a wall mic from Musician's Friend years ago that you could stick to the wall and use for recording as it would pick up wall vibrations as well as surrounding sound. Really I just need to pick up the wall noise and decibel levels.
what you are looking for is a decibel level reader. there are many MANY kinds out there and even apps for smart phones that will do this for you.
yup..you pretty much answer your own question and didn't know it.
To be honest, you need to stop wasting your time and money on microphones, and move out to a single family home.
You seem to be incredibly sound sensitive, if you are the only one complaining.. what do you want the LL to do? Face the fact that you share the structure with other people, so noise will always be there, in one form or another. Moving to the top floor was certainly a smart move, but it doesn't seem to be working.
A recording of television noise isn't proof of anything. Because you can adjust the volume up or down and make it as loud as you want to make it.
Really, you are wasting your time. The landlord can not evict a tenant for watching the television. That is a normal noise from normal living. So even if you can prove that the neighbors are watching the telly, the landlord can't do anything about it.
Because watching the television is normal noise from normal living, I think this is your problem, not the neighbors'. Try a white noise machine, run a fan, get some ear plugs. As soon as your lease is up, move to a single family dwelling so you aren't sharing walls with anyone else.
Still, someone in the neighborhood of single family homes will be making noise of some sort. Count on it.
The only noise that drives me insane in a single family home community is the sound of obnoxious bass coming out of a car stereo. Nothing worse than going to sit out in your yard on a gorgeous spring day to have a neighbor halfway down the street decide to hang out in their driveway with the music blaring. It gives me a real, "Hey you kids, get off my lawn" type of attitude.
I doubt the recording is really going to do you any good, as the previous posters have explained. It could even be just some weird acoustical issue caused by the way your building was made or designed rather than them having their TV up ridiculously loud. Or they could be hard of hearing.
This is definitely commonplace with multi-family living. It will not change and it is almost unreasonable to expect it to change. It just comes with the territory.
I think it is partly a weird acoustical issue with the walls, but also they probably have overly-powerful speakers/sub-woofers against the wall or something. I literally hear rumblings, wooshes, and what sounds like Godzilla coming through the walls at night. Their TV is always on anytime I check between 11pm and 5am, and their blinds are closed all day and I never see them come or go, so it's like they just sleep during the day and watch TV all night. It's really irritating. Really, imagine going to sleep every night to TV sounds coming through your wall all night. How would you feel about that? Annoyed? Does that mean you're just overly-sensitive?
Again, the neighbors above me never complain about ANYTHING, even when I hear them get up after something like a loud car speaker goes on and on outside early in the morning or a firecracker goes off in the middle of the night. I can handle that stuff every now and then, but every night... that's just obnoxious. Maybe they wear earplugs, but why should I have to do that? If I can prove that the noise is too loud and constant (and I can hear it from outside on the lawn), then I want to show it to the landlord or take action after that if they don't want to deal with it.
The decibel level at which it becomes a legal issue is pretty high and if nobody else around you is bothered by it I really don't think that you're going to get too far with any "action" you might decide to take. If you have a term lease maybe your LL will agree to your moving without too much of a penalty. If a white noise machine or earplugs are either out of the question or don't help then I think moving might be your only option.
I. How would you feel about that? Annoyed? Does that mean you're just overly-sensitive?
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I don't want to hear my neighbor's loud noise and that is precisely why I will not live in an apartment. If you did not know before that you will have neighbor noise in an apartment, you know it now. I suggest that when your lease is up, you move to a single family dwelling far away from any main streets. Chose a neighborhood with really large lots and generous amounts of mature landscaping.
I'm trying to prove to my apartment manager that the 3rd floor is causing noise problems when I'm trying to sleep at night (the people on the 2nd floor don't complain about noise), but she doesn't believe it's possible. I put my phone up to the wall one night and recorded it and it picked up the noise coming from the TV on the 3rd floor. It's unfortunately not enough to show somebody who wasn't there listening when it was recording because they wouldn't recognize the sounds that I heard. I can hear the noise standing out on the grass outside the apartment, which I thought was necessary to consider it a noise complaint, but the security guard didn't try to verify it himself.
I'm not sure how to prove this. When I hear the noise, I go outside and I can see their TV going on the wall. When it's not happening, their TV is not on or their blinds are closed. This is consistent no matter what is going on in the 2nd floor. The people on the 2nd floor are very quiet and never say anything to anybody about any problems except when I put a note on their door saying to call security if the noise was bothering them. I wish I was deaf and mute like them, but fortunately I don't have that solution.
Is there a mic I can put on the wall that will pick up the TV noise and decibel level? I remember a wall mic from Musician's Friend years ago that you could stick to the wall and use for recording as it would pick up wall vibrations as well as surrounding sound. Really I just need to pick up the wall noise and decibel levels.
Why don't you ask your apartment manager and/or the security guard to come over and hear it for themselves the next time you experience the problem? I think any reasonable apartment manager would be at least willing to do that much to verify if a tenant was complaining.
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