Can't figure out where loud bass is coming from (apartments, breaking a lease, house)
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I just moved into my apartment about a month ago, and almost every night, one of my neighbors plays loud, festive music. I can hear the bass very clearly, with a little bit of the music. (On the weekends, this neighbor plays it all day AND well into the night.)
I would complain to the landlord... however, I can't tell where it's coming from!
In the hallway, I can't really hear it.
I've tried pressing my ear to different walls or standing on my bed to see if it's louder towards the ceiling, and I just really can't tell. But it's driving me insane.
It also sounds almost like the same song, over and over. For hours.
Since I'm a light sleeper and have to wake up early, I got a white noise machine. But I can hear the bass over the white noise machine.
I try to ignore it during the day--though it's extremely irritating if I have a migraine or want to take a nap. (Last week, I went to a funeral and when I came back, I just wanted some peace and quiet... no such luck.) At night, I drive myself up a wall trying to figure out where it's coming from or block it out.
I hate to go knocking on random doors, since I'm a petite woman and there are a lot of random men in my building.
There are 11 months left on my lease. What can I do? Please help. My sanity depends on it.
Buy and use Mack earplugs until you get a handle on this thing....I had the neighbour from hell for a long time and these are the only thing that saved her life. And I have used them ever since for party noises or in noisy hotels. At least you will sleep until you get a handle on this problem.
I would not bother with other earplugs. I did. None were effective but these.
I use lots of white noise. I often run my bedroom window air conditioner (which also has a fan-only option), plus I also have a huge floor fan that I turn on in the bedroom.
The guy above me paces loudly most of the night and into the morning hours. I also live next to a busy street next to a university, and the students' cars can get backed up - all blaring different music. So, i get the pacer above me and the street noise/music from outside.
When I watch movies, I use headphones to drown everything out.
I feel for you. It's rough for light sleepers. All I can say is get some more white noise. This is the fan I use. I have it here in my living room on right now, because the guy upstairs is home, which = loud pacing. At least he finally got a job, but he comes home every day for lunch! Oh, well, I keep telling myself it could be worse. It could be someone with a bunch of kids playing loud music, etc.
Anyway, it's an industrial fan and really works for white noise:
Buy and use Mack earplugs until you get a handle on this thing....I had the neighbour from hell for a long time and these are the only thing that saved her life. And I have used them ever since for party noises or in noisy hotels. At least you will sleep until you get a handle on this problem.
I would not bother with other earplugs. I did. None were effective but these.
God bless ear plugs. Without those and an extra-loud fan, I never would have survived apartment living.
Dont approach any neighbors about it, such as knocking on doors. This is a good way to get off on the wrong foot with neighbors. They might turn the music louder to spite you.
Maybe with fall coming people will leave their windows open and you can walk around the neighborhood to get some air. At the same time, who knows, maybe you'll hear the bass louder through an open window, so you will be able to ID where it's coming from. Then if you choose to contact mgt, you will have the address. Not sure if it's loud enough for mgt to do anything about it. That's the tricky thing with apartments.
Last night, one of my neighbors was playing Spanish love ballads very loudly till around midnight. (I was running my white noise machine AND bundled up so I could run the AC for extra noise, but I could still hear it.)
I wake up at 6am, so after a few nights of poor sleep, I'm exhausted! In this instance, I'm pretty sure it was my neighbor right next door.
But sometimes I drive myself crazy trying to figure out where the music is coming from so I at least know who to be angry at. Or to at least give myself the option of leaving a very polite ("Hey, I'm sure you'd want to know if your music was interfering with another person's sleep, etc. etc.") note.
(This weekend, one neighbor in my building was playing their loud music. And I couldn't fall asleep till it was over. And then someone else started playing music around 9am Sunday morning! Ugh.)
I truly hate earplugs, but I suppose it's my only option. I typically can't hear the music in the hallway. Even if I sneak out and press my ear to the door of the room I think it's coming from. So I feel like getting management involved would be useless. Unless I want to keep filing complaints to try to set a precedent so I can get out of my lease sooner? Would that work?
I don't know how I'm going to make it 11 more months. I regret moving into this apartment. At my last place, sure, you could hear noise sometimes, but my white noise machine drowned it out perfectly.
Does your lease have an early termination clause? It seems from what you say that more than one neighbor is offending and you may just be better off looking into moving either if your lease does have such a clause or you can work something out with the landlord.
Before signing a lease it's always a good idea to look at a place a couple of times at different hours of the day and night so you get more of a feel for the building and general neighborhood activity.
OP, I really feel for you! Bass is THE worst to deal with as it's very, very hard to block. At my last house I got a new neighbor who woke me up with her music ... when I went next door to ask her to please turn it down, the music itself wasn't even that loud -- it was just the bass setting that needed to be adjusted, and she did that right away.
You'd think that people would KNOW how incredibly annoying it is to have to listen to SOMEONE ELSE'S bass, but some people are simply clueless or just plain rude (my former neighbor was just clueless, not rude at all).
Have you checked OUTSIDE when you hear the music (instead of checking each interior door)? Sounds can travel in odd ways.
Best of luck to you -- you have my sympathy and empathy, although that doesn't help much!!
I read over the lease, and I don't see anything about early termination. I also didn't see anything about the fees that go into breaking a lease.
It's difficult to tell if it's one neighbor playing music frequently, or several neighbors on a weird rotation. My apartment was rennovated before I moved in, so I don't know if they did anything to the walls, but sound seems to carry oddly. I'll hear the loud music--usually in the area right near my bed--but then press my ear to the wall and the music won't seem any louder. I'll hear the neighbor's TV, or hear him moving around, but nothing that indicates this is the source of the music. (Same if I press my ear to the floor or any other walls.) I'll go in the hallway--nothing. Open the window--nothing.
It's like my apartment is haunted. By a ghost with a stereo.
I would go through the process of leaving a friendly note, followed by a complaint if necessary, but I hate to just charge forward when I can't figure out who the main culprit is, if there is one.
When I checked the place out, I went a couple of times and then walked by at night. But since management isn't there after 5pm, I couldn't tour the building at night.
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