Is my neighbour being an idiot about noise from my flat?
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Soldato
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Next door's baby cries, and they argue and scream at eachother on a daily basis.
Our dogs bark and I get drunk and sing.
Next door's bass pumps through our walls quite regularly, and you can hear them laughing and playing with the child, or knocking around furniture and playthings. I'm sure they're regularly subjected to my home cinema and the tortured screams of many a horror movie victim.
We're as bad as eachother, so just get on with it as we all just want to live our own way. That means making concessions, and neither of us feel we have warrant or right to complain to the other. That's not to say that either of us would put up with pumping parties at 4am on a school night.
Still, I'd rather not have to worry about any kind of noise flipping their switch, and vice versa, which is why our next property will most certainly be fully detached.
Our dogs bark and I get drunk and sing.
Next door's bass pumps through our walls quite regularly, and you can hear them laughing and playing with the child, or knocking around furniture and playthings. I'm sure they're regularly subjected to my home cinema and the tortured screams of many a horror movie victim.
We're as bad as eachother, so just get on with it as we all just want to live our own way. That means making concessions, and neither of us feel we have warrant or right to complain to the other. That's not to say that either of us would put up with pumping parties at 4am on a school night.
Still, I'd rather not have to worry about any kind of noise flipping their switch, and vice versa, which is why our next property will most certainly be fully detached.
I assume the OP is of a similar age to myself and I was in a similar situation when I first moved into my maisonette (1st floor so had neighbour below) in that because said neighbour is old and you you're young(er), you will automatically be tarred with the young person brush.
For my wife and I this lasted for almost a year before the elderly lady downstairs found out that we weren't youngsters that partied all the time and created loads of noise, so I would say that your best bet is to try and be as amicable as possible and see if he changes his tune.
If he doesn't and he is just a miserable old fart, then carry on as you were
For my wife and I this lasted for almost a year before the elderly lady downstairs found out that we weren't youngsters that partied all the time and created loads of noise, so I would say that your best bet is to try and be as amicable as possible and see if he changes his tune.
If he doesn't and he is just a miserable old fart, then carry on as you were
Annoyingly I am currently experiencing this for the first time 
I live in a 3 story flat on the top floor that is really well soundproofed with concrete floors. I've lived there for over 2 years now and pretty much never heard anyone else bar the occasional knock or bang. I have a decent home cinema setup but have foam in the bass ports of my speakers to dampen the bass a bit while watching films/listing to music etc. I don't listen to music very loudly and with the other half generally in bed before me during the week I tend to keep the volume level down at night anyway. Never had anyone complain.
Cue Monday with someone who has just moved in below me only to find he was playing music loud enough for me to hear the bass quite clearly in my front room and bedroom till 3:30am! It sounded like he had a few guys over so figured it was a moving in party and let it go. Tuesday night was the same thing but he was on his own, though the volume did go down a bit the bass was still very easily audible in my flat Same last night though not till late thankfully.
The thing is, as soon as you hear the bass it's very hard not to focus on it which makes for a very irritating and potentially sleepless night!
I'm assuming his neighbor on the 2nd floor has had a quiet word already but the next time its like that (hopefully not tonight!) I'll be introducing myself and just politely ask him to turn the bass down a bit. I can't actually hear anything else of the music so don't mind his current volume level, it's just the bass that's resonating a lot. I don't think that's too unreasonable to ask?
I live in a 3 story flat on the top floor that is really well soundproofed with concrete floors. I've lived there for over 2 years now and pretty much never heard anyone else bar the occasional knock or bang. I have a decent home cinema setup but have foam in the bass ports of my speakers to dampen the bass a bit while watching films/listing to music etc. I don't listen to music very loudly and with the other half generally in bed before me during the week I tend to keep the volume level down at night anyway. Never had anyone complain.
Cue Monday with someone who has just moved in below me only to find he was playing music loud enough for me to hear the bass quite clearly in my front room and bedroom till 3:30am! It sounded like he had a few guys over so figured it was a moving in party and let it go. Tuesday night was the same thing but he was on his own, though the volume did go down a bit the bass was still very easily audible in my flat
Same last night though not till late thankfully.The thing is, as soon as you hear the bass it's very hard not to focus on it which makes for a very irritating and potentially sleepless night!
I'm assuming his neighbor on the 2nd floor has had a quiet word already but the next time its like that (hopefully not tonight!) I'll be introducing myself and just politely ask him to turn the bass down a bit. I can't actually hear anything else of the music so don't mind his current volume level, it's just the bass that's resonating a lot. I don't think that's too unreasonable to ask?
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There isn't much worse than a noisy neighbour. Even if the noise being made isn't loud, the repetitive thud of bass can drive a person up the wall. It can feel like an invasion of your personal space with no way to escape from it (you're already in your own home after all). I didn't appreciate this until I became a home owner, and I suspect many of the replies telling you to ignore him and carry on haven't been on the receiving end of a 'noisy neighbour'. Also, what doesn't seem loud to you now may seem like a marching band when it wakes up your newborn after you've just spent a couple of hours trying to get them to sleep. Just food for thought
Solution maybe
Go to his flat while playing music at what you think is a reason setting seeing how much noise is leaking through from your flat, call the misses on the mobile and get her to turn the music down or bass levels/settings until you find a level that can’t be heard or is a lot lower but hopefully is still a reasonable level in your flat? This way you can openly tried to solve the problem i know you say you have been to his flat and could barely hear it but I think you have to also understand that he feels his space is being invaded by unwanted noise. I know it’s always one sided with one neighbour complaining more about the other but its best to be seen to try and find a more reasonable solution then having to be asked to turn the music down. If you already know the level of the music which he considers too loud i would try and stick below that level where possible.
If not floor installation? I had a flat and the installation between the walls was great but between the floors was terrible as there was nothing between the floorboards (new build flat) You could hear every foot step from upstairs and down stairs played loud music whenever they wanted. No matter how many times I went and asked the down stairs flat they would turn it down then the next day it was back up to a higher level. This might be the point the neighbour is getting at the fact the noise level changes from day to day.
I live in a semi now and can heard next doors kids screaming and shouting but I have kids and a dog so we are both as bad as each other
Thats exactly what we did last night
But we couldn't find a compromise on the sound front because he thinks ANY level of sound is excessive, ie when the music is reasonable his still has a problem with it!I have just spent a fortune on this hifi. I already have hd25's. No thanks
Sounds like you are both good neighbors to me.
Soldato
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Honest question, do you really think spending a 'fortune' on a hi-fi in a poorly insulated apartment complex was wise?
or both bad neighbours, depending on a persons perspective.
has he only started complaining since you got your new hi-fi?
Soldato
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I have just spent a fortune on this hifi. I already have hd25's. No thanks
And here's the crux of the issue.
Cheers
or both bad neighbours, depending on a persons perspective.
has he only started complaining since you got your new hi-fi?
No funnily enough he complained the day after we moved in when I was setting up my computer speakers.
EDIT
I should add that he complained for the first time before I even wen't downstairs to his party
We got to know the previous tennant as both he and my lady are russian. He was he was hardly ever at the apartment as a 70% business traveller which leads me to the conclusion our downstairs neighbour is used to complete silence.
What makes you come to this conclusion? Our apartment is well insulated.
We have wood floors, then concrete underneath. Also it is a modern building which has to comply with some tight noise insulation standards. I also built my own bass traps and acoustic panels and installed them to dampen our room and stop standing waves from forming.
See this thread
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Soldato
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I came to that conclusion because in a well insulated apartment you shouldn't really be able to hear music in the flat below if your listening at 'respectable' level, although granted the bass on those floor standers will travel, is it only the bass that your neighbor can hear?
He does sound a 'little' fussy but you always get that in apartments, it's hit and miss who you'll get as a neighbor and that works both ways, and it's hard to make a compromise with someone that doesn't like noise tbh, I'm fussy about noise myself but I'll only complain if it's really unreasonable, like after 10/11pm on a regular basis, but excessive noise will still annoy me before those hours if it's regular, I just think people should make a concerted effort to be quiet in apartments, but that's just my opinion.
Also nice setup, that rug was to dampen the audio wasn't it
He does sound a 'little' fussy but you always get that in apartments, it's hit and miss who you'll get as a neighbor and that works both ways, and it's hard to make a compromise with someone that doesn't like noise tbh, I'm fussy about noise myself but I'll only complain if it's really unreasonable, like after 10/11pm on a regular basis, but excessive noise will still annoy me before those hours if it's regular, I just think people should make a concerted effort to be quiet in apartments, but that's just my opinion.
Also nice setup, that rug was to dampen the audio wasn't it
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I came to that conclusion because in a well insulated apartment you shouldn't really be able to hear music in the flat below if your listening at 'respectable' level, although granted the bass on those floor standers will travel, is it only the bass that your neighbor can hear?
He does sound a 'little' fussy but you always get that in apartments, it's hit and miss who you'll get, and tbh it's hard to make a compromise with someone that doesn't like noise, I'm fussy myself about noise but I'll only complain if it's really unreasonable, like after 10/11pm on a regular basis, but I do think people should make a concerted effort to be quiet in apartments, but that's just my opinion.
Also nice setup, that rug was to dampen the audio wasn't it
Yes, it was
But after his first complaint I built the traps and took my dali's off their original spikes and put them on bass absorbent pads.
Read my OP and you will see the decibel levels.
http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html
Soldato
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If I was in a quiet room and someone started whispering in my ear, I would clearly hear it. Maybe your perception of volume is off as you listen to music too loudly?
When I lived in a student house we had this right stroppy cow of a neighbour who would come around and complain even when we are all sat in the front room watching TV. She was just really snobby and it was rather clear she hated living next to us. This carried on for the three years I lived there. She even had the local council noise abatement team around who said that our music was never played to loud at all and in the end even they stopped talking to her and she was told they had looked into it serveral times and it was a civil matter. It was only ever the women though her husband never got involved at all maybe becuase he knew it was never really a problem.
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Could you type that louder please I couldn't hear it because of the noise.
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Just about hearing your neighbours bass is as infuriating as being able to hear every note. If you have a subwoofer I would turn it off until you live somewhere more suitable.