Reducing noise from neighbours

Angilion

Angilion

Angilion

Man of Honour
Joined
5 Dec 2003
Posts
21,063
Location
Just to the left of my PC
The wall between my main bedroom and the adjacent bedroom of my neighbour's house doesn't block sound at all well. I was glad when my previous neighbours left as they had a fondness for dance music in the middle of the night, but the new lot turned up for a look today and I could hear an excited child claiming that bedroom. That's going to be a problem.

So I'm thinking about sound insulation on the interior of the wall of my bedroom, but everything I've looked at is either designed specifically to stop outgoing noise rather than incoming noise or is just a thin piece of foam that doesn't look like it will have any significant effect.

Other than pooing through their letterbox, does anyone have any useful advice? I'll bear the letterbox approach in mind but not as a first step :)

For years, I had a neighbour who used that room only for storage. I didn't realise how valuable that was until they left.
 
TBH you might be better off asking in the home and garden forum.

I would have thought sound insulation wouldn't be directional.

For GD answers I can offer:

1) Offer to re-plaster his bedroom and put the sound insulation in when they're not looking
2) If the sound insulation is directional, turn it round.
3) Clank chains and make ghostly noises, maybe the child will think twice about using that room?
 
Vargas said:
On a plus side the child will probably be in bed fairly early and not be raving at 4am lol
Click to expand...

Peppa pig and fireman sam at 4am are not an improvement.

Best to introduce yourself to the new neighbours and explain that noise on the party wall is a problem that cuts both ways. An early civil discussion can save much grief down the line.
 
Murder them all.

More seriously, from what I've read it's actually difficult to achieve true soundproofing because different sounds/vibrations transmit through floor joists, etc.

So ear plugs or move basically.
 
Tend to agree, kids are actually pretty easy to live beside (even the noisy sort) as they don't tend to be consistently noisy at unsociable hours. Unless you either work shifts where you would be really distracted/ irritated by running around in the evening or somehow can't get out of bed at 6/7am now and then it's unlikely to cause a massive issue.
 
As a last resort, can you move into another room to sleep? You shouldn't have to of course but..
 
rodenal said:
Tend to agree, kids are actually pretty easy to live beside (even the noisy sort) as they don't tend to be consistently noisy at unsociable hours. Unless you either work shifts where you would be really distracted/ irritated by running around in the evening or somehow can't get out of bed at 6/7am now and then it's unlikely to cause a massive issue.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned that I work late shifts. I usually don't leave work until ~2300. Morning to me starts at about midday. 0600 would be the middle of the night.

NewGamer11 said:
More seriously, from what I've read it's actually difficult to achieve true soundproofing because different sounds/vibrations transmit through floor joists, etc.
Click to expand...

I don't need true soundproofing. I can sleep through some degree of noise. I just need significant noise reduction from next door. I can hear anyone in that room talking, sneezing, etc, almost as if there wasn't a wall there at all. Sleeping with industrial grade earplugs in would be a problem, partly because I can't and partly because I wouldn't be able to hear anything (alarm clock, etc). Also, is it safe to sleep every day with industrial grade earplugs in?

HazardO said:
I would have thought sound insulation wouldn't be directional.
Click to expand...

The good stuff is, from what I can tell. The classic "eggbox" shape. It would be wildly impractical to stick that to a wall the other way around even if it would work.

Uther said:
As a last resort, can you move into another room to sleep? You shouldn't have to of course but..
Click to expand...

Yes, but if they're using both bedrooms it probably wouldn't help since they're both as bad in terms of sound. I could at a push put a bed in my gym room downstairs, but that wouldn't work at all well. It's not big enough for both.

Maybe I could move my gym room upstairs and my bedroom downstairs. That would be a lot of bother, but less bother than sleep deprivation.
 
Last edited:
Something I did when we had a noisy teenager was actually get some background noise playing when I went to sleep
This raises the point that other noises trigger your brain to react.

Plenty of stuff available for ipads etc, I used to use a thunderstorm and rainstorm mix, just loud enough that I could still hear any significant noise, but equally normally loud enough that said teenager dropping stuff onto a hard floor at 1am wouldn't wake me.

Well worth trying as its basically free
 
^ this white noise in your room and you won't notice a thing, much cheaper an easier than sound proofing and you can take it with you when you leave.
 
On the occasion i've had neighbours making noise, usually at weekend, post midnight, (only several times a year thankfully) , I put a white nosie CD on i've burnt for 30-60 minutes, with it turned just loud enough to drown out music/voices etc, does the trick and fall alseep quickly.
 
Angilion said:
Sleeping with industrial grade earplugs in would be a problem, partly because I can't and partly because I wouldn't be able to hear anything (alarm clock, etc). Also, is it safe to sleep every day with industrial grade earplugs in?
Click to expand...

I hope so, i tend to sleep with them a good 4 days a week.

Also i have a silent alarm on my fitbit, so that wakes me up even if i don't hear my alarm.
 
My old neighbour (before I moved) used to work nights, and he used to sleep in the box room.. It was farthest away from the party wall so gave him the least amount of noise transmission.. Its one of the small concessions he had to make for working unsocial hours.
 
true soundproofing can cost thousands and still not be adequate as sound travels through floorboards and ceilings, etc.

best thing you can do is buy detached or buy an older property with much thicker walls.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Something I did when we had a noisy teenager was actually get some background noise playing when I went to sleep
This raises the point that other noises trigger your brain to react.

Plenty of stuff available for ipads etc, I used to use a thunderstorm and rainstorm mix, just loud enough that I could still hear any significant noise, but equally normally loud enough that said teenager dropping stuff onto a hard floor at 1am wouldn't wake me.

Well worth trying as its basically free
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought of that, so thanks for the idea. The problem that comes to mind is that if I'm playing background noise loud enough to overcome noise from my neighbours then I'm going to be a noise nuisance for them and I don't want that.

samcat said:
My old neighbour (before I moved) used to work nights, and he used to sleep in the box room.. It was farthest away from the party wall so gave him the least amount of noise transmission.. Its one of the small concessions he had to make for working unsocial hours.
Click to expand...

I live in a 2 up 2 down terraced house with extensions on the back for kitchen and bathroom. There is no room "farthest away from the party wall". Every room has a party wall on both sides. The chimney on the other side might be reducing noise transmission from the neighbours on that side or it might just be that they're very quiet.

Psycho Sonny said:
true soundproofing can cost thousands and still not be adequate as sound travels through floorboards and ceilings, etc.

best thing you can do is buy detached or buy an older property with much thicker walls.
Click to expand...

Do you have a spare hundred thousand pounds you can give me? That might be just about enough on top of the equity in my house, although only barely and probably in a not very nice part of town that's much less convenient for me to live in and would cost me much more in transport costs...so can you make it £200,000?

Best thing I could do is buy my own island, population just me. If I'm dreaming about things I can't afford, there's no point in half measures. There's one in a lake in Canada that's not very expensive and already has a house built on it. Take my boat to the shore once a month to do some shopping and say hello to a couple of people. Perfect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom