Forum
« HAI Omnistat2 RC-2000 Thermostat Front Door Repairs »
September 11, 2009
Subway Vibration
A friend of mine has moved into a new apartment (new construction)and noticed (after the fact) a bit of subway noise/vibration. The apartment doesn't shake and it is not audible enough to disturb conversation. However, if you are sitting in the room without any radio or television on, you will notice the trains pass underneath every 4-5 minutes (sounds like an AC's white noise except it starts and stops every 4-5 minutes making it not a white noise). Has anyone dealt with this type of noise with insulation or noise reduction devices? She is on the fourth floor btw.
Comments
yes I live with it and I find it comforting(and I'm serious about that when going to sleep).
and after she (if possible) blocks out that,, then what?
the truck that goes by, the person that slams their apt door down the hall, airplanes going overhead,etc?
I am not going to suggest move to the countryside because noise of night animals and birds in morning can be quite loud.
Posted by: Petebklyn at September 11, 2009 11:18 AM
Although I get your point, it may be louder than what you are hearing. It is more like the vibration/sound of a large truck passing by except the noise is not from outside, it seems to be coming from inside (i.e. below).
Posted by: JENNYFROMTHEBLOCK at September 11, 2009 11:30 AM
I lived literally up against the Elevated in Chicago for 2 years. You actually get used to a lot of noise and don't even hear it after awhile.
Now I have the Mockingbirds!!!
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at September 11, 2009 11:34 AM
I live on garden/parlor floors and 100 ft from corner where subway tunnel is. And if you go to certain movie theaters like that the angelica on houston street you feel the train there.
It is vibration that must feel. Surprised on 4th floor..but then you say only when everything else is quiet. I doubt much can do ..except not have things placed that can rattle from a little vibration. such as my copper plates propped up on mantle against brick.
I would think will quickly not even notice it. Unless starts to obsess and foucs on it. Am sure others in bldg happening to also.
Posted by: Petebklyn at September 11, 2009 11:42 AM
You get used to it - except when you're trying to hear speech on radio or t.v. & the audio isn't up enough.
Posted by: Arkady at September 11, 2009 11:43 AM
I live half a block from the subway line and my house shutters a bit. I noticed it more when I first moved here now I hardly noticed it.
My son's preschool is on the subway line and in the basement so it really shakes. But I assume he'll get used to it.
Posted by: italiana71 at September 11, 2009 11:44 AM
I also really liked being able to feel the train. I could time leaving my apartment right after a train went by, and would get to the station as the next one was arriving!
Posted by: brooklynstyle at September 11, 2009 11:44 AM
There is no practical way to reduce the vibration. You can build a sound isolated room within a room, basically a recording studio, but it is very expensive. Chances are you,ll get used to it, I did.
Posted by: edifice rex at September 11, 2009 11:50 AM
I lived over a subway tunnel for many years, and now I'm within earshot of open-air tracks further out in Brooklyn. In both situations, it's not loud enough to affect conversation or TV/radio, and is only noticeable late at night when it's really quiet otherwise.
Earplugs work wonders when trying to sleep.
Posted by: Sparafucile at September 11, 2009 12:07 PM
If your friend is sensitive about such noises he/she should have checked it out before moving in. Now it's too late. Either move out or get used to it.
In the grand scheme of things subway noise is the easiest noise to get used to it (and the hardest to get rid of). Your friend lucked out it could have been much much worse believe me.
Posted by: bklplebe at September 11, 2009 12:47 PM
Thanks for these comments. I'm sure she will feel better reading these shared complaints. I'm sure she has a little anxiety being a new home owner and finding a flaw in her new diggs.
Posted by: JENNYFROMTHEBLOCK at September 11, 2009 1:31 PM
You guys should move! Lol!
Posted by: JENNYFROMTHEBLOCK at September 11, 2009 1:35 PM
Late to this thread - my $0.02 - easiest way to ignore the rumble is to play music and to make sure all the things that could rattle from any vibration are protected, by putting soft liners in the silverware drawer, etc.
I live a block from a subway tunnel and only notice the noise late at night when nothing else makes a sound. If I have music going, I never hear the trains. If your friend buys a white-noise machine and the sound of the trains is truly as quiet as an a/c, white noise should cancel it out.
I do know someone with a Soho loft who disliked the vibration and noise from the trains and consulted an engineer about how to make it go away. The engineer came up with a complicated scheme involving suspended floors, rubber insulation and something-or-other with the building's old cast-iron support columns. Price tag was thousands and thousands.
Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 11, 2009 3:29 PM
he/she needs to bond with the trains and feel that they are "my trains".
Posted by: Minard Lafever at September 11, 2009 3:39 PM
I grew up in a garden apartment in the Heights, with the 4/5 right underneath, moved when I was about 14. Years later I moved back in. 3 years after that I started dating my, now, wife. Her first comment the first time she came over "is that the train I feel underneath?"
In all those years growing up and the 5 or so years I lived there after I moved back before we met, I never noticed it.
Of course after she mentioned it I noticed it all the time....
... but it wasn't a big deal. I am surprised you hear it on the 4th floor though...
Posted by: christopher at September 11, 2009 4:00 PM
" ... it could have been much much worse believe me."
Yes, here is only one of the many things that could have been worse --
Wasn't one reason the fountain in the middle of the Grand Army Plaza was redone is that it was *sinking* into the subway below?
:-)
Posted by: BklynSoFar at September 11, 2009 5:10 PM
Maybe they can call 311 and get them to stop the trains.
Carnegie Hall was notorious for feeling the subway underneath.
Posted by: denton at September 11, 2009 5:34 PM
sounds like the woody allen movie where he lived under the coney island rollercoaster.. at least he did not call it a "luxury condo"
Posted by: eman1234 at September 11, 2009 8:13 PM
Jenny,
"She is on the fourth floor btw."
Jenny, your friend may be just one floor too low to escape the train vibrations :-)
Here is a quote about *wine and the fifth floor* -- a New York hotel story that may amuse your friend:
" ... the Waldorf Astoria is built above the railway tracks of the nearby Grand Central and the hotel stores its wine on the 5th storey so as to escape the train vibrations." ("New York", by Travel Bugs, 1994)
Perhaps the people at the Waldorf are onto something!
Posted by: BklynSoFar at September 13, 2009 10:05 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.