Excessive Noise in a Co-op?
We live in a medium-sized co-op that has virtually no soundproofing between walls and floors. Sound travels readily between apartments and the board has instituted several policies that try to mitigate this problem. For instance, we’re required to have 80% of our floors covered in carpet and we have quiet hours (between 10 pm and…
We live in a medium-sized co-op that has virtually no soundproofing between walls and floors. Sound travels readily between apartments and the board has instituted several policies that try to mitigate this problem. For instance, we’re required to have 80% of our floors covered in carpet and we have quiet hours (between 10 pm and 6 am, you can’t make a lot of noise). Plus, the board sends out reminders about how to be generally respectful of your neighbors vis-a-vis noise.
For several hours almost every night and every weekend, our downstairs neighbor plays music with the bassline turned way up. She almost always turns off the music by 10 pm (the appointed quiet hours), but from approx. 6 pm to 10 pm 3-4 nights out of the week and most of the weekend, it’s extremely unpleasant to be in our apartment. Our floor shakes to the beat of her music and all we can hear is bass. We’ve tried talking to her about this, but to absolutely no avail. I should also say that, for some unknown reason, she doesn’t like us at all. Literally from the day we moved in, she’s been unpleasant and unfriendly, despite our regular attempts to establish a neighborly relationship.
I think it would help things quite a bit if she just turned down her bass. I don’t think the volume is excessively high, but the bass is driving us nuts. Even though her music is not being played after quiet hours, do you think this constitutes an unreasonable amount of noise? Should we go to a higher authority (eg the board)? Just wondering if others out there have had a similar experience and what they’ve done to maintain their sanity, while recognizing that we live in cramped quarters in the city.
mopar- where the heck did you get that from????
So you are making too much noise, your neighbor has retaliated, and now you want to know how you can shut her up?
Did you ever consider not disturbing her in the first place?
I’m incredibly sympathetic. In our current apt, every waking hour we can either hear the TV or the vibration from the bass of the radio of our downstairs neighbor. (They leave it on when they leave the house.) Sound is/was used at guantanamo for a reason – it’s maddening after a while. And when you own it’s not as easy as simply moving, and effective soundproofing is not cheap – you’d pretty much have to put down a new floor.
I don’t have a solution, but if you find one, please post it here. Best of luck.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with expecting neighbor to be more considerate of each other. I grew up in apartments and have had neighbors who didn’t give a damn about how loud they were. What’s the big deal about being considerate? It’s no fun to be sitting at home, trying to read or relax and the neighbor’s blasting loud music for hours. It isn’t nonsense- there a reality to living in apartment buildings. A certain amount of noise is expected- people wlaking in heels on wood floors, loud arguments (so long as its not all the time or they’re throwing the furniture around)- its a function of living. But blasting music, especially turning the bass way up- that’s beyond the pale.
Streber, proper soundproofing in jxc187’s case sounds like it would mean pulling up all the floors in her apartment, or at least part of the floors, to install soundproofing material. I had a similar problem in my apartment with a tenant who was a musician. This was next door, and he ostensibly played in a soundproof room. Still, the noise came through loud and clear. Soundproofing our wall, which we were told by an expert contractor may or may not be totally effective, would have cost upwards of $7,000. This is not money everyone has, especially not these days. You’re absolutely right, “good fences make good neighbors.” But fences can be prohibitively expensive in NYC.
Actually, I’m a pretty good neighbor…
I can play drums at 2 in the morning and my neighbors won’t ever know it because I do it in a sound-proofed a room.
“Soundproofing has to be done on the side making the noise to work, not the offendee’s side of the wall. ”
traditionalmod clearly knows nothing about soundproofing. Believe me, when I am in my soundproof room, I cannot hear my neighbors.
…and if you think I’m mean spirited, you’re wrong. I just understand that 1) many buildings are poorly built and let too much ‘normal’ noise transfer and 2) good fences make good neighbors.
You can go around trying to change everyone and getting yourself upset, but guess what? Some people make noise (babies, people wearing clogs, people who like loud music, etc) … and to a certain extent they should be allowed to. That’s why you have ‘quiet hours’, which your neighbor seems to respect.
It’s called being pragmatic. If you did a bit of work to your place, you will _never_ have this problem again and you won’t have to worry about trying to change people who live differently than you.
or do what ‘MAT’ says… start a tenant war over nonsense.
Bummer. Quiet hours don’t mean you can be obnoxious and consider all other hours ‘loud’ hours.
If she won’t take responsibility and simply turn down the bass/ tweak speaker positions, and if the board won’t do jack, then yup. You are screwed and have to ‘get used to it / you live in the city / what do you expect / blah blah’. Or:
That’s when you have to become what you hate and retaliate. Every time she is blasting you out, you must put your speakers facing the floor, bass cranked to eleven. Damn I’m glad I live in a house and not an apartment.
do you wear shoes in your home? if you do, try taking them off. see if she responds.
sometimes it’s the small things…
PitBullNYC — getting back at us for what? Simply living upstairs from her?