Noisy neighbor in Brownstone
Hi, We own a brownstone that has a garden rental without any problems until a new neighbor moved in with her family . They also live in the garden rental of their brownstone and all day and night make noise, have parties, and play music loudly though out the night. Since both brownstones are old,…
Hi,
We own a brownstone that has a garden rental without any problems until a new neighbor moved in with her family . They also live in the garden rental of their brownstone and all day and night make noise, have parties, and play music loudly though out the night.
Since both brownstones are old, what we have realized through this experience is that their are gaps in the walls and so each tenant can hear everything that’s happening next door all hours of the night.
We have talked to the neighbor to no avail and also called 311 numerous times and placed noise complaints. We have lost two tenants who besides their own personal reasons for moving have cited the noise as also one tipping points.
We now have a new tenant coming in and want to address this problem head on with accepting the fact that this neighbor is not going to change.
In reviewing the repairs with our contractor that needed to be done in the apartment to have it move in ready….we also talked about sound proofing. One of the the suggestions he had was adding dry wall to the living room (mentioned that there’s a new dry wall that’s more accessible at Home Depot) and could possibly fix this issue.
Since costs are of issue to us, we wanted to know has anybody else had this problem with an old brownstone and if so, how did they correct the problem? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Thank you both for your responses! I will definitely consider this and talk it over with my contractor. Thank you again.
I’ve successfully used sound board on ceilings and walls between apartments. The difference it makes is almost miraculous. It will be worth every penny you invest in it.
I had a similar problem with the garden tenant of my brownstone. She would complain all the time even though I was clear that her bedroom was below my kitchen and with my kids, it would be loud. I ended up asking her to leave after a year, but before the new tenant moved in, I put 2-3 sheets of quietrock sheetrock on the ceiling and hand stuffed cellulous insulation in the cavities (there used to be exposed wooden beams.
My new tenant is paying 20% more and has expressed several times that he truly doesn’t hear ANYTHING from upstairs (which is amazing, based on the chairs scraping, and toddler noise that is happening).
I spent about $800 on the quietrock & insulation from lowes, and it was worth every penny.