apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i learned somewhere that baby powder reduces squeaking boards. sprinkle the powder on the floor, tamp it into the cracks, and then clean up the rest. i have no idea if this actually works.

how much does window soundproofing cost, out of curiosity? i live on a busy street and the trucks and buses set off all the car alarms without fail every time they pass.

That's so funny, and cute.

My neighbors across the backyard have been keeping their dog Seymour outside most of the day, and the poor thing is bored and sits out there barking and trying to get their attention to go back inside. I work from home, and after leaning out the window to talk to the owner didn't get me anywhere, I've been keeping a log of when the dog barks [11:15 last night, 7am this morning]. Every neighbor I've talked to knows the dog's name, so clearly it's a problem for people other than me. I'm going to hand my log over to my co-op board and let them deal with it. Another one of my neighbors suggested that we all go over there en masse, but I don't want to actually talk to the dog people. I just want them to not leave their dog outside alone.

Has anyone had any success at stopping a noise that is not in their building?

i'd be interested in hearing experiences from anyone having used RSIC clips or green glue.

That was soooo funny. And the only thing that didn't appear to bother them was the loudest, the planes and it was the only thing they had no control over. Our anger is vented toward the things we can control (or think we can control) and accept the things we can't. (no, I don't belong to AA).

There is a small apartment building behind ours and the tenants on the first floor have a backyard. Last Summer on several occasions, they blasted the music so loudly that even staying inside with the windows closed gave us no relief. First a few people in our building went over to try and reason with them, but to no avail. It seemed to piss them off and they would get even louder. We would call 311 and have the police come by, but they would just crank it up again as soon as they left. A few members from our co-op board tracked down the owner of the building to complain and that seemed to help. But we'll have to see if it was truly effective once the weather warms up again.

Mary, a barking dog is unacceptable at any time of the day.
You said you don't want to talk to the owners yourself, but my solution involves a friendly chat:
If Seymour is a dog you think you might like, ask your neighbor if you can take him for a walks. You don't have to be friends with the neighbor, just friends with the dog.

Mary, I've experienced a similar problem where my upstairs neighbor's dog (a sweet, old dog who otherwise never barks) would go into 3-4 hour barking sprees. I finally decided to go talk to my neighbor, she ended up closing the doors to her bedroom so he couldn't see out, and turn the tv on to entertain him. Not a peep since. I think he too would get bored and bark at the people he saw. Would it be an option for the board to put up a solid fence? I'm guessing Seymour will keep barking as long as he sees other people about. Granted I have a good neighbor, but I agree with Peter. You'll have to resort to a chat with the owner...

What if the problem is noise coming from the apartment below? My downstairs neighbors play loud music (recorded, not live) that thumps through the floorboards. When I've asked them to lower the volume, they drop it a little, but they don't seem to get the message that it's a problem every time. Would carpeting help? What else?

I see my posts from last year have lived on!

Sylvie, carpeting won't help in your situation. The reason it helps with noise coming from the ceiling is that it reduces impacts to the upstairs floor, which in turn leaves less energy to vibrate your ceiling. If your floor is already vibrating carpet won't help much.

You could, however, lay down a subfloor with green glue, which would damp the noise.

pphillihpp, what sort of info are you looking for? Both RSIC and GG can work wonders if installed properly. RSIC takes up more space (spacing for the clips plus new drywall depth) than green glue. For super noise reduction use both!

So my building also has an unbearable floor squeaking problem. Any have non-permanent solutions (I rent) on minimizing the squeaky floorboards?

And Sylvie, I think carpet will totally help. I'd also ask them to at least keep the bass down.

my upstairs neighbor plays piano for hours everyday. It is as though the piano were right in my apt. INCREDIBLY LOUD. we made a pact that he wouldn't play until a certain time, but he doesn't always honor it. I think he put some plywood down. It hasn't helped much. Any suggestions?
PS. I am starting to feel very angry.

Ok, my problem is that I am the loud neighbor. Our downstairs neighbors keep ringing our doorbell at 1am to tell us to go to bed because our walking around on squeaky floorboards is keeping them awake. I don't think it's unreasonable to walk around in my own apartment at night. I already have carpeting, and I rent. Anything more I can do?

I have the upstairs neighbor problem and we have no clue of how to talk to her about her noise. Her bedroom is right above ours, and well, to be blunt...I've never heard of anyone having sex like that. The bed rocks in a way i didn't think was possible for an hour straight and i swear they're likely to put a whole in the wall. it happens at least one weekend a month (boyfriend is in town), three times a night for each night he's there, and at least once or twice during the day. they seriously wake me up out of a dead sleep, and by the time i start to fall back asleep again they've started up again! so...how do we approach her about this? we thought about my husband trying to talk to the boyfriend and do the guy to guy talk, but if he doesn't live there, it's kinda weird.

(and before anyone asks, yes, it does make me ever so slightly jealous.)

*bbt, I think you should enter the competition.

max, thanks for responding; i'm just wondering if they would really work in obliterating noise from a loud upstairs neighbor. fortunately, i don't have that situation right now, but i have in the past, and am just sort of "thinking ahead"...

mich, i would just ask one thing: many, many buildings are built so that bedrooms are over bedrooms, living rooms over living rooms, etc. part of the reason for this is obviously regarding building (all plumbing lines going in the same place over numerous floors, etc.), but part of it is also, i think, so that one person's living space is not over another person's sleeping space. if you're doing a lot of walking - or *living* - in your bedroom late i night, i'm wondering if it wouldn't just be possible to do what you're doing in another room? your neighbors wouldn't be bugged, you wouldn't be bugged, and everyone would be happy.

Tat

i might just try that.

bbt, tell them to get a sex swing. Their sex will be even better, and no thumping bed for you. Everyone wins!

On a more serious note, I doubt there's much you can do about it, especially if it's only one weekend a month.

So glad I am not the only one with noise/neighbor problems.

I live in a duplex and the couple that lives in the other unit have very loud, very late arguements and their television is louder than the one five feet in front of me. I have tried talking to them, but it's only made things worse.

Anyway, finally decided to actually move - found a much smaller more expensive rental, but with no shared walls!!! I feel less tense already.

Anyone have experience soundproofing a non-operating fireplace? At my end it's covered with a piece of slate, which I can move. Every once in awhile I think about recycling all my newspapers into the chimney...

In the meantime, lots of bad piano playing is leaking into my living room.

Peter -- If I had any sympathy for Seymour's owners or knew them, it'd be different. The people in the other building are just really obnoxious and oblivious -- when I leaned out my building and asked politely if she could do something about the barking, the backyard neighbor was pretty dismissive. I started keeping a log because she told me that "her dog didn't bark that much" and she was "training him" not to bark. The dog has been doing this for two years and they just haven't figured it out yet. I'm not going to babysit someone else's dog in the middle of my work day if they can't take care of it.

I have considered throwing chew toys at the dog... He literally is just stuck out there with nothing to do, and sometimes when he really goes on a spree, he circles around the garden barking. I can't see food or a water bowl, although there are plenty of gardening supplies. The people who own the garden apartment in my building have put up a good sized fence, but it's just a back courtyard and everything echoes. I've been on the phone with clients and had them ask me what was wrong with my dog.

Hm, baby, powder, eh? Thanks for the input.

Mich, my old neighbor used to do the same thing. He'd buzz my door even if it was the tenant above me making the noise. I used to think he was out of line - as I was hardly ever home, and never wore shoes in the house. (everyone, PLEASE don't.) But now that I have a squeaking floor above me, I'm miserable and I feel a bit for my old neighbor. It's amazing how it can violate your personal (and mental) space. Is it possible for you to try avoiding the squeaky spots? Those floorboards are so brutal.

bbt, next time you see your neighbor, maybe ask her how long she's been with her boyfriend, where he lives...that you've 'noticed' he only comes by once a month or so. if she's dense, no use, but if you're lucky she'll get the hint.

I do have to say once a month is a blessing. Apparently my neighnor's boyfriend has easy access to her apartment. Additionally, I'll take that over squeaky floorboards any day. REALLY. :)

Guido, try stuffing it with insulation (not too tight though, you don't want it super compressed) and then taping the whole thing shut before you put the slate over it.

thx Max
are you talking about a roll of insulation of the sort that goes in suburban attics, stuffed down the chimney sideways?
I know less than zero about this topic, thanks for your patience.....

My question is that I live in a studio apartment on the first floor facing the street. My husband and I hear everything that goes on in the lobby and on our street--and we get to hear fights, drug deals at four a.m., car alarms and drunken rapping (the buildings act as an echo chamber, I swear). I'd install the extra glass panes, but we rent. Any suggestions?

BBT, I can sympathize. I am having serious issues in my new apartment but it's a rental and there is not too much I can do about it.

We have a lovely open beamed ceiling but when they did the renovation they must have cut some corners because I can hear everything, yes everything, coming from two different directions. I can hear the couple above me having sex, know all about her wedding dress and when the guy next door checks his voicemail on speaker phone and I can hear that too. (He also has a son who is having nightmares and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, it sounds like a horror movie!) The voicemail-speaker-phone checking neighbor has jokingly gone on to tell me that he can hear us when we are talking in our bedroom and says he just puts his headphones on but seriously...now I am paranoid to have sex in there!! My husband and I feel like we are in college again--shhh, quiet, the roommate is sleeping. (and we all know that never worked)

Someone is moving out because of it but I just love the apartment too much to leave. Management offered to install insulation and to board up the beams but that would destroy the uniqueness and beauty of the space and would also displace us for weeks! So we've just decided to take lots of deep breaths--thankfully, most of the sounds end by midnight and our neighbors seem to be respectful and cooperative when having a party, etc. It's a really funny and at times frustrating way to live. Thanks for letting me vent.

BBT, maybe some earplugs and white noise for those weekends when the boyfriend is in town? Like Tat said, it may be best just to join the competition.

Guido: Yes, you want the fluffy insulation. Don't pack it in too tight, you want the sound waves to run into that big fluffy plug and be absorbed before they hit the harder "block" of slate. The idea is to have something that absorbs a wide spectrum of waves while not taking all their energy and passing it on to the next surface.

Oh, and for renters who can't do serious construction to block outside noise the best place to spend your money is earplugs. Don't buy the drugstore icky foam ones. Invest in some high quality broad spectrum earplugs like roadies use. They'll be much more comfortable and work much better.

to Kiko and squeaky floor boards,
To reduce squeakiness, have someone re-nail those boards that squeak. It is often that simple. Easy to do in your own apartment. Get the owner to do it in a rental above you.

A few weeks ago my new downstairs neighbor rang my bell and asked if I needed help moving my furniture (I had just had my apartment renovated). I told him no, it was all finished. Turns out there were some loud noises / crashes in the middle of the night which woke his baby. Also, loud walking noises. I assured him that I don't wear shoes in the house and he seemed ok with that. The people above me are SUPER loud walkers - I've nicknamed the husband Stampy. I suggested maybe it was them.

So a few days ago, my bell rang at 6:50 am and I didn't answer because it was Saturday morning! My 2 cats were playing in the living room, but only for a little while; they sleep all night in the bed. He came back that evening and told me that the cats playing kept him up ALL NIGHT! Which I knew was total crap because they were in the bed most of the night. AND they were playing in the living room, not above his bedroom. Here's a grown man claiming that 6 and 10 pound animals kept him AWAKE ALL NIGHT.

I do have a bamboo area rug, but that's it for now. Now I feel really tense and uncomfortable in my own apartment.

max, that is the best advice for renters. i agree, buy the good ones, it's worked well for me. they also come in handy sometimes when i travel.

Has anyone used one of those white noise machines?

This morning I talked with my next door neighbor regarding noise. We ended up shouting at each other.

This guy is loud. But not only that, he leaves his front door open throughout the day. It's not just a loud TV, I hear everything -- phone conversations, showering -- it's as if he's my roommate.

So I go over and say, "Hey, why don't you close your door? I can hear everything you do." (There's no "please", but at least it was a request.)

His response was: "What's it to you? This is my door. I can keep it opened or closed, whatever I like. You're unreasonable telling me what to do with my door."

(FYI: This conversation is happening in Chinese as I'm in Beijing for now.)

Me (now very angry): Well, what if I left my front door open? I could crank up my stereo and leave my door open, too (What am I? A kid?).

Him: Go ahead. We can compare audio systems.(He looks over at his speakers. I follow his gaze and they're massive floor-standing ones. No wonder the TV's so loud.)

Me: Look, if you think it's unreasonable I ask you to close your door, how about I ask you to keep it down. Lots of people ask their neighbors to do this. This is a reasonable request right? But wouldn't keeping it down be a lot easier if you just closed your door?

Him: Well, you can ask me to keep it down, and I'll see what I can do.

Me: (gruff) Thank you.

My neighbor has a friend in town who stayed out of the argument. As I walked back to my apartment and closed the door, I could hear them having a good laugh.

Sheilah, the man above me is a super loud walker too!!! I thought that perhaps he had a physical problem or something but I have seen him several times outside and he appears to be just fine. Just really, really loud heavy feet. It drives me crazy!

Maybe we should form a support group.

I can completely understand why you feel uncomfortable. It's like when my neighbor told me he could hear us talking when he was in his bedroom.

If I had to guess, it sounds like your neighbor is probably up because of the baby and is extra sensitive to the sound of the cats playing (if he could actually hear this) because he is already annoyed that he is up in the middle of the night and is really over tired and grouchy. Is he a new dad? How old is the baby?

Hang in there...and maybe politely say something to the upstairs neighbor about putting down a rug, wearing slippers...anything but the sound of those clunking feet!!

thanks, Jon K. is it as simple as nailing down the floor boards as is, or do the boards need to be ripped out first? my understanding was that the problem is underneath the floor boards.

and the others, thank you for sharing, your stories are hilarious. i am truly sorry about your situations. i am. but the "night terrors," the Chinese yelling match and "do you need help moving your furniture?" are good comic relief. now i don't feel so bad about the barking dog, neighbors' having sex and the wretched floor boards.

I never complained to Stampy because it never kept me from sleeping or anything, it was just annoying as hell and puzzling - he's not obese or handicapped!

Yes, I agree with you about New Dad, and I hope he chills out. I spoke to his wife after the first time he came upstairs, and she said he was very sensitive to noise. I just think that when you live in an apartment building, you have to be prepared to live with some noise (within reason) or use earplugs.

I don't want to have a blowout with New Dad, so I'll be avoiding my door unless i'm expecting someone.

Oooh, a perfect thread for me to finally start posting. I bought a co-op apartment with thin walls, my neighbor's TV is louder than my own, and to make it worse they play Bollywood movies only. Luckily it isn't too long in frequency, it seems like they have 4 daughters in there 1-bedroom apartment. I've never seen the parents.

Sometimes I sit there and I get so mad, especially since I love my own TV shows so much. One day I'll knock on their door and ask them to come into my apartment to listen to how loud their TV is. I don't have the balls for that yet, so now I listen to my TV with headphones on days I know I could snap and start pounding on their walls.

Their TV is wedged in a corner which both of the walls border my apartment, I'm thinking of hanging a padded wall hanging or something on one of them. It won't help much but maybe?

My upstairs neighbors don't have carpet like the board requires, so ocassionally they vacuum or move things around and it's very loud. If it's an odd hour I'll knock on the ceiling with a paint stick and they stop. They don't bother me as much as my neighbor's TV though.

I really love my apartment otherwise, so I hope I live there longer then them!

Well, this post makes me want a large single family house.

re: baby powder on squeaky floors--I've tried it and it doesn't work. Perhaps on a minor squeak, but not on major ones.

I'm on the top floor, and I KNOW I annoy my downstairs neighbor. I'd feel bad about it if she wasn't gassing me out of my apartment with her smoke. (we've had conversations about both) I do make a conscious effort to be quiet, though...but I'm sure she still thinks I'm walking like an ape. The floors are just so squeaky! I can hear her, too--things just echo throughout the building.

Oh, and I am a big user of both earplugs and white noise machines as well as fans to try to drown out the noise. they work for some noise but not others. The hardest is the bass in a stereo, because of the vibration, I've found...

I live on 2F and in the basement - club!!
loud !bass! + patrons loud!! on street at 4am - I haven't slept at night for several weeks...
it's like having a bad jetleg.

the former tenant moved out b/c of this noise.
super lied about the noise.

what can I do? I've already bought the earplugs and white noise cd.

Max give me the exact name or store to buy the quality earplugs.

can I use scaffolding roof? I live on 2F so if I open the window there's the roof like a backyard.
I would like to store some items and paint some furnitures there, even wanna have a barbeque party.
can I do that? are they strong enough for heavy furniture and several ppl?
Thanks.

I find that whole green glue thing very interesting.

I would like to know what materials are best for sound-resistant interior doors. I have two birds who get too loud sometimes. They have their own room, but the door to their room is hollow and there's a gap more than 1" between the door and the hardwood floor (for carpeting, I'm guess). We've been told by an accoustcal engineer we need to put weather striping to close all the gaps between the wall and door.

I think it would really help to outright replace the bedroom doors with something more sound resistant so those high frequencies (most of their voices are in the 2000 Hz range) are more thoroughly blocked, then apply the foam striping and door sweep to that.

Anyone with some reccomendations on materials and/or specific doors?

Sheila, it sounds like you are handling it all really well. I haven't said anything to my own "stampy" either because it does only seem to be in the morning (when i'm up anyway) and in the evening. RMB, I'm keeping my hopes up for you that his door is closed when you arrive home.

I have to say that this whole thread has made me burst out in the giggles at least five times. Even though the sound situation in my apartment is less than desirable, I wouldn't leave my building. Kind of like the quote Maxwell posted here about meditation, it does give me comfort to know that in my very, very old building (we're talking pre-CIVIL war) there is life and energy around me. It makes me laugh to think of all these little dramas and personal soap operas going on in all of the apartment buildings that surround me. I'll try not to think so many negative thoughts with each step the giant takes upstairs and in terms of my bedroom activity, guess we'll just have to get creative.

My upstairs neighbor and his mentally-handicapped son have lived in our building forever. The son spends most of his days stamping around the apartment--singing, shouting, running--and it seems to have gotten worse as of late. It's in my lease that I have area rugs over my wood floors as 'a courtesy to [my] neighbors' but upstairs--no 'courtesy' clause--all bare OLD linoleum floors. Ugh. I have a good relationship with the neighbor, but how do you address that problem? 'Please tell your 38 year-old mentally-challenged-son-who-has-no-outside-stimulation to keep it down'? Really. I'm at a loss for tact and diplomacy on this one.

BBT,

I had a similar problem with my old upstairs neighbor. He and his belle du jour (high heels on hardwood floors) would get home around 2:30am and have sex until around 4 (bed directly above mine, sounded like they were moving furniture) 3-4 nights per week. To add insult to injury, my bathroom nightlight is sound activated. During these times it would turn on and shine directly into my eyes (love living in a studio!). Finally I couldn't take it anymore. So I left them an unsigned note to prevent them any embarrassment. My sister is the one that suggested this, I'm more the bang-on-the-door-at-3am type. Anyway, the note said,

"Dear Neighbor, While I am very happy you have found someone the walls in the building are thin. Your neighbors on all sides can hear when you decide to move furniture at 3am."

Or something to this effect. The opening bit is definitely correct. It only happed once or twice after that which was delightful.

Sandra, Are you saying there isn't actually a clause or they're just not following it? If there isn't a clause, amybe you could offer to foot some of the bill for carpets?

I bought my apartment about two years ago. After I moved in, I realized that there were sound leaks in every direction. I could hear every conversation in our echo hall of a lobby, my upstairs neighbors clomping around and their squeaky mattress (even though they had w2w carpeting), car stereos and mr softee from the street, TV's and arguments from the air shaft, and even the boiler running in the basement below me.

Since I bought my place, I decided to commit some time and money to save my sanity. I did a lot of research, and here were some basic pointers:

-There are 3 parts to noise control. Absorbers (curtains, rugs, etc) soak up sound waves. Barriers (mass loaded vinyl, sheetrock) block sound waves. Dampers (iso clips) reduce sound caused by vibrating surfaces.
-Mass is good. The heavier, the better (slows down sound waves). Layers are good, especially when combining barriers and absorbers. Even airspace can be good.
-Sound leaks in through cracks. Make everything as airtight as possible.

And now for my personal attack plan:

1) We have 10' ceilings, so I dropped the ceiling about 1' in the long hall and adjacent bedroom where the clomping of our upstairs neighbors would wake me up. I used special rubberized spring hangers (www.kineticsnoise.com) to suspend the ceiling, then filled the space with 6" of special sound insulation.

2) In the bedroom, I mounted sound isolating clips on the existing studs, and ran resilient channel horizontally over the existing sheetrock walls. Filled the gaps between the resilient channels with 1" rigid fiberglass insulation. Hung a layer of 5/8 sheetrock, then a layer of mass loaded vinyl (weighs 1lb / sq ft), and then another layer of 5/8 sheetrock. Made sure the walls don't touch the ceiling or floor to prevent vibrations from being transmitted (dampening). Caulked up the gaps between the walls, floor & ceiling with special acoustical caulk. Sealed all the outlets. Installed 1 angled window from Citiquiet(www.citiquiet.com).

3) Replaced the old luan hollow core doors with thick MDF doors throughout the apartment

4) Put weather stripping around all 3 sides of the front door, and a door strip at the bottom. This cost about $20 and works great.

5) Installed thick, heavy curtains and blinds on all the windows. On certain windows that I don't open much, I installed clear mass loaded vinyl sheeting (www.mcmaster-carr.com) looped over a closet rod behind the decorative curtain treatments. I installed a fabric canopy in the hallway with tension rods.

6) Put down thick, heavy area rugs with carpet pads.

Thanks for the earplug advice, Max. Never did really like those foam ones. Do they have a special name or manufacturer?

Neighbor above = loud walker. Also sometimes sounds as if she's dropping bowling balls onto her floor.

Neighbor below = smoker. Smoke drifts up. I sealed around the floor with foam sealant, and it helps a lot. Also guitar player. Is learning, so the same three chords chime over and over again.

Neighobor to the side = loud tv, loud sex. Sometimes the theatrics make me giggle. In the AM, loud walking. Maybe these people are the reason for the saggy floors.

I've tried a white noise machine, which helps sometimes--it's also effective for the street noise which consists daily of the same idiot tripping his own car alarm, someone (maybe the same person) blasting car stereo, and various men yelling up at buildings. One day I said to a yeller, "Phones work too, ya know." He flipped me off. Charming.

Men on my street like to hang out on stoops and blast a car stereo most days. Neighbors from behind my building blast the most vile music I've ever heard. It sounds, and I'm not exaggerating, like giant logs falling against each other and someone disemboweling a cow with plaintive interludes of a wicky-wicky scratch thing from hell.

Calling 311 doesn't help, so I'm writing my local rep, keeping a log of the disturbances. I haven't gotten a whole night's sleep in ages, and it's really starting to affect me. NY grit ceases to be charming when you can't reach REM.

I live in a building-deep, skinny condo with a very, very long shared wall. The unit on the other side is a mirror image of mine, and the long room is living/dining/kitchen/front hall, all open. Little to nothing I can do to insulate this huge wall or section off the space.

My neighbors on one side are utterly silent except for a very occasional yowl from their cat. On the other side, the guy screams at his children from the time he gets home from work until long past I think they should be in bed. It's about an eight-year-old and a young teenager, both girls. I know their names, I know which subjects in school they "F***ING SUCK" at, I know they're "F***ING MORONS," I know they don't clean their f***ing rooms, etc. I've filed noise complaints against him in hopes that there'll be a record when the day comes I have to call 911 because he's started hitting.

I know the grass is always greener, but I think I'd love it if he just played the piano or had a lonely dog.

Here's a funny thing that happened to my husband when we were just dating. He lived in a "renovated" war-time condo with paper thin walls. He was singing at the top of his lungs while in the shower one day, as he loves to do, and when he turned off the water, someone in the adjacent room next door sang the next line in the song he was singing!!!
I have a little table fan that makes a bit of a humming noise and found that works great to block out noise. I worry that too good earplugs may cause me to not hear my alarm clock and make me late for work!

Kostia: I'd hear that kind of thing ONCE and only once before calling the police and social services. I heard one of my neighbors yelling at his wife to "SHUT THAT F'ING KID UP" while slamming things in the kitchen...that "kid" was a newborn. As a person who suffered plenty of abuse, I'd much rather have been in a single-parent home than an abusive one.

I, too have bigfoot living above me, sumo wrestlers, a circus family, a yak herd, someone who juggles bowling balls poorly. My morning rooster is a sickly woman hacking up lung clumps on her balcony. My afternoon alert is the punk who winds up deep within his throat, and spits over the edge onto the patio below. There's Mr. Party with the empty beer bottles on the patio that just get kicked around at 3 am while his guests smoke and chatter and smell the rank, wet, faded futon and try to avoid the screen door that's fallen off and he hasn't put back on.

I run my exhaust fan to try to battle my own smoking so my own upstairs neighbor doesn't get the brunt of my smoke. The louder the people get above and around me, the quieter I try to be.

My former downstairs neighbor commented on the running in my hall, and I said it's not HAPPENING in my hall, I thought it was the one above me. Maybe it's five floors above???

I don't mind little kids playing at all, as that's what little kids do, and it's such a happy sound.

Interestingly, with all the noises I can hear, I never hear vacuuming, unless my window and their window is open. I know that someone must have vacuumned above, below, or next door in 13 years, I've just never heard it.

Addy, thanks for your post! That's some great info to share. Lots of details.

I don't have a lot to add, other than perhaps using a quilt hanger on the wall, and using the fireproof sound absorbing foam BEHIND the quilt.

It might be possible even to put some kind of soundproofing stuff on the back side of artist's canvas/fabric stretched on a canvas.

Or to back an entertainment center with the soundproofing.

Who knows, maybe we are all in the same building griping about each other. And we don't even know that WE are the source of noise for someone else!

Sisero,

You can make an anonymous report with children's services--that's verbal abuse and who knows if the parent may be hitting the child and what else. I know that parents get frustrated but if it is every day, for hours on end, that's abuse. There is no doubt that services are stretched in the city but at least someone could investigate the living situation and get the parents and children help now before it escalates even more. It's just not right.

Are you in NYC? Here is a link to the ACS website:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/html/home/home.shtml

I'm moving into a new, downtown condo this summer and wondering if construction methods have improved much over the years? It's wood construction (believe concrete floors provide better sound insulation), but supposed to have 5+ inches of soundproofing between walls; clause that 80% floors must be covered with carpeting and 14 inch padding; still, I'm very worried after reading these comments :( Yikes! Wondering what I've gotten myself into. Points made here will help me to know what to look for during the inspection, i.e., cracks around pipes, etc.

Someone has their kitchen vented into the wall and their onion and bean cooking ends up in my bedroom. My clothing stinks.

Just had to share this with the world.

Matt,

I have the same issue with smells from next door except my neighbor seems to eating liver and onions frequently. I bought an airpurifier for my apt and seems to work well along with the febreeze.

I must be the luckiest person in NYC---I'm in a townhouse with no smokers underneath (thank the lord), no real loud people upstairs, and a concert pianist across the hall who has her opera singing and violin playing friends over to practice all the time. And then there's the jazz saxophone player who lives across the street---I try to leave my windows open on purpose just to hear him.

There are garbage trucks a few days a week and the occasional car alarm, but I just ignore those.

I'm on the upper west side---I wonder if the neighborhood makes a difference---if it's louder downtown?

Whew! I thought I had it bad! As I type, Stampy is doing his thing, but I think it's become part of my life! I'm just waiting for the call from my landlord letting me know that I have to reign in my offensive 6 and 10 pound cats before I get the boot! I have to laugh, or I'll cry. It's interesting, because I recently purchased a plasma tv and home theatre, and the complaints are about the little felines!! I think I'll start playing the guitar and smoking weed on the fire escape to divert the focus...

Anyone know how much those window inserts run for standard windows? We bought a townhouse on a busy street in an 'up-and coming' area of DC so between the cars and my neighbors yelling across the street to one another as well as sitting in their cars and honking for their friends at all hours while cranking the bass of the newest club hit- I'm getting a little cranky. We sleep with earplugs, but I was hoping to get a cost estimate on addition window soundproofing.

pphillihpp - i took your advice, and i agreed to get ready for bed a little earlier so my walking around in the bedroom wouldn't wake my neighbor. and she agreed not to ring my doorbell in the middle of the night. as for *living* in the bedroom -- i've actually already rearranged my sex life for her. i don't like the idea of being overheard! but i am bugged about giving up sex in my own bed at night. sorry if that's, ah, tmi.

kiko - thanks for your comment. it encouraged me to be more understanding of my neighbors' concerns.

we live on the first floor. we need help findin a solution for noise from above. the person above walks all the time, from the time they get home until they go to bed. And furniture draging, doors slamming, shower running very loudly morning and night, running across the floor and all other kinds of noise you can think of. and one morning she stop me and tells me she hears snoring coming from below in our apartment. I am tried! any suggestions on something and portable i can do to reduce noise on both our behalf.
thank you.
rose

mich, glad things seems to have improved for you (?). it's nice to know there are considerate neighbors like yourself. we downstairs folks thank you. cheers.

Problem: Technotard
You may ask yourself what is the definition of technotard well let me explain. Technotard is the term made up for my down stairs neighbour who blares his techno so loud my floor vibrates, whos bass is so loud that the constant boom boom boom boom boom boom has made me wish some one would break into his apartment and steal his stereo system. Technotard is the term for some one that doesn't get it. Not even when it's four in the morning and it has been the 12th time that month you have told him to shut up and the previous 11th time you told him to 'shut up' but in much nicer words you added that he was getting annoying. Technotard is for my neighbour down stairs who stays up all night listening to loud crappy music and then sleeps through his rooster alarm clock that cock a doodle doodles from 6am until he drags his lazy butt up which has lasted more than 3 hours.
Solution:
I resorted to stomping on the floor once in the wee hours of the morning to get him to turn it down, but I refuse to live like that and instead of complaining to my landlord in the reasonable hours of the day I call her at the gawd awful hours of the night forcing her to listen through the phone to the boom boom boom.

P.S. squeaky floor boards are very fixable with a single screw locate the squeak and drill a trim screw at an angle into this spot. You could use finish nails, but they don't hold as well as trim screws do.

Countersink the screwhead and fill any holes with wood putty.

ugh. noisy neighbors can make life unbearable. and unfortunately, it's one of those things that you don't get full visibility on until it is too late (after you've already moved in).

i live in a 100 yr old townhouse in chelsea, below a woman with two children. as you might imagine, there's noise from morning 'til night: jumping, thumping, screaming, crying, running, yelling...

i used to think that they just stood in the living room trying to be as noisy as possible. then i went up there one day -- turns out it was just kids being kids.

that being said, the noise is horrible. we've tried to work together (new padding under her carpet, etc), but there are simply limitations in our ability to control noise in an old wood frame house.

i will sometimes bang on the ceiling if things are really out of control (weekends are the worst -- there's no sleeping in for me), but most of the time i have to suffer through.

it makes me miserable in my own home. there have even been times when i've chosen to stay late in the office simply because i knew that i couldn't deal with the noise at home just yet.

the worst part of it is that no one feels comfortable anymore: she's super conscious of trying to control her kids, and i am annoyed everytime i have to listen to 20 minutes of non-stop running and thumping.

there was only one solution that worked: i am closing on the sale of the place this friday.

it's been fascinating reading all your stories about various problems and solutions, and i hope you all manage to sort out your various annoyances successfully. I'm lucky really, I live in student accomodation, which is basically a 3 storey mass of concrete with rooms joining wall to wall, floor to ceiling, in a U shape with a central stairway. I'm on the middle floor at the front of the house, with a guy above me who every now and then listens to really bad dance music very loud (mostly when drunk), a guy below me who recently invested in a stupidly powerful system, which make enough noise to liquify your brain, but he listens to alright music and rarely blasts it out, and a bass player off one wall who surprisingly isn't that bad, mostly due to the fact he's very rarely in his room.
As the floors are solid, and the carpet thin and scrusty, noise travels with ease between the rooms, and there have been nights where i've had my ear plugs in with my pillow over my head, wishing i could go upstairs and hit the guy above me, but i'm not like that.
Also due to living with students they tend to get drunk and make far too much noise far too late at night (you may think, why aren't you out getting drunk too, but i'm skint and i don't like getting drunk anyway, too much vomit)
Finally the house is situated about 100m from the student union, which means at around 3 many many loud drunken students wander out and forget how to keep it down. Luckely the double glazing is amazing and almost cuts out noise entirely (but does leave you with no air circulation what so ever)
I am, as i said, lucky as I only have to live in this situation for a few more weeks and then i can get back to normal living (until next term). I don't think i could deal with living for a number of yearsz with unwanted noises.

A bit of advice, if you get ear plugs (Doc's proplugs are proffesional earplugs and rule) get non vented ones, if you're only using them to cut out annoying noise, as they cut out noise far more effectively than vented ones (which are more useful if you need to hear music but not damage your hearing), 30dB cut instead of 20dB cut.

Also white noise CD's effectiveness will depend on your system, white noise is all the frequencies in the audio range (20Hz to 20kHz) at equal power, but if your system only does from (80Hz to 15kHz,or something like that) there will be frequencies missed, and of cause it will only mask noises, and white noise is pretty annoying in itself.

What the best earplugs to cover my neighbors bass?

Lucky me, I had no noise problems except for the occasional neigbor music playing, then they decided to build 3 more condos across the street from me, one directly across from the kitchen,one directly across from the bedroom, and one directly across from the home office, I am now going freakin insane, as I get woken up at 7 everyday (not a problem on work days) and do a lot of work from home, I can't get anything done, I am bombarded on all sides!!! I am going to try to build window plugs which I saw on several websites as I can't do anything permanent since I rent. Has anyone tried window plugs?

I just had to share this little anecdote, particularly since I've found this thread while up at 3 AM because I can't sleep due to noise. I live in Houston, but I'm from the NYC area, and I've been utterly dismayed to find out that Houstonians have to deal with a bizarre form of nighttime noise: the mating calls of toads. Seriously. After it rains (and it rains quite a lot) in the summer, the toads come out to hang around in the water that collects at the bottom of the driveways and sound their incredibly loud barking calls. I live about a mile from downtown Houston, so my neighborhood is very urban - it's not like I'm in the burbs or something. I use earplugs and put the pillow over my head, and it does no good when they're in close proximity. I've actually gone outside in the middle of the night to try and scoop them up and relocate them to the end of the street, which made for a really ridiculous sight, I'm sure. We're probably going to be moving from our apartment soon, but in our next place, if we still have toad noise, I'm going to at least put in some heavy curtains in our bedroom. We're renters, so we probably won't be able to install the extra windows, but we could always ask the new landlord. So thanks for the advice, y'all. If anyone has any particular brands of earplugs that you recommend, I'd love to try some new ones. So far I'm just using the ones from the drugstore. I'm also going to call a pest control guy - tomorrow! - and see if there are any humane methods of discouraging the toads from hanging around our driveway. Ack.

I've used the Green Glue in some apartment walls and ceiling. Easier than I though. Worked better than I thought.

Elizabeth, probably the simplest is turning your porch lights off, and keeping blinds closed at night (less light = less bugs = less toads). They like the damp, so theoretically watering less would work, but that hasn't worked for us as well as just turning the lights off (none of this may work for you, since you have an apt). I haven't found a chemical that deters them instead of basically torturing them.... (let me know if you find one)

Oh, and are you washing your hands after your nighttime relocations? Ridiculous or not, even though the wart thing isn't true, toads can really irritate human mucous membranes...

In the end, toads are better than cicadas--maybe. Well, that's it for my little Southern digression.....

Has anyone tried to soundproof their walls with either that soundproofing paint or fabric? Does it work? I have one wall that's letting in TV and conversation noise--And I wondered if there was anything I could do (since I can't put up another wall...). Mainly, I just use the A/C.

We live in the lower unit of a 2 unit condo in San Francisco. The previous owners upstairs were very quiet walkers and super respectful of us living downstairs... unfortunately they moved and sold their unit and for the past 2 years we have been trying to resolve the problems with our new neighbors, who by comparison are extremely loud. The problem is that they claim they are just living their lives and that we are the ones who are unreasonable and too sensitive to noise. Even though we lived in the same unit with someone above us for years and no problems. Although they have finally stopped slamming their front door, they still stomp up the tiled common area hallway in hard soled shoes, run their dog up and down the hallways for playtime, and drop things constantly on their floor. Their dog also goes completely crazy when they take him down the hallway, yelping loudly and dragging them down the stairs. Their floors are hardwood, and even though they are required to have 75% carpet over padding from research that I have done, this is still pretty ineffective in regards to impact noise.
We have tried talking to them, sending them letters, and even mediation but they insist this is our problem. So we have decided to try installing isolation clips and a new drywall called supress. Hopefuly this will offer some relief. ANy other suggestions would be appreciated.

I had very noisy neighbours downstairs, coming home at midnight and cranking up the music. I asked for them to turn it down but they just didn't get it. I really tried to be nice. So after months of this I used my anger as motivaton to power sand my staircase in the very early mornings after they had a party. I slept in the afternoons and they moved.
Yvonne

Hello,

Noisy neighbors upstairs, kids running, people walking around all the time around the clock, they push and pull pieces of furniture and so on....

So I asked for professional advice and the best solution offered was this : For all four walls and ceiling use four sheets of high density mineral wool (2 inches each - 8 inches total, about 60KG per m2) then cover them with a sound absorbing board. Like a sound baffle I think. There is going to be a small gap of air between the sheets and the room walls and ceiling.

So we have a small air gap + 8 inches of high density mineral wool + sound baffle = peace of mind?

What do you think?

Thanks :)

Finally! I am not alone! There are two sound issues in my apartment(which I love). FYI, I have wood floors, some rugs, and go shoes off in my apt.
One is a super sensitive downstairs neighbor, who used to come up frequently and complained about the slightest sound, even during the day. The last time she complained, however, was when I was in bed reading, and my cat ran up the hall. And so when she came up to complain, I told her just that to her face. That last time, combined with her spending winters in Argentina with family, probably (finally!) made her realize that I wasn't all that loud. I had even double checked with a previous downstairs neighbor in my former apt building, where I had wood floors & no rugs, and she told me I was totally quiet.

The second and bigger noise issue in my apt, is the unit above mine. When I moved in, the landlord told me it was mostly empty and only occasionally used for visiting artists. Well, now my landlord is my boss, and it turns out the upstairs apt is used frequently...by heavy walking, visiting modern dancers. Total thumping heel walkers, it is awful. Foamy earplugs don't cut out this sound, very deep & bassy on wood floor(no rugs for them)and I'm afraid if I got super professional earplugs, then I'd not wake up for work(or hear my alarm). And these dancers treat their stays like a holiday: up late, moving furniture, dropping shoes on floor, up early, loud music, you name it. And it's exhausting having to go up and try to talk to each one of them.
This situation will definitely factor into me moving, sooner than I wish.

It is reasurring to know that I am not alone in the problems I am having with my upstairs neighbor. I feel for all of you!

I have picked up some great tips here so thank you -- it has armed me with what I need when I go (again) to my landlord/the owner. However, at this point, I need resolution, and plan to find a lawyer beginning Tuesday.

Meanwhile, where can I find these upscale earplugs and a white noise cd/machine? I see a guitar place around the corner from me, you think they'll have the earplugs?

Thank you ten-fold!

Hi,

I have been reading these comments between 3am and 4:30am this night ;). I live in the lower part of a duplex and have problems of noise coming upstairs.

My tenants (above) have hard wood floors which squeak a lot, they are heavy footers, and are often up in the middle of the night...

Anyway, I made some research tonight, and I will try these few things :
- I will use ear plugs at night. I used some in the past, but that was not that efficient. This time I am going to buy and try the "the world's finest ear plugs" from earplugsonline. They say it's NRR (noise reduction) of 34. Seems to be the best after a little web search.
- I am going to work on the squeaking problem. I found a little video today on "thisoldhouse.com" where they use snap-off screws, to reattach tightly the floor to the subfloor. The kit is called "Squeeeeek No More Kit". I hope this will help.
- Concerning the heavy walking problem, I will probably ask my tenants if they would mind having carpet (with padding under) put in the bedroom. Maybe as well suggesting they use sleepers... but can I really impose things to my renters, I don't know...

Well, I am very hopeful with that plan...
What do yo think ?

Hi,

Read my post again this morning... you have to read "slippers" instead of "sleepers" ;) I guess I could suggest sleepers and slippers to them anyway.

my neighbor is running a generator constantly. I have a 2 year old and no one seems to care. Please helps us with some suggestions.

I moved into a high rise condo that has marble floors. Whoever decided to put marble floors in condos is an idiot! Furniture dragging, high heels, balcony door slamming (because we have hurricane proof windows so they are heavy), doors slamming, heavy foot walking, pennies dropping, bowling balls falling etc. We can hear everything. Need soundproofing (and a lawyer!!). Recommendations for a drop ceiling?

I have a case of major buyers remorse mainly because of the noise issue - except the noise that bothers me is my *own*. That's right-- I am the only thing making noise around here. I have a complaining downstairs neighbor who was up here like a shot less than 5 hours after I had moved in. She proceeded to complain, even after I had covered 80% of the apt with carpets and heavy padding and always remove my shoes. She wrote a note telling me to go to bed by midnight and not get out of bed even if I couldn't sleep.

I was momentarily angry and sent a letter to her, copied to the board and the management telling her to leave me alone, as I was doing everything possible to stop the noise, short of levitating.

But I haven't stayed angry -- it has only managed to seep into my psyche that every step I take is bothersome to someone (her). I HATE feeling this way and really, the thought is with me pretty much every minute of the day when I think she is home (mornings and evenings). I am really obsessed with thinking about it.

What can I do to get over this?

I can hear my upstairs neighbors too. the floors in this building are not built well and there are boards that are very squeaky. However, I have infinite amounts of tolerance for their noise and would not dream of asking them to walk around less as I know what kind of effect that had on me.

I have a renovation from hell from the upstairs neighbors. A Slow distruction to my apartment ( 2 years) is at least fixable, but the worst offense is the vibrations from their new compressors which run 24/7 that shake the floor and therefore my bed. Pretending I am on a ship sailing for foreign shores no longer works.
Does anyone have a suggestion on what could be placed under my bed (The room is carpeted) to absorb the vibrations?
Love reading some of the replies. I thought I had lost my sese of humor!!
Lucy 11/13/06

My God, I am glad to have found this site and see that I am not a nutcase when it comes to hearing sound. I feel like I have an invisible roommate. All she's doing is normal stuff, but with a heavey hand and foot sromp. slamming cupboards. I hear her conversations on phone as she sits right in the window. .. I know when she leaves and when she returns.I know that she wanted chocolate cake for her birthday.. Sometimes I don't go to bed until after she gets home because I anticipte her loud bang, stomp, slam which always wakes me up . Do I ask her to lighten up? SHe might not be able to. If I wear earplugs, I have nightmares-I swear and I wake up from the vibration of her stomp and slam...I feel like a nut sometimes. I work at home, have music on and use a loud air purifier as a white noise machine. Also, I have double paned windows, but they don't do much, honestly. I still hear the wail of the high pitched dryer whirring at 11 pm next door, I'm in California and in a side by side duplex.... but hey it's way better than when I had neighbors above, below and next door. It was like having a rat underneath me and an elephant on top sitting on me! Isn't there a country where buildings are made much better??? and my landlords replaced the old stucco walls with drywall thinking it would be more soundproof... no! and with the cement courtyard it's like the whispering/wailing wall, it all travels... not to mention that when laundry is done below, my entire apt. smells like a toxic dryer ( my landlords think I am nutty-the last tenent didn't complain- well hey get this, I am not your last tenent.... Now it is a lovely neighborhood and I keep searching Craig's list for a new place... hasn't happened yet... I needed to vent here and share.. perhaps add a laugh to break the stress. It's just WRONG to live like this,
Own your space and run up and down like a nut, yell and scream, lick the walls, flip, dance and fall down on the floor. Enough said, I hear the mailman crashing the metal doors with delivery of mail. I wish you all peace in the midst of it all...pratayahara- having a relaxed response to outside influences (yogic practice.)

I'm looking to soundproof a bedroom in my rental apartment. I called Citiquiet and Cityproof -- they each quoted me around $900 per window! Not cheap, and something my landlord may not want.

I then looked into making a window plug - basically a big piece of plywood with some kind of sound deadening materials glued onto it. For my standard sized, pre-war window (3' x 5.5') this may turn out to be something like 70lbs. Not so easy or desirable to move each morning and night, and it may not work.

Does anyone have any ideas of a cheap, temporary fix to deaden noise through a window?

I've been researching methods for blocking noise from my downstairs neighbor and have read that "mass loaded vinyl" is the way to go. It is suppose to be very effective in blocking noise when one- or two-pound per square-foot MLV is used as a carpet pad, particularly if the entire floor is covered. However, I have hardwood floors and it would be a shame to have to cover the entire surface (simply because no builder on the planet thought of - or gave a damn about - the noise factor when constructing apartments).

Does anyone know how much of the downstairs noise would be blocked if 80 percent of the floor surface were covered by MLV and a rug? Is two-pound psf MLV that much more effective than one-pound psf MLV? And does anyone know what type of store carries MLV?

Thanks to all in advance for any assistance or referrals.

In regard to the cretinous, inconsiderate piano players: Wouldn't it be a grand pleasure to insert four or five M-80's inside the cabinet of those pesky pianos and light the fuses?! (Remember to take cover before they deploy!!!) A dream of mine!!!

Impact noise or footfall sucks I live with it everyday. I am working on a solution. I will remove my ceiling and using drywall and a product called Green Glue I will screw directly to the underside of my neigbors floor. The Green Glue will covert the noise and vibration to heat. I will the finish the ceiling with a double layer of drywall with Green Glue. This should reduce the noise greatly.

http://soundproofingwithdave.com

I had to laugh reading through, it was like thank God I am not going insane. We live in London, and yes literally on top of each other in small apartments. We have a mad old lady above us who is deaf in one ear and suffers from the tremors and takes great offensive when being accused of having the TV up loud and stomping around. I know about her entire life and have to hear about all the gossip about the family as she yells down the phone to people. The worst is the vile language that comes out of her mouth - her knew old folks talked like that! To make matters worse we installed sound proofing at our expense to the kitchen, she has now removed it and put down lino (yuk) so now its like having a disco above our dining room. We are about to try sound proofing the ceiling - there are numerous products available in the UK. At the end of the day is it not time that law changed to protect us lot who require privacy, peace and quiet.

I am the "noisy" neighbor. I was putting my new IKEA bed together at 7 pm on a Sat. night and the guy downstairs came up. Before he could say anything, I said Oh hi, I'm putting furniture together. He said that for the past 3 weeks, the noise has been very bad - things dropping on the floor all the time and waking them up in the middle of the night. Weeknights and weekends. He's complained before - the last time he said that my 6 and 10 pound cats were keeping him up all night. The time before that, I was walking too hard. I am not overweight and I don't wear shoes in the apt. This time he said it was stuff dropping all the time (???huh??) He's not mean or snotty about it, but it does make me literally want to walk on eggshells in my apt. He mentioned other neighbors that people were complaining about and they had to put down carpeting. I have hardwood floors in a pre-war Brooklyn building. He said the noise is coming from between the (L-shaped) hallway and the living room. I have a big area rug in the l.r. so that seems to have that sitch in check. Funny as hell - he never complains about my home theatre system (which I never blast, but sometimes swelling movie soundtracks need to be turned down!) I've lived in this building for 13 years - 10 of those years my daughter lived with me - and together we are not quiet little gals - and nobody ever complained until this guy moved in. BTW, his wife is the bldg. manager - she never says anything. Sorry to be long-winded, but I think I want to put a Pergo floor in the hallway because I HATE carpet and I don't think I'm doing anything crazy in my apartment!! I heard it's a good soundproofer. Plus it looks nice. Any thoughts?

hello, I am having a footfall noise problem from upstair. After I did some research in the website, I would like to do the drop a double layerd ceiling with green grue hanged with RSIC clips. And I guess I should fill the space between ceilings with some insulation. First of all, is this the best sound proof to deal with footfall noise from upstair?

Secondly, can you recommend some good contractor who has done this type of work before with reasonable rate in New York City. I am living in jackson Heights, by the way.

I have a great suggestion; and nope, I don't work for the company I am going to tell you about. I just feel for people with noisy neighbors and want to help. I have very noisy neighbors downstairs and I purchased heavy duty sound machines - called Sonet QT Voice Privacy. They are expensive, but to me they were worth every penny. They are excellent in blocking out voices, screaming, dogs barking, babies crying, TV's and music. I would have had to move if not for these machines. Now I go to bed and simply say "aaahhh" and fall asleep. The machines sound like air conditioning and nobody even noticed it when they walked in my apartment; they simply thought the A/C was on. It also comes with a knob to adjust the volume. The only thing they do not block is stomping noises; because you're dealing with vibrations with footfall; however it does help to drown it out a bit but not completely.

http://www.speechprivacysystems.com/pages/Sonet_Home

Mary, if the neighbors' dog is barking incessantly and has no access to food or water, then that means it's time to call Animal Control. They won't remove the animal (unless it's in danger, clearly the victim of abuse, etc.), but they will leave a Notice to Comply (I think that's what it's called) on the front door. Then they check again in one or two days to make sure the circumstances have changed.

And, by the way, you can make your complaint call anonymously - just be sure you get the neighbors' street address correct.

These posts are all pretty funny (albeit horrible for the victims) I actually live in a loft apartment above a barn. That's right a BARN with 6 horses, 8 cats, three dogs, and two rabbits, oh and there is a pond in the woods outside with buzzing insects and FROGS! The singing frogs in spring I don't even notice unless I think about it and realize they are quite constant. But every time I have guests over they freak out and almost get scarred because of the loud and constant noises the horses and sometimes cats make. I don't even notice anymore, I guess the horse noises have become their own form of white noise to me. It's just entertaining to see friends faces withing the first few minutes of being in my apartment when a kick or stomp shakes the whole floor.

Hi, I'm "that" upstairs neighbor that has "that" sex at late hours of the night and frequently in the night - above my neighbors bedroom. Fortunately for my neighbors, its not daily because "he's" not in town all that much, unfortantely for me. I need suggestions on how to quiet the bed noises, I'm looking into purchasing a more sturdy bed and want to spend my money right...to hopefully quiet the bed noises. Right now, I have a heavy duty metal bedframe with quiet leather headboard and know that metal bedframes have to be tightened all the time which is a pain to do... cuz I'm a single gal. Can anyone suggest the right kind of bedframe ? platform bed base on top of carpet? woodframed bed? Not sure which way to go with this.. I seriously want to quiet the noise because I'm not looking to bother the neighbors but still want to feel free to have a great time when he's in town.

Re: constantly tightening your metal bedframe. Put Loctite on the bolts and then re-tighten them. this should keep them in place. Make sure you use the BLUE Loctite and NOT the red. The red is permanent and will make it almost impossible to remove the bolts in the future.

The blue Loctite is what you want.