apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the noise on my avenue is so heinous that to have a phone conversation for work i have to go into the bathroom and close the door!

i've long been used to the garbage trucks at 3am and the bus going back and forth all night, since i live on a main drag and my apartment faces the street. it is what it is, but i swear...i lived in colorado for five years and i NEVER got used to the silence. i would invent sounds in the night and get scared ahah - i much prefer the garbage trucks! :)

I also dream of a quiet bedroom. My problem is street noise and noisy neighbors on the other side of a common wall. For the common wall I added a second layer of drywall with a product called Greenglue. It seems to be working pretty well.

For the street noise I have not solved that problem yet. I am considering hotel style noise reducing curtains. Have you tried them?

Total silence here... sound-proofed walls are the one element the builders of this place got right, and we look out on a street rarely used by cars.

I kind of miss the 5 a.m. garbage pick-up we had in SF, as it's way too easy to oversleep here... but I do NOT miss the pimp-and-ho shout-offs on O'Farrell St. or the every-three-minutes bus litany of "38 Geary - Transbay Terminal."

I'm in the back of my building, facing another residential street. It's relatively quiet for New York. I do, however, hear the 7 train rattling by at all hours, though it is several blocks away. In my old place in Manhattan, I lived above a couple that had loud screaming matches at all hours of the night. They'd play music to cover it. I don't miss them at all.

i don't know what i'd do without the white noise of my fan going all night. it drowns out street noise pretty well and lulls me to sleep. when i stay over my friend's, he plays ambient music all night long, which works well too and is a nice way to ease into the day.

what is that in the picture?

I get the groundskeepers every Sunday, late in the morning, and my upstairs neighbor walking across her tile floors, or any of the upstairs neighbors bounding up and down the steps. Unless they're in block heels, though, I mostly tune it out. Sometimes, they seem to drag furniture across their condo floors.

oh yeah, i totally ditto the white noise of the fan. even though it's overpowered by street noise, it's still a necessity for me!

I live on a major two-way street and between the bus stop right outside my window, fire engines, garbage trucks and the Fresh Direct deliveries...some nights/early mornings it is impossible to sleep.

I run the air conditioner a lot, have a white noise machine and will also use ear plugs. The worst is that time when you have just fallen soundly asleep and 92 fire trucks come screaming down the street with sirens and horns going full blast!

when i lived by astor and broadway i did not sleep through the night for almost two years because of glass recycling!

i currently live in a relatively quiet studio but could not do without the use of my air purifier, mostly for the purpose of white noise to block out street noise. we have the Vornado VAQS35 and have found that setting 3 provides the perfect amount of white noise that provides a soothing rhythm to help us sleep, with the added benefit of a Hepa filter. best $200 we have spent on a home item.

I can tell to the penny how much change the upstairs neighbor places on the counter.

That isn't as bad as the old single pane windows. They don't block much noise at all.

I moved to a great 1 bedroom in harlem about a month ago on 117th and Manhattan Ave. The actual unit is fantastic - 14' high ceilings, lovely renovation, and the rent is ridiculously low. The problem is that it's a ground floor corner apartment and I am regularly shoo-ing away people at all hours who seem compelled to chat RIGHT outside my bedroom and living room windows. I have blackout shades that lower from the top and raise from the bottom - the bottom part is always lowered so maybe they don't realize that someone actually lives on the other side of the windows. or maybe they dont care. I am going to ask the building mgmt to post a "no loitering" sign on the outside of the building (that I am willing to pay for) to deter people. Trying to be optimistic that a) they will agree to post it, and b) it will actually work.

ADDITIONALLY, i just met my upstairs neighbor who tells me his brother is, wait for it... "crazy with his gymnastics". As if it were perfectly normal for somone living in a NY apartment TO DO GYMNASTICS. WHO DOES THIS????? i wrote a note asking them to stop, at least in the evenings, but so far the results have been lukewarm.

should I just shut up and stop complaining because my rent is under $1000? Honestly not sure its worth the sacrifice.

We live in Berkeley on a little one block street at the back of a deep lot with no shared walls. It's a very quiet place and this is what sold us on moving in - we were desperate after sharing walls with neighbors who had drunken arguments and slammed doors all night, every night. Unfortunately, right after we moved in we discovered that the neighbor behind us has a rooster so we get a 4:00am wakeup call every day. We immediately checked with the city, and yep, it's allowed. Only in Berkeley...

Our old apt was on the corner of Flatbush Ave in brooklyn so it was definitely very noisy at all hours of the day and night. Thankfully, we have since moved across the street but our unit faces the back of the building. We now get to hear the Q train go past but I really don't mind it when I do notice it at all. It sounds like a low rumble of thunder which trust me, is much preferred over the fire engines, bus horns, reggae music, and people yelling and screaming at 3am. I also use a small fan in the bedroom because I love the white noise. If its too quiet I have trouble falling asleep!

i live a few blocks from a hospital, so i'm often awakened by sirens in the spring and summer when the window are lifted. i'm used to it though, so i can usually go right back to sleep. suprisingly the old windows in my house are nearly sound proof. in the winter, i use a small fan to mask the near silence.

i'm seriously considering dropping the cash to have my common wall soundproofed!

i go to bed with my Sleep mate white noise machine on and ear plugs in due to the traffic.

but like steph309 it's a small price to pay considering i own and pay less than $800/month for my own apt in the Lower East Side!

oh, and during the day if i'm home (like today) i just wear my ear plugs from time to time cuz i like absolute silence.. not so much out of dire necessity.

Here's a maybe not so unique problem: I own a 75lb, deaf English Bulldog that as all English Bulldogs do he snores. Unfortunately he's deaf so he doesn't wake himself up. If he sleeps on the floor, my neighbor underdeath us can hear him snore. So gave him his own clubchair to sleep in. Unfortunately it raises him up to my level so it wakes me up all night. Give me a Garbage truck anyday!

We're actually moving because of noise problems. We stupidly rented an apartment on a commercial street.... across from a bar and strip club. Charming. Let's just say the apartment is VERY nice and very huge, and totally blinded us. Our bedroom also faces the street.

This past summer the bar started doing karaoke every Thursday night. Oh did I mention that the bar is predominantly french, so not only is it karaoke, it's literally Love Shack/Like a Virgin with a drunk french Canadian accent (not to bash francos, just sayin' no one's going "wow, you sound so much like the real song!). Oh and they have a patio too.

The karaoke mixed with bouncers constantly kicking the shit out of drunk strip club patrons has put us over the deep end. What the hell were we thinking?! (did I mention the apartment is really nice...and big?). We just looked at a new apt. this weekend. It's in the back corner of the building, with vines covering the windows, perfect..

Any street noise is relatively isolated in my apartment--it's on a very residential street. I do hear the bus, and traffic, and garbage trucks, and police helicopters but I don't find it disturbing. What's been the bane of my existence lately is my downstairs neighbor's bedroom "activities." Even with a new rug/padding, ear plugs, and a fan running for white noise. I mentioned it gently in a note about a week ago and haven't had any problems recently, but it was pretty ridiculous for awhile.

Oh I also remembered this, it's the most ridiculous thing yet...
For awhile we had a neighbour, a girl who we thought perhaps worked across the street at the strip club, based on her style of dress, and "working" hours. Then we realized she was filming PORN next door when guys kept bringing in all sorts of weird film equipment and moving all kinds of furniture in and out and she was constantly walking around in high heels. At the same time, my dad was visiting and sleeping on the couch. One day he mentioned at breakfast "your neighbour, she's kind of a screamer hey? ". Yikes.

Angie that is hilarious. I think you have paid your dues and karma will reward you will a blissfully quiet apartment. best of luck!

You people should move to California. People loitering outside your windows talking? Shouting matches in the middle of the night? Gymnastics? Porn filming? French Karaoke? Oy Vey. The worse thing I have to put up with is sometimes when I leave the window open I can hear birds, in some nearby palm trees, singing. I find it strange that birds would sing at night but I suspect it's because the nights are warm here.

From now on when I hear birds singing at night I'll roll over and think, well, it's not French Karaoke.

My bedroom window (well all the windows to the apartment) face the front of the street and I live across from an elementary school. So every morning I hear the freakin' buses drive up and idle for God knows how long. Then I can hear the screaming kids when I am working from home in the afternoon as they are getting picked up (and the buses too). Really makes me want to not have kids....those moneyeaters.

n2denim, your comment is hilarious!
My bedroom windows face a busy street with a bus stop directly outside. At first the sounds of the bus-especially the beeping as the doors open-drove me crazy, but now I hardly notice. I sleep with an air filter every night, and the white noise it creates helps a lot.

steph309 - thanks, I hope so...

We actually got out of bed one night, went up on our roof and threw eggs at some of the "bar people" who were fighting outside (and then promptly hid). It was INCREDIBLY satisfying, I recommend it. We also threw water balloons at some loud teenagers once. And no, we are not actually 18. We are 27 and 33, the noise brings out the immature/desperate side of us I guess.

Me and my husband's old bedroom was connected to the neighbor's childrens bedroom (which also has wood floors). It got so bad that I had to move our bedroom into the guest bedroom just to lower the sound of 3 stomping, screaming, kicking children. One day I will live in a home that has a quite bedroom....ONE DAY!

OOps! I meant quiet....Angie in Montreal.....I feel your pain...we've resorted to kicking back whenever the kids start doing it...

I've been woken up lately by construction of a new house a few doors down. It's not so much the noise that wakes me (way up north in Vancouver, BC we sleep with our windows closed in February) but the shaking. The excavator makes my whole house shudder. I just hope they finish the foundation soon...

You guys have me rolling on the floor laughing!! ....(Gee, I hope I'm not disturbing my neighbors! ;-)

I live in an apartment that is situated across the street from a nursing home, a block west of the fire station and up the hill from 2 - count them - 2 large hospitals ... and on a notorious strip of road known as a "speed trap" for the cops. Needless to say, it seems my building is the preferred point to start up with the sirens for ALL emergency vehicles!

On top of that, my upstairs neighbors have jam sessions until 11pm or later at night (and play the drums very ill ) , and the only rhythmetic sound coming from upstairs was when one night I awoke to sound of my neighbor upstairs - SNORing !!! thank you very much.

The boiler in the basement growls whenever it choses (I tell visitors its just the monster that lives down there) and my steamheat radiators play cadences to beat "Stomp's" performances any time the temperature dips a degree or two.

The only other sound that is more disturbing than the usual cacophony, are the periods of deafening silence that may actually occur every now or then....

.... I Just Love apartment living.....

When we first moved to Rome from NYC, we lived in an apartment complex that was so removed from the center of the city that I got spooked by the silence. Outside one could catch the very occasional city bus to go to the center. Very sweet but nosy neighbors commented about our bicycling habit and mixed marriage (asian and italian).
Years later we bought a place in what is considered the Bronx of Rome. Here there are motorcyclists who thunder past, 7 garbage "bidoni" across the street that call for garbage trucks to come at all hours, an airport very near by so that loud, low flying planes fly overhead, a family of Rom who also like to dance and sing karaoke "all' aria aperta", and new throngs of immigrants (like us!) walking the streets. ...We couldn't be happier.

Angie,
I have fantasized many a time of throwing eggs and water balloons at people. I think we would be fast friends.

I neglected to mention that years ago I lived in tiny studio on the LES directly above what used to be Ludlow Bar (I think its something else now but my living there caused me hate everything about the LES and I havent been in years. no offense to LES'ers). The DJ played every night until 4am and I could recite his playlist to you still. I slept with those bright orange, industrial, construction earplugs every night for 2 years. I think thats why I'm so neurotic about having quiet now - I paid my dues and then some.

I have to say, I was feeling sorry for myself until I read about what other people put up with. I don't want to say I'm glad they're all suffering too, but at least I fell like I'm not the only one.

The sad thing is that I live in the suburbs of a medium-sized city in Oregon, and there's still far too much noise in my neighborhood.

After we moved into our house, an Albertsons grocery store was built on the empty piece of land that butts up against the end of our dead-end street. So, now we enjoy the sounds of delivery trucks, trash compactors, teenagers using the parking lot as a drag strip, and, my personal favorite, the sweeper truck endlessly circling the parking lot in the wee hours of the morning.

If that wasn't enough, our lovely next-door neighbors like to smoke, yell obscenities at one another, scream at the dog, slam car doors, etc. right outside my bedroom window from approx. 10 pm until 2 am. Of course, they're dead quiet all day while I'm at work, but, at bedtime, all hell breaks loose.

It's not as bad in the winter, but, in our climate, I like to have my bedroom windows cracked, if not completely open, from late spring through the fall. It is not pleasant to be wakened from a peaceful slumber to the sound of a metal dumpster lid crashing down.

Someday, if all goes according to plan, I will own at least 20 acres of lovely Oregon soil with my house smack-dab in the middle. Noise? Just frogs, songbirds, and the wind in the trees...

.... be careful Teresa, too many weeks of quietudeness may send you running screamingly to the nearest city to hear the very human noisiosity you thought you wanted to escape! ;-)

Oh god. This is making me seriously reconsidering moving on top of a small scale grocery/fruit shop. The unit is too good to be true, and perhaps we will have to pay for the beauty of it in the long run.

Once we had upstairs neighbors with a five year old who liked to run. She would wake up at 7 am and started running across the living room and back and forth... She would only stop for meals and poo time. The whole experience pretty much scarred me enough to decide not to have no kids. Thank god they moved after five months.

My place is basically a concrete bunker. I can hear the grumbling of freight trains staging outside the building.

Believe it or not the only noise that bothers me is the tap, tap, tap of heeled boots on the other side of the common wall. I guess my neighbor discovered the achilles' heel of my condo.

But why? Don't people take their shoes off? Screw shoes. Don't people take their boots off in the winter?

I would really like to say something but I don't want to offend my neighbor.

We too were ready to jump out our bedroom window till we splurged on a Citiquiet window - it's an additional window added to the interior of the existing window - and the difference is UNBELIEVABLE. Pricey, but worth every penny if you want to cut out practically all street noise: www.citiquiet.com