5 ms·

Having upstairs neighbors would drive me batty. I did it — once. Do they have better soundproofing or am I just too noise sensitive?

aaronblohowiak 9y ago
We know how to build pretty much soundproofed units; it is a matter of cost / priority.
- SlowBro 9y ago
  Do they do that in Paris? Or do they suffer there as well?
  - d3ckard 9y ago
    Not living in Paris, but in Poland we have similar living style. I don't understand a problem. Noise isolation is usually very good in modern apartments. I can organize a party, have 15 drunk people in my apartment talking loudly and after I go out and close the door I can't hear anything. We consider "noisy" a major quality flaw for the building.
    - dazc 9y ago
      Maybe you have a hearing problem?
      - sgift 9y ago
        Or maybe his home isn't a shack without noise isolation. We live in the 21 century. It's not magic to isolate apartments from each other.
        SlowBro 9y ago
        Now that I think about it, I work in a four story office building and of course I never ever hear anything from the other floors. The apartments where I was were old and cheap. Must not have been built with sound dampening in mind.
      - d3ckard 9y ago
        Quite the opposite. I have terrible sight, buy my hearing is very good. The building I live in is just very well isolated, but in most of the buildings you cannot hear your neighbours unless there is something pretty loud going on.
        hokus 9y ago
        And when they are that noisy it happens only 1 or 2 times per year at most. Give people a bit of room to have fun. If it is [much] more often they might get kicked out. Informing the neighbors or inviting them to the party also works. If you are really pushing it you buy them some flowers and ask if it wasn't to much trouble the day after. If you have a normal relationship asking if the neighbors can tune it down a bit shouldn't be a big deal either.
cylinder 9y ago
Move into a new high-rise built with a concrete structure and strict building code on noise. I have lived in two in different continents and never hear anything.
- fwgwgwgch 9y ago
  Which coubtry/state are those for people trying to find out food places to live?
  - cylinder 9y ago
    Well one was in NYC and the other in Sydney. NSW has a strict building code that requires acoustic testing (literally hitting the structure with a hammer and ensuring no sound passes through). I lived previously in a 100yr old brick walkup building in NYC. It was like my neighbors were all roommates in one house. That apartment almost drove me insane with the amount of neighbour noise I would hear at all times. Concrete really is such a fantastic building material and yet people want to build their houses out of timber for some reason.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Townhouses (side-by-side) rather than flats tend to solve this. You are your own upstairs neighbour.
closeparen 9y ago
If your building is tall enough to be steel and concrete instead of wood, this problem goes away.

aaronblohowiak 9y ago

We know how to build pretty much soundproofed units; it is a matter of cost / priority.

SlowBro 9y ago
Do they do that in Paris? Or do they suffer there as well?
- d3ckard 9y ago
  Not living in Paris, but in Poland we have similar living style. I don't understand a problem. Noise isolation is usually very good in modern apartments. I can organize a party, have 15 drunk people in my apartment talking loudly and after I go out and close the door I can't hear anything. We consider "noisy" a major quality flaw for the building.
  - dazc 9y ago
    Maybe you have a hearing problem?
    - sgift 9y ago
      Or maybe his home isn't a shack without noise isolation. We live in the 21 century. It's not magic to isolate apartments from each other.
      - SlowBro 9y ago
        Now that I think about it, I work in a four story office building and of course I never ever hear anything from the other floors. The apartments where I was were old and cheap. Must not have been built with sound dampening in mind.
    - d3ckard 9y ago
      Quite the opposite. I have terrible sight, buy my hearing is very good. The building I live in is just very well isolated, but in most of the buildings you cannot hear your neighbours unless there is something pretty loud going on.
      - hokus 9y ago
        And when they are that noisy it happens only 1 or 2 times per year at most. Give people a bit of room to have fun. If it is [much] more often they might get kicked out. Informing the neighbors or inviting them to the party also works. If you are really pushing it you buy them some flowers and ask if it wasn't to much trouble the day after. If you have a normal relationship asking if the neighbors can tune it down a bit shouldn't be a big deal either.

cylinder 9y ago

Move into a new high-rise built with a concrete structure and strict building code on noise. I have lived in two in different continents and never hear anything.

fwgwgwgch 9y ago
Which coubtry/state are those for people trying to find out food places to live?
- cylinder 9y ago
  Well one was in NYC and the other in Sydney. NSW has a strict building code that requires acoustic testing (literally hitting the structure with a hammer and ensuring no sound passes through). I lived previously in a 100yr old brick walkup building in NYC. It was like my neighbors were all roommates in one house. That apartment almost drove me insane with the amount of neighbour noise I would hear at all times. Concrete really is such a fantastic building material and yet people want to build their houses out of timber for some reason.

dredmorbius 9y ago

Townhouses (side-by-side) rather than flats tend to solve this. You are your own upstairs neighbour.

closeparen 9y ago

If your building is tall enough to be steel and concrete instead of wood, this problem goes away.