Apartments

[DrFaroohk]

Not sure where this really belongs, but I suppose "social woes" is the best since it involves dealing with people.

So picture an apartment building. Multiple floors. There comes the situation where the guy on the top floor is annoying the guy on the bottom floor. He's not throwing parties or doing step aerobics, its just the general walking around, the shower, washing machine type noises.

So the question is: Should the guy on the top floor be extra quiet, because he has to remember he has neighbors below him, or should the guy on the bottom floor just accept the fact that someone lives above him and he's not going away?

[Rageaholic]

The way I see it, if the guy on the top floor is just moving around, he's doing nothing wrong. I could see where it would be annoying, but in that case, the only way to ensure peace and quite would be to make a bunch of restrictive rules that would be more annoying than the people moving around. Perhaps he could be told to not be so loud, but I don't see what else could be done without being overly restrictive.

[HYHYBT]

Should the guy on the top floor be extra quiet, because he has to remember he has neighbors below him, or should the guy on the bottom floor just accept the fact that someone lives above him and he's not going away?

A bit of both, especially if you have different sleep schedules. (and, ideally, a third: apartment owners could easily make better floors!)

[muses_nightmare]

As someone who's dealt with bitchy downstairs neigbours, I think it really depends on what the upstairs neighbour is doing. I had neighbours that complained when I showered, every single time I showered. It was rather ridiculous. They complained about every footstep basically.

Everyday activity isn't a reason to complain, unless your neighbour is stomping around, or generally being louder than normal daily activity would be. Especially with showering, you can't really quiet that kind of stuff down.

[KellyHabersham]

I have mixed feelings on this one, as I've been in the position of being the upstairs neighbor who was "making too much noise" - shortly after I upgraded to an upstairs one-bedroom place, one of my then-downstairs neighbors knocked on my door one afternoon with a complaint about how they could hear me walking around. And apparently this woman had been woken up at 2 am that morning by someone stomping around to the point where the dishes in her kitchen cupboard were rattling.

What made this really frustrating is that I had been asleep at that time, nobody else was in my apartment, but I had no way to prove that.......and while my neighbor wasn't nasty about it, from that point on, I did NOT feel comfortable moving around in my apartment. (they moved out that fall, and I've never heard similiar complaints from my current downstairs neighbors)

[muses_nightmare]

I also forgot to mention that I'm currently on the bottom floor of my building. I've never bothered to complain about my neighbours, though they have been stomping on the floor loud at times (I think they have kids, or a heard of elephants either or), and they like to slam their sliding door shut. We've dealt with worse though when we were on an upper floor, our downstairs neighbours used to play loud bass heavy music at all hours, and have huge parties, they smashed their sliding glass door twice, and they weren't kicked out. We did complain about them, so did other neighbours. So it can go both ways, top to bottom or bottom to top. (they also made it so we couldn't open our windows because they were smoking up so much).


God I can't wait until I'm not in an apartment.

[DrFaroohk]

My downstairs neighbor was an old "vietnam vet", (you know, the kind that are always talking about it!) and he got upset at just everyday sounds. Granted, we lived on slightly different schedules too, but as some people love to say "that's just life." I shouldn't have to tiptoe around in my own house, nor adjust my daily life to suit his needs. if he's got "ptsd" or some other made up bullshit, he should have known not to live in an apartment building.

[Plaidman]

Really depends on what kind of sounds your doing. If your stomping around, screaming, can't control your kids from screaming, then no kidding that guy will have flash back.

Sure he could move, but hey, maybe that place is the only place he can afford? Maybe there are no other places to go to.

When it's a personal choice that someone makes, it's just assholery.


Your quote. If you choose to be an asshole, then that just not being fair to the guy below, or does that only apply when someone being a jerk to you?

[Cats]

Some floors do just transfer noise and vibration way too easily. Like in our house (which is only 30 years old), the good glassware in the hutch clinks together lightly every time someone steps in the room. It's not loud, but it is noticeable, but part of it is due to the fact that there's not much other background noise around that room.

If the upstairs neighbor isn't making any noise other than daily activities that we all do, then the downstairs people need to get a grip. The upstairs people all pay their rent too and have the right to live in their apartment without feeling like they have to walk on eggshells. Yes they should be considerate of the people below them, but they shouldn't be restricted from basic movement. Floors creak. Some more than others, but still. My house has some floors that creek, and the place is only about 30 years old, so it's not some ancient townhouse!

Our upstairs bathroom is right next to my bedroom, and the sink is literally on the other side of the wall from where the head of my bed is. The few days of the week I am home and possibly sleeping at the time, when they use it in the morning, it wakes me up and bugs the crap out of me. But you know what? I deal, because my parents have a right to use the bathroom to prepare for work just as much as I do.

[blas87]

The apartment I live in is very old. The floors and walls are either so old or designed so poorly that you can hear your neighbor's toilet flush if you are on the other side of the wall at the time.

As of this moment, I am stuck listening to my neighbor's surround sound jacked all the way up. For a moment, I thought it was storming outside, until I went out to smoke and heard nothing but vibrations coming from inside the building. This is beyond annoying.

I hate how every step I make annoys my neighbors, but they can make all the noise they want whenever they want.

[MaggieTheCat]

I hate how every step I make annoys my neighbors, but they can make all the noise they want whenever they want.

My brother had downstairs neighbors like that once. He and his girlfriend lived in an upper apartment and they're quiet people. They don't play loud music or TV, don't have big parties, don't dance or otherwise stomp around on their floors. But their downstairs neighbors were after them pretty much every week for all the racket they made. The "racket" being stuff like opening and closing their kitchen cabinets to get dishes out, and walking. One time, my brother was sitting at the table eating dinner. He scooted his chair back a little ways so he could get up, and as soon as he stood up, the downstairs neighbors slammed on their ceiling/brother's floor with something like a broom handle or something and screamed, "SHUT THE F*** UP!"

Meanwhile, the downstairs neighbors had two very young children who would scream and cry at all hours of the day and night. The adults would scream and yell at each other, often drunkenly, especially at times like 3am. They would slam doors open and shut, especially when they were fighting. They would play loud music and have parties in the middle of the night. My brother had to call the cops on them multiple times because he and his girlfriend couldn't sleep at night due to the noise below them.

Thankfully they got kicked out eventually, but it took a while...and multiple complaints were made against my brother by them before the apartment manager finally caught on that they were being the assholes. My brother had to go so far as to keep a journal of stuff he did throughout the day so that when management called up and said, "Your neighbors complained about the noise you were making at 6pm last night..." my brother could say, "I was making dinner, walking around the kitchen and opening the fridge/cupboards at that time."

[blas87]

Wow, that's so scarily similar to what happens to me.

I've gotten the "broom treatment" before from the old witch downstairs, once was because I was getting ready for work and I dropped my flat iron onto the bathroom floor. Sure, a little loud and unpleasant for 10:15 pm, but not ungodly loud.

That bitch has gotten after me for just about everything under the sun, and I work nights and am never there at night! She has had issues with every single one of my friends who has came over, even if we weren't even doing anything.

Meanwhile, I have had to switch from the bedroom to the couch to getting sleeping pills just to deal with her and my other idiot neighbors who are loud all day long while I try to sleep.

That woman slams her door and her cupboards and stomps around like an elephant, the psycho next door to me constantly forcefully rams his closet doors open and shut, and makes a habbit of stomping around and slamming his door every day he comes home......it sure is fun trying to sleep during the afternoon dealing with them.

That asshole next door once complained to my face about my bedframe smacking against his wall.....sure it's annoying but it happened once or twice, I bit my lip to avoid saying anything about all the stuff he does that's loud, I even started spending my weekends at my bf's place to avoid neighbor issues at night, and they all STILL are as loud as they please.

[DrFaroohk]

Your quote. If you choose to be an asshole, then that just not being fair to the guy below, or does that only apply when someone being a jerk to you?

Unlike most people, I always follow my own rules, even when inconvenient for me.

To clear up a bit....."assholery" would be doing stuff like aiming my guitar amp right into the floor and playing it as loud as I can....or purposefully stomping around to irritate him. Things like walking around, taking a shower, or doing my laundry are just things I need to do. Yeah, they're all loud too, but they're necessary evils. Same as closing my car door. I wouldn't slam it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make no noise at all either.

That's the price of living in an apartment. You have neighbors, sharing paper thin walls. and not everyone is going to be on the same schedule. I think it's accepted that when you move into an apartment there's going to be a certain amount of general noise. If you can't handle that, go build yourself a cabin out in the woods.

[McDreidel09]

Ugh. Dorm rooms are the same way. This past school year, my room mate and I had a neighbor that would yell at us for even laughing. Sure, it was at 9 pm, but the laughing lasted maybe 5 seconds. Quiet hours don't start until 11 and even then, we are still allowed to laugh.

Yet, she was always loud and screaming in the hallways and all that jazz.

[Kimmik]

I hated living in an apartment... I tend to be heavy footed because of a condition I have... I tend to stumble.. also do to my hearing there are days when I know my tv/video game/radio is loud...

The worse was when I was in my 20's and between migraines and hyperglycemia I would pass out. I had a neighbor that came running up pounding on my door one day when I had a fainting spell... my friend that was with me almost ripped his head off... Manager came running to see what the screaming was about and I came to in the middle of all this.. I will say I had an awesome apt manager cause she told the guy that he need to take a flying leap... as I was with in my rights and could not be evicted because I was disabled... and if he had a problem then he could give up his downstairs apt and let me move in it.

He moved out a short time later.. but I let a little old lady have the apt.. cause she was worse off and mostly deaf anywhoo..

Sometimes it is just not possible not to make any noise... now I am in a side by side duplex... and I love it.