Apartment neighbors on both sides of me have these very LOUD home entertainment systems. Any advice?

Question

These are those subwoofer systems. They both play these EXTREMELY loud movies with explosions. Movies like Independence Day or Saving Private Ryan. Every night. It sounds exactly like the volume of a movie theater. It goes through the wall like the wall was made of paper. I already nicely asked one of the neighbors to keep it down. It stopped for 2 weeks and now it is right back up to the same level. I could swear it is even louder now. It goes on pretty late too. What can I do about neighbors who just don't care. My apartment complex is notorious for doing nothing about noise complaints. That is actually one of the reasons why we moved to a new unit. They wouldn't do anything about out previous noisy neighbors. The cops here won't do anything unless they can hear the noise from outside and 100 feet away. The OUTSIDE walls are pure concrete. Therefore, they didn't do anything. I feel STUCK and defenseless! What can I do???!!!

Just to give you an idea of how loud it is... we live in Florida and sometimes we can't tell whether it is a loud Florida thunderstorm or our neighbors! It is at the volume of loud thunder.

Answer 1

Man, that's a "toughie"... As you can see from the range of answers you're getting, there seem to be as many different apporaches as there are different temperaments out there.

HERE'S MY ADVICE:
When trying to understand the plight of another, there's nothing better than putting yourself in their shoes. Since the proverbial shoe happens to be on your foot to begin with, I suggest the following steps:

1. In the nicest way possible, chat your neighbor up - this would be best done at the laundry or by the pool or getting the mail, NOT when they're in the middle of one of their too-loud movies when your knock on the door would only be a royal annoyance (nevermind the fact that THEY are the REAL annoyance!)

2. Ask them for help with a difficult situation, the noise "issue" (don't call it a "problem" - no one likes to feel as if they're one.)
In the spirit of "can't we all just get along?" ask if they could come to your apartment at their earliest convenience, offer them a nice beverage, and see if they'd be willing to let an action movie run on their system and come back over to finish their beverage. When they come back, have your laptop open or be reading a magazine, or have some nice music on low - not for any romantic effect, but so they get the subliminal idea that other life is going on around them at the same time they're all up in their "entertainment experience."

3. Ask them to listen and then you be quiet for a moment - let them say whether they think its a bit loud or not - try not to pose the question yourself. If you rely on thier basic decency, it will work wonders, but if you force the issue...watch out, it could even backfire on you. SO MUCH DEPENDS ON YOUR ATTITUDE ABOUT THE WHOLE THING. You've heard the expression, "Its easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar"? Never more true than in this circumstance.

4. IF ALL ELSE FAILS: Yeah, moving is a horrible, but sure fire option...BUT you've got one more possibility before that: Slip an ad or an online printout for some badass headphones under their door. They'll get the message, and maybe even give it a try.

Getting any of these to work with one neighbor will give you that much more ammo to go after the other neighbor...start with the nicer people first though.

Your situation is not uncommon, and is one sign of the fact that many people are completely self-involved and haven't got a clue about anything or anyone outside of their own need-tunnel. Imagine though how sad it must be to have one's head so firmly jammed up the dark place as to not understand or care what your next door neighbor might be experiencing... You are at least blessed with some perspective.

P.S. Hanging a layer of sheet-rock "won't do sheet." Low frequencies (subwoofers) go through that like butter. Only an air-gap and some thick insulation, like the building codes for condos and townhouses can ameliorate that issue effectively.

Answer 2

Sure, you can beat the walls with a broom, yell at them in the hallways, and blast your own sound system... For all the good it will do. Most likely they will just turn the volume up to "get back" at you for being a jerk... and eventually some fights might errupt. Real effective...

Your neighbors have their lifestyles, which involve loud movies. You have yours. The only way to change someone else's lifestyle is to become a part of it. You could try buddying up with the neighbors and seeing their movies, or maybe sharing some sappy, less explosive movies that they might start watching more often. Sure, you could, but that's not going to really happen, is it?

If the managers won't do anything, ask them about thickening the walls up. You'll be surprises what another layer of drywall can do to cut down the sound.

If the managers are really careless, you might be able to slip these in without telling them, and do it yourself. In most areas It will be difficult to slip in several boards of dywall, new baseboards, drywall screws, a studfinder, a power screwdriver, drywall tape, stucco, and paint... but in some areas, you can charge the renovation to your landlord. The hard part is getting the drywall up in the right spot, and finding the studs to screw it in. After that all you do is tape, stucco, and paint, then for some strange reason, your appartment feels as quiet as a crypt.


If that's a no go, consider decorating with thick quilt hangings, really thick picture frames, and lots of book cases full of thick books. These can all dampen the sound to some degree. The books do the best job. You can also stick cardboard or styrofoam board behind whatever furniture and pictures you already have against the walls.

A canopy bed with thick velvet curtains can also help when you're sleeping, but those tend to get rather hot.

You might also look into sound damping headphones, and a little soft music while you sleep if it gets too bad. That will involve a bit of a change in your routine of course.

Answer 3

Loud Apartment Neighbors

Answer 4

Heh. I've dealt with this one before... Here's what you do if complaining to the landlord or calling the police and asking them to enforce any noise ordinances don't work.

Buy yourself a cheap CB radio from Wal-Mart or Radio Shack-The cheaper, the better. Buy a no-frills "back of the set" antenna for it and screw it on the connector on the back.
Connect the power leads to a car battery or a 12 power converter. Tune the CB to any channel and put a rubber band around the microphone's push-to-talk switch and place the mic near your TV or any other good noise source and let the RF splatter and harmonics play holy hell with your neighbors' amplifiers/speakers, etc.

The back of set antenna is not properly tuned for effective transmitting on CB frequencies and is only meant for receiving purposes, so when you transmit on it-it'll generate all kinds of harmonic interference (TVI/RFI, etc.). It'l effectively jam any TV reception (cable or not) by turning the TV coax cable shield braid into what is called an "unintentional radiator" causing video and audio interference of the worst kind.
It'll more than likely also turn other appliances that were never intended to be radio receivers into just that! Hair dryers, toasters, fan motors, air conditioners, those little ground-fault circuit breakers on handheld appliances go crazy in the presence of RF!
You'll be saturating them both with continuous RF interference-YOUR appliances may be affected as well, so when they're using their equipment, unplug your appliances (except for the CB) and take a nap or read a good book while the mic's key is fixed down. You don't have to worry about interfering with the actual users of the CB service because the back of set antenna is incapable of any real, effective transmit range other than a few yards.

Do this for a week and they'll be scrapping their equipment, almost guaranteed. Most A/V gear that isn't very top-of-the-line isn't shielded well or at all against RF interference and in fact the FCC says that that kind of equipment HAS to accept any harmful interference!

Leave dem have it, Muggsy!

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Answer 5

Hi. I understand what you are going through.That is one of the reasons i am against using subwoofers in a home theater system. The very low soundwaves generated by subs need very large rooms to develop.Most rooms are just too small for a sub .But that does not stop people from getting them.For a sub to produce a 20 hz note properly you need a room about 56 feet long.to hear one full note.To hear half that note you need a room about 28 feet long .If the room is less than 28 feet the 20 hz note will not develop enough and end up bouncing between adjacent walls to cause standing waves which reinforce each other to create a booming sound in different parts of the room and transmit their energy through thin walls into adjacent rooms .The only solution if you don't want to move and have issues with your noisy neighbours is to install soundproofing especially designed to absorb low frequency sound transmission through walls and ceilings. I don't know how much it will cost but i think it is the best solution.

Here is a link about how to soundproof low frequency vibrations. I hope this helps.

http://www.asc-soundproof.com/iso-hometheater.htm

Answer 6

you got some options:
1. move out to another community, and check your neighbors + your contract
2. get earplugs
3. do something nasty to them to make their life harder, maybe wake up in the morning (6 am) and start "hanging pictures" on the wall adjacent to your stupid neighbors so they will wake up from the banging on their wall, steal their mail, scratch their car, call the cops and tell them you can smell weed coming out of their apartment, find out their name and subscribe them to some magazine since you already know their address, etc. (check online for nasty things you can do to your neighbor, i'm sure there are websites/forums)
4. ask to move to another unit in your apartment complex

hope this helps a bit :)

Answer 7

Get a huge welder and hook it up to the nearest circuit and inject a lot of noise with it on!!

Also a 5 a.m. wake up with classical music would be a great idea since they don't care.

Answer 8

I'd buy my own and blast it even louder.......

It may not be the most mature way to handle it, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Maybe after awhile they'll get the message.

Update: I like The Manic's idea better. I should have thought about it and it seriously can be done as he instructed. Maybe you can even get their equipment out of the trash after they trash it because they think it's broken. frickin hysterical!

weeder

Answer 9

Krell KAV400XIB

http://www.tweeter.com/product/KAV400XIB.asp



MartinLogan Vantage Floorstanding Speaker

http://www.tweeter.com/product/VANTAGEDC.asp

now show them who's boss!