USD
GBP
EUR
Question from a netizen:
The upstairs neighbors are making a lot of noise, so I mentioned it in the residents' group chat and asked if they could be a little quieter. It just annoyed them; they told me to move into a villa. Why are they so self-righteous about making noise? They keep telling people to move into villas-if they can afford that, why are they arguing with me here?
Netizen reply:
My downstairs neighbor, who has neurasthenia, always tells me to be quiet. Why should I?
Regarding noise issues in apartments, downstairs residents often complain about upstairs residents. Here, I'll share my experience as someone living upstairs. I live on a middle floor, and people live above, below, next to, and to the sides. Because it's a school district, almost every household has children, ranging from three to five people. My family has three, and the downstairs family has four. Both families have children of similar age, both girls. My child is outgoing but not mischievous. To provide some background, we are quite careful in our daily lives. From the time our child started crawling, we designated a specific play area for her, with all toys and activities confined to the playpen and crawling mat. When she started jumping, we consistently taught her not to play ball or jump around at home; she should jump on the sofa or bed. Occasionally, she gets excited and runs around a bit, but I immediately stop her . She's not the type to roughhouse at home. The soundproofing in this high-rise is poor, and we often hear various noises from our neighbors' homes. The first time: It started during the pandemic last year. The downstairs neighbor came to my door for the first time, saying that between 12:30 pm and 3 pm, someone upstairs was repeatedly dragging chairs and slamming windows. I carefully recalled that my family did not do that during that time period, so I explained to her in a friendly tone that we did not, and said that if we did do something similar, we would be careful with the noise.
The second time: The next day at the same time, the downstairs neighbor came to our door again with the same problem, saying that the noise from our dragging chairs was bothering them . I was a little confused because even if we weren't taking a nap, we were actually lying on the sofa or in the playpen with the children at midday, hardly moving around at all. But I still patiently explained to them. After this, I bought a lot of sound-dampening stickers and stuck them everywhere I could in the house , and I replaced all my slippers with cloth-soled ones (we used to have soft soles). I also became more mindful of my and my family's behavior.
The third time: Same time, same issue. This time she also mentioned the sound of my cooking, saying that their house is noisy whenever we get up . Me: ??? Completely speechless, and unable to explain further. I asked her to come to my house and check, even dragging a stool to see if there was any noise. She even checked my trash can. Afterwards, she herself felt strange and repeatedly said the sound was definitely from my house, believing I was doing it on purpose. She keeps coming up every few days, and I'm starting to have some lingering effects. Every afternoon around 3 or 4 pm, I feel like she'll knock on the door, and I listen intently every day to see if anyone is dragging stools. Before this, although we heard various noises in my house, we automatically filtered them out and didn't think it was a big problem. But after the downstairs neighbors came, I became extra vigilant about the noise. I'm very quiet at home every day. To be honest, this kind of life is quite stressful. We try our best to control our behavior, but every time I hear even a slightly loud noise, I get terrified.
The fourth time: Sure enough, the downstairs neighbor came up again two days later, knocked on the door, and I was taking a nap with my child. She said she heard me dragging chairs around inside. Although I was impatient, I could only patiently continue explaining. Sometimes on weekends we would take the child out to play, and when we came back I would text her to ask if she was still making noise. She said she had heard noise the whole time, and when I told her we weren't home, she actually thought I was lying. Anyway, whenever there was noise, she would text me to question me. Once, right at nine o'clock, she texted me to tell us to be quiet, saying we had been arguing for an hour. I was puzzled; my child was drinking milk in bed, my husband was telling her a story, and she chuckled a few times. This time I couldn't take it anymore, gave a long explanation, and then blocked her. After that, we installed a video doorbell and surveillance cameras, also to prove our innocence. But not long after, we heard the sound of a noise-making device at night. At first, we kept quiet, not wanting to escalate the conflict, thinking that as long as we didn't make any noise, everything would be fine. So we were even more careful, barely moving around the house except for essential activities. I was almost suffering from internal injuries from keeping so quiet. But the downstairs neighbors became increasingly unreasonable, making noise day and night, affecting my child as well. So I asked my husband to cut their power. They called the police, and the police came to mediate. We just wanted to live a normal life and didn't want to antagonize them. I asked them to record the times of the noise, and I provided them with our home security camera footage for comparison. But the downstairs neighbors didn't come to check. I thought we could finally return to normal life, but they continued their relentless noise. The continuous buzzing vibrations changed to intermittent thumping sounds, so loud they sounded like the walls were being smashed, and my child often cried from fright.
Now that things have progressed to this point, I've gone from being polite and courteous to being fiercely indignant. I'd like to ask everyone on the forum, what should I do in this situation? I don't want to get entangled with the person below, is there a simple solution?
Knowledge dissemination
Let's summarize the main points of the article first:
1. Mid-level, school district housing
2. There are two girls living upstairs.
3. The upstairs neighbors exercised restraint and bought soundproofing strips.
4. The downstairs neighbor is sensitive to hearing, easily angered and irritable.
5. The downstairs neighbor retaliated by using a device on the X-floor.
6. The upstairs neighbor used security cameras to prove their innocence, but the downstairs neighbor refused to view them.
Indeed, many noise problems in reality originate from upstairs neighbors. But if the noise from upstairs is simply due to daily life, and the downstairs neighbor complains, whose fault is it? In this case, the upstairs neighbors have clearly covered all their tables and chairs with soundproofing tape, regulated their children's behavior, and installed security cameras, fully cooperating with the downstairs neighbors and providing ample evidence that they are not making any noise. In such a situation, if the downstairs neighbor continues to complain, it becomes difficult to say whether the upstairs neighbor is at fault or should move to a villa.
Besides obsessing over the source of noise from upstairs, perhaps we should also address the root cause of the noise: the thickness of the floor slab.
Thin floor slab
8-10cm is the common floor slab thickness in my country, and the sound insulation effect of this thickness is predictable.
[Floor Soundproofing Renovation]
Construction method: foundation slab + shock-absorbing pads + flooring
Soundproofing is actually quite simple.
As long as every household does a good job of sound insulation and vibration reduction on the floor
This can reduce most of the noise.
Ceiling sound insulation and noise reduction
Construction method: Floor slab + sound insulation felt + keel + sound insulation cotton + sound insulation board
The only way to passively solve the problem of noise from upstairs is through the ceiling.
The only issues that can be changed at present are floor sound insulation and vibration reduction (of course, there is also ceiling sound insulation).
Therefore, if the people upstairs are already very restrained...
People downstairs should also try to control their emotions.
Please be considerate of the person upstairs.
For specific advice on soundproofing renovations, please contact us.