Poll: Apartments and Noise

[Psychedelic Spartan]

I don't actually live on a houseboat, but I put that down because its the closest thing to a house. On the other hand, after living in an apartment for 12 years, I can safely say people need to learn to be quiet. Ever try sleeping when your neighbors are blasting the TV at full volume? Not an easy thing, I'll tell you that.

 

[requisitename]

I've lived in apartments that were loud and some that were quiet. I prefer the quiet, obviously. Doesn't everyone unless they're the ones making the noise?

I realize that children are noisy creatures by nature, so I don't take too much notice of them. They're still learning how to act in EVERY situation.. it's easy for me to cut them slack. However, adults who're noisy at unreasonable hours.. it's hard to be civil, really. While a certain amount of noise is expected in communal living, people who're constantly loud are grating on the nerves. While I guess people technically have the right to be as loud as they want, I also have the right to tell management about their 3 a.m. parties every night of the week and the smell of weed coming from their apartment, call the cops on the drunks in the parking lot, and get their asses evicted after repeated warnings (from management, not me) to stop with the inconsiderate bullshit.

I've never taken matters into my own hands, though. It's not my style in a situation like that.

 

[Andothul]

I live in the student ghetto of my city.

Besides the constant drunk and or drugged out co eds in the halls at all hours of the night across the hall i have 3 of the loudest girls i have ever met
and next to us is a graduate couple that fights constantly sometimes throwing shit against the wall and then making love against the same said wall.
The other night we had a girl on ecstasy knocking on our door at 2 am looking for Charlie.

In the alley below my window there are constant couple fights, drug deals and drunk kids howling at the moon.

So yeah i feel your pain, Ive grown used to it tho to be honest. I actually sleep better with noise, i cant sleep with silence.

 

[lacktheknack]

As long as they aren't making major noise from 10 PM to 7 AM, I couldn't care less. Interfere with my sleep, though, AND THE RAGE OF A MILLION SUNS BURSTS FORTH.

 

[Phisi]

Since I am opposed to jerkdom, I think people should be quiet and try to make their activities as quiet as possible.

 

[Saulkar]

Sound proofing. That is all that is needed to solve our global apartment noise issues.

 

[El Dwarfio]

Thoughts? Am I TOO MEAN on this issue? Anyone agree with me? Or think I'm the worst neighbor ever?

Either man up and make a complaint to your tennant or man up and live with it, the escast can thelp you with this issue.

 

[direkiller]

Where do you guys fall on the issue of apartments, and the noisy motherfuckers who inhabit them? To what degree do you think people are obligated to keep it down? Are you of the opinion that life is fast paced and exciting, and loud noises are inevitable, and that people who complain are fussy old cranks trying to get in the way of your rich experiences? Or do you think that being a noisy neighbor should be punishable by death?

I tell ya, I've never been particularly forgiving of loud neighbors, but as I've gotten older, I've just gotten less and less tolerant. I honestly, truly believe that if you live in such a fashion that other people can readily hear what you're up to, you have a social and moral obligation to shut the fuck up as much as possible. Bassy music vibrating my floor or thumping away in my wall? Shut the fuck up. Loud arguments or television carrying through the walls? Shut the fuck up. Loud party going to 3AM, drunk conversations on balcony, keeping half the building awake? If I had a flaming bag of dog shit handy, it would be on its way to your balcony as we speak.

I had a downstairs neighbor for about a year...she was an aspiring concert pianist. This means piano practice for SEVEN TO TEN HOURS A DAY. Breakfast? You're eating to piano music. Dinner? Piano music. Sex? Time for some piano music. Watching a movie? I hope it goes nicely with piano music. She had the piano up against a wall, so we could hear it in every single room. And she'd play the same piece for weeks, months on end. The same 2-3 minute piece. Over, and over, and over, and over. Often repeating 10-15 second chunks for hours at a time. After asking her politely on several occasions to please stop and meeting profound resistance (But I HAVE to practice!) I just decided to wage war. Fortunately, she lived beneath me. Piano practice? Time for some stomping! I hope you like stomping! I'm going to leap back and forth to get a glass of water! Feeling sleepy? Stomping time! Middle of the night? Hey, I think I'd like to do some stomping. Naturally, diplomatic relations soured, and she eventually moved out. I feel sorry for whatever poor fucker has to live next to her now.

So yeah, really, that's how it goes. Play your music too much or for too long, have too many parties, force me to listen to "BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMPBUMPBUMP BUMP BUMP" for hours on end, and I'm going to ask nice once or twice, and then it's banging on walls and stomping on floors. That is universal apartment parlance for please shut the fuck up. I don't care if you think it's rude. It's drawing your attention to how INCREDIBLY ANNOYING repetitive, intrusive sound is.

Thoughts? Am I TOO MEAN on this issue? Anyone agree with me? Or think I'm the worst neighbor ever?

wait she didn't own a keyboard
i mean i understand owning a upright/babby grand(if you have the room) and playing it but geeze headset and keybord and you can do the same thing without disturbing anyone in a apartment setting.


although next time you want to wage apartment wars
http://www.robaid.com/gadgets/turn-any-flat-surface-into-a-sound-speaker-kerchoonz-k-box.htm
+
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS6-vI70oc0

for when you truly have to go nuclear

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Well I think they should be allowed to be noisy but shouldn't be dicks about it. If someone has to sleep in order to go to an extremely important Speech/exam/orgy/all-of-the-above, the next day then one night of being quiet won't kill you.

 

[Yopaz]

We shouldn't have to walk on eggshells in our own apartments, but then again we shouldn't be as noisy as we possibly can get. Being considerate is always the best option. Make some noise in the middle of the day, but that should be it. Don't make excessive noise and we're fine. If someone were to complain about me being noisy I would dial things down.

 

[VladG]

Fuck the noisy assholes. You have the right not to be disturbed in your own apartment. If the idiots can't keep it down, let them soundproof their apartment. This is common decency.

If common decency is something they think happens to other people, it's also illegal to make too much noise and bother your neighbors. Call the police 2-3 times on them and let's see how noisy they will be while paying the fines.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I had a downstairs neighbor for about a year...she was an aspiring concert pianist. This means piano practice for SEVEN TO TEN HOURS A DAY. Breakfast? You're eating to piano music. Dinner? Piano music. Sex? Time for some piano music. Watching a movie? I hope it goes nicely with piano music. She had the piano up against a wall, so we could hear it in every single room. And she'd play the same piece for weeks, months on end. The same 2-3 minute piece. Over, and over, and over, and over. Often repeating 10-15 second chunks for hours at a time. After asking her politely on several occasions to please stop and meeting profound resistance (But I HAVE to practice!) I just decided to wage war. Fortunately, she lived beneath me. Piano practice? Time for some stomping! I hope you like stomping! I'm going to leap back and forth to get a glass of water! Feeling sleepy? Stomping time! Middle of the night? Hey, I think I'd like to do some stomping. Naturally, diplomatic relations soured, and she eventually moved out. I feel sorry for whatever poor fucker has to live next to her now.

As a (strictly amateur) pianist for almost 30 years now...WTF? Unless it's one of those rare buildings that has solid concrete or brick interior walls (unusual but not completely unheard of, and they're awesome because you can't hear anything through them...but you also can't really run pipes/cables through them), what kind of asshole has a piano in an apartment building, especially when they're going to be using it that much of the day? It's not nearly as bad as a drum kit, but the sound still carries pretty well, and rehearsing for anything professional is mind-numbingly repetitive even if you're the one doing it, much less someone else having to listen to you. Go rent a practice space somewhere or use one at a music school or something and spare everyone else. I've always left my piano at my parents' house when living somewhere it's not appropriate to have one and only taken my bass with me to places like that...and used it either with the volume down or headphones on, or even just not plugged into the amp at all. Playing music is great and everything, but sometimes when you live in the city not being a dick takes precedence.

 

[Random Encounter]

I think there needs to be a mutual respect between neighbours when it comes to noise. I guess there are some circumstances where noise can't be avoided though.

 

[LetalisK]

I usually don't care as long as people keep their fucking ranchera music to themselves. That's one of the few things that will drive me up the wall.

 

[JochemHippie]

I have music on 24/7, I love my music and quite honestly if someone is bothered by it he shouldn't be living in a cheap apartment. I know that's easy to say, especially since many people can't afford a better apartment. Still I think I've done my part as long as I keep the volume down from 11pm to 7am, after that it will go up again.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I'm never loud, but I think people should be allowed to be as loud as they like. People CAN sleep through anything, they just like to complain about it. People shouldn't have to be quiet.

 

[SmilingWorlock]

Fuck noises. I think people should like, have to get a licensce before buying loud bass systems for their fucking dubstep electro shit. I mean seriously, I live on ground level, and I can still not sleep when the people 4 stories up have a party. AND THEY HAVE PARTIES EVERY WEEK! That's not cool. That's not expressing yourself. That's not living your life the way you want. That's just shit.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Loud music and parties I don't mind occasionally... but why the fuck must you blast out some shitty dance music everyday until 4am like my old neighbours did!?! I don't mind music at all, but why play it at it's loudest? It's just gonna deafen you and annoy your neighbours.

Everyone's allowed to let their hair down and be loud, or argue and you can't help having screaming kids but the fact some people don't even try to control it or even think of others makes me mad.
I'm a fairly quiet person so I'm sure I'm not a bad neighbour, but there's probably something I do that will annoy them >.<

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Sounds like a nightmare. I don't think you'd be considered a bad person for complaining about her though. You may live next to other tenants, but that doesn't mean you have to hear every damn thing they do - piano or otherwise. You signed a contract that has a certain understanding that you are to live there peacefully anyway.

Don't feel bad, I recently moved and am the bottom tenant. I've since reported my upstairs neighbors 5-6 times to our complex's security in less than two weeks. They are the most obnoxious, annoying bunch of assholes I've encountered, which is a shame because the rest of the complex has been quite nice. It's been bad enough to merit having a notice on their door stating that, unless they improve their behavior, they're going to have an eviction notice filed against them.

Hopefully it comes to that - I really would like to see them kicked to the curb.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

People owe you nothing. If you want some peace and quiet then you should go out of your way to get that, people aren't expected to be psychic and know exactly how much noise they should make to suit your activity.

Yeah, it's polite to keep the noise down but if you really can't stand someone else's activity getting in the way of your lunch or shit TV time then it's you that needs to drastically change.