Fight noise with noise
ihatenoise
17 years ago
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hyacynthe
17 years agocoolmama
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Leaf blower noise, trying to be neighborly
Comments (52)Even I think this argument is a bit spurious. Let's break it down point by point. Lead and other nasties in the environment from coal plants is ridiculous. There's no argument there and I'm not even going to bother finding the links. I'm also in an 80% coal-fired area, yet listen to people complaining about the tiny amounts of cadmium compounds from what comes off my painting palette. If one runs on solar, there might be a slight advantage to going electric. Wind, definitive. I'm not a vast fan of solar due to the amounts of rare earths gobbled to produce it. Battery recycling is, unfortunately, at not such great percentages. Half of lithium batteries get recycled. That's a lot of discarded--and very rare--lithium. It's produced by spallation in the atmosphere, mostly (cosmic rays and oxygen/nitrogen, with a bit from the Big Bang nucleosynthesis; stellar nuclear reactions actually destroy lithium). We're not exactly swimming in the stuff. So toss that argument right in the garbage along with those batteries. You recycle yours? Great! Half those got thrown away for lack of any interest in retrieving the materials. (Most seem to think that lithium-ion batteries are used; they're not, they're too unstable for exterior use. Those use very little lithium. Most exterior batteries are lithium-iron, which require far more. Some might be lithium-manganese, ditto. The same is true for most newer chemistries, of which there are a few, most not in the common market yet). 99.3% of lead batteries are recycled. That...sounds good, but they retrieve the lead plates and lead sulfate material in the gunk, and throw out the rest. And nobody uses lead in electrics any longer, they're too heavy and the electrical potential is too low. They're great in car batteries, though. Ground vs. Air distribution...immaterial datapoint, actually, that would only impact the direct user and a few other people at most. Once atmospheric mixing occurs--give that two puffs of wind and a single pass over a warm lawn--it's done for. Point in fact, you've just argued against power plants. Their pollution (heavy in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, water vapor, a very strong greenhouse gas, and so on) is distributed in the atmosphere high enough that grasses, trees, and other landscape has no chance to bind it before it can mix and head for the stratosphere. Spillage...visit a coal plant sometime. The entire place is sterile and covered in coal bits tracked around, dropped off trucks. We won't discuss coal mines or, for that matter, Centralia, Pennsylvania. And some of us are quite careful with our gas, thank you. I've accidentally spilled more due to my gas station having an extremely wonky gas dispenser. Cosmetic... Well, yes. Personally, I don't. In either case, one is using electricity or gas, both resources, to make the place look nicer. Maybe don't do that if it offends you, but leave others to do as they please while pointing it out in...well, frankly, a slightly less touchy manner. Blowing grass clippings...um, who does this any longer? Everybody I know and see here has mulching mowers. On rare occasions, I might see somebody blow them off the driveway if they're incredibly heavy and a potential problem. It's interesting to note that they're a water pollutant if left on the driveway, washed into the sewer drain, and go into there, hence the rivers (around here, our sewers dump directly into the river, then into the Atlantic). Phosphorus and nitrogen lead to algal blossoms. Not at all a healthy thing for the oceans as they cause anoxic zones. We're advised to remove them when possible. So if we want to be Earth friendly, they need to be removed....See MoreShare your condo townhouse noise experiences...
Comments (86)I am so happy to have come across this post! I purchased a condo 4 years ago and am now selling it. I live on the 3rd floor (1 bedroom) however the unit below me is considered one unit and is a 2 floor unit (2 bedrooms). My downstairs neighbor and I started off rocky and since then she's been constantly complaining about excessive noise from my unit. Stomping, slamming doors, using appliances etc in the late hours of the night. It's come to the point where she's escalating to the HOA BOD- however i'm also now selling my unit because I purchased a single family home in a new development and in order to save and put myself out of the misery of living with my neighbor will just live elsewhere while waiting for the new house to be built. If I had known what I know now I would not have opted to purchase a condo on the 3rd floor (in a 4 floor building). 1) Living on the 3rd floor I received noise complaints from my neighbor below me while I also had to endure noise from the person above me. (Being the understanding neighbor that I was I never once complained to the person above me since they have children so I opted for earplugs instead). Mind you I live in a one bedroom and so I never purposely tried to create noise but some things are inevitable like having to walk to my bathroom. I refuse to tiptoe in my own house but I assure you i'm not stomping i'm walking regularly! 2) As many people mentioned you cannot pick your neighbors! I'm going to be honest my community is filled with some downright nasty neighbors. If it's not me dealing with my crazy neighbor there's constantly complaints and random letters on our community corkboard. People complaining about how people park, how people throw away trash, how long the water is shut off for construction. People literally use a notice as a form of communication and will write on it and form conversations on that one piece of paper. 3) Your condo might look/seem nice now but you never know what it'll look like 20-30 years from now. Although i've only lived in my place for 4 years I have to say that I was shocked at the lack of care for the building. My boyfriend got stuck in the elevator once for an hour with a cancer patient in our building on a very hot day and there is barely any ventilation in the elevator and no air conditioning! I later learned from a neighbor that our elevator is the wrong type of elevator for our building. Additionally I think the materials used for our building are just downright poor. I can hear the person in the unit above me snoring. I can't tell the person above me to stop snoring, but that's just to show how it could be a mix of bad materials. At least with an apartment you know it's a somewhat temporary situation.. if you hate it you could potentially move elsewhere with not much risk. Honestly before purchasing my single family home I even considered a townhouse as an upgrade to my condo. I figured that sharing sidewalls with individuals is a lot less worse than sharing floors/ceilings which I think are just terrible and usually amplify noise. At the end of the day i'm happy to be moving away from this situation and moving to a place where I can run the dishwasher and use the overnight cycle at night without someone berating me! It came to the point where my neighbor's requests were aggressive and rude and made me feel uncomfortable living in my own condo....See MoreExcessive Apartment Noise, Is there anything I can do?
Comments (10)I'm miserable. I signed a lease this July, and some new neighbors (really not sure how many), moved in above me around the 5th of 7th of September. I sensed something odd about them when about 10 pm on one of those days, I saw a man, and a teenaged boy and girl each carrying a large green garbage bag quickly upstairs. Long story short, the man is obviously unemployeed and is there all day. There is a woman who has a routine of someone who works; she has a evening shift. The teenage boy will ring the bell, but isn't always let it in by the man upstairs in the apartment(I guess he waits until the woman/mother arrives?)...I've seen him sit on the front steps and wait. The teenaged girl shows up once in a while, but does not stay. It appears that the woman is the lease holder, with her full name on the mailbox/bell. This is a one bedroom apartment bldg. I can hear them constantly walking, bumping and dropping large objects onto the floor above my head..I can even hear the man snoring. When I approached the man (because he's always there), he said he wasn't doing anything... and sneared at me. The next time something felt like it threatened to come through the ceiling, I told the super, who went upstairs and spoke to him. I actually heard him say to the super "I ain't doing nothing, I'm poor", after the super told him that he would have to be quiet if he wanted to stay here (?). The super later told me that there is a slew of pillows on the floor and no furniture. To date, they still have no furniture. They have a radio, and play it loud enough in the day, to be heard in the hallway by other tenants. Every apt is occupied in this building. Until they arrived, the only time I have been aware of anyone else in the building is when people are coming or going. I know that because I am underneath them, I hear more than anyone else in the building, and I am not sure if the young lady across from them or the couple above them is dealing with as much...or has even complained. I have contacted the super on several occasions when I just could not stand it anymore, and each time he would call them, they would quiet down for a moment. One evening they continued the noise, including a hand held vaccum cleaner,that they rub against the floor, until 5 in the morning. I was so upset and groggy, that I contacted the super again, who said they were "crazy" and suggested I contact the landlord. When I did, the management office asked about my previous complaints and they said that they would send them a letter from management and alert the direct person for the building. That was last week. I'm not sure if a letter was sent,and they just don't care...or the landlord could care less, and never sent a letter. I think I have been reasonable, I now know that the building is not sound, I'm not dinging someone for walking to the bathroom, or having visitors (which is really bad)..I even find myself turning up the television, so I don't have to hear the constant walking...but the attitude and inconsiderate behavior is really wearing on me. A house is out of the question and I just signed this lease. Not sure what to do. It's only October....See MorePanic Attacks associated with noise
Comments (25)Hi Fellow Sensitive People, I've just moved into an apartment to escape another noisy apartment in which I lived for only three months. I was luckily able to re-assign that lease. My current Landlord was fair enough to allow me my first month before signing a one year lease. Before this month ends, I have to decide if I'm going to stay. The main problem in my last apartment was that it was in the basement of an older house. Therefore, every noise from the apartment above was as if it was in my apartment. It sounded like the only thing between me and the floor above was a piece of thin plywood. So, when the small but heavy footed woman above me walked, it created intolerable thumps and vibrations like a diving board. Not every day but on certain occasions, she had some unsavory characters over. These visits often resulted in foul language, shouting, threatening words and "Get Out" between them etc. I had to fork out over $150 a month more in rent to move into my current apartment. I'm in a triplex and the current landlord assured me that there is concrete and plaster between the floors and walls. Now, I don't have the thin floorboard above me. So, I can't hear the person walking. However, I think I hear cupboards closing and the water pipes clunk after the water is shut off. This is especially irritating in the morning when people are getting up and at night before they go to bed. Apparently, the vibrations and thumps from cupboards and furniture being dragged across the floor aren't muffled by the heavier materials. My floor is carpeted but not all of the other apartments are. I live near the stirs and those who like to run up them or walk heavily are quite audible as well. I could have taken a third floor apartment elsewhere but the area or condition of the building weren't as good. Besides, as others in this forum have mentioned, irritating sounds come from below as well. I hesitate to move again because this place is better than the last one. In addition, if a totally sound proof apartment does exist, it would be out of my price range. I think what we're all finding out here is that there is no "Bed of Roses." If you find it, enjoy it while it lasts because circumstances always change beyond our control. And, I think "Control" is the key word here. If we were all to form a club, it would be called the "Living Space Control Club." We are all nice people--I'm sure we've all heard that before. We're nice because we control our own behaviour to try not to offend or upset others. We're not wimps--if pushed too far, we'll unleash a world of hurt on the offender--but we'd rather avoid that, if possible. That being said, we often don't understand others who don't control their behaviour according to our standards. We tend to become resentful and interpret their "noise making" as an attack on our space. If we showed that lack of consideration to others, that would be our intention, right? So, we instinctively attribute such malice to others behaviour. Usually, they don't have a problem with us and no offence is intended. They just have different priorities to us. Here's the rub. Humans have very different priorities but we're all territorial to one degree or another. In my last apartment, I very politely confronted the noisy woman above me. I asked her if she could hear sounds from my apartment. She replied, "I can hear everything but I'm not a complainer." To that I replied, "Well, I have to do computer work down there." She was "getting drunk" because she just lost her job. So, she asked if we could talk about it the next day. I said that I just wanted to know if she could hear things from my apartment. Since she'd answered that, and was now aware of my situation, I saw no point in discussing it any further. Unfortunately, the situation did not improve. So, my point is that whether your neighbor reacts positively, negatively or indifferent, if they don't share your priorities, they'll think, "Who does he/she think they are?" "I pay rent here as well and I'm going to live according to my priorities." Based on the replies in this forum, there are more of us than I thought. In general society, I think we're in the minority. I have O.C.D, although I've kept it managable for years now. I suspect that I have A.D.D. as well. Someone else in this forum mentioned that he/she had A.D.D. These conditions along with many others are anxiety based. They would not have names or acronyms if everyone had them. Through my experience, I don't believe that there is any 100% cure for anxiety based conditions. However, through therapy, they can become manageable. I've had therapy for my O.C.D. and it helped. I will do a web search looking for suggestions to help me deal with my current sensitivity to noise. Perhaps, I'll follow up on the "nerve damage to ears" suggestion that another person made in this forum. I had many earaches as a kid. I've always found that the breathing exercises that I learned through behavioural modification helped. Maybe I'll try that as well. Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well. Take Care All!...See Moresocaldisneydude
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