Creaking noises heard downstairs when someone is walking upstairs
Michael Greene
3 years ago
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Comments (27)Hi- Some of you clearly have not spent much time in apartments. Normally you hear light walking and the ocassional ruckus when they have a party, which is bearable, especially if they are kind enough to let you know in advance. When you have truly noisy neighbors they ruin your life, you have no privacy nor peace, no ability to think or decompres in your own home. Your TV is overwhelmed by TV or music from upstairs and the base from their music waked you up every morning. It is intolerable. Your ignorant suggestion that everyone in an apartment disturbed by other wear earplugs is ridiculous . . . I can just see my husband, or guest, and our housekeeper all wearing earplus all the time. No normal conversation, no ability to watch tv, etc. Sounds like a good life. As a very long-time apartment resident, I have the followign advice . . . Please carefully check your lease for a "quiet enjoyment" or similar clause that not just requires carpeting, but also entitles you to the landlord's protection from other tannant's misuse. Contrary to some of the posters comments, the laws in many places don't just require some random floor covering but "adequate carpeting or similar noise-reducing materials" � their rugs are not adequate at noise-reduction. If people want to live in a communal place in a manner that significantly disturbs others it is their own responsibility to correct it. I'd call the police and ask them to visit your place, have some friends who visit your apartment and document the noise they hear, and ask the Mgt to come by. Then tell the Mgt SPECIFICALLY what you want -- say either: (1) they give the people upstairs the choice of 14 days to fully carpet with (over foam or similar padding) the place; or (2) tell them to move to another apartment in the building with the understanding that if they get similar complaints from their new neighbors they will be evicted. Tell the landlord that if they can't do this for you, you will have no choice to go to LL-T court -- that you really don't want to, but if you've mamaged for 13 years w/o significant complaint, they can't say you are difficult or unusually sensitive! We live in a NYC Co-op and the people above insisted on not carpeting their apartment b/c they have allergies the are the world's heaviest stompers, are often making noise at 1, 2, 3am, have a hyperactive 4 year-old (not normal child noise) who they allow to play with balls, etc., and run nonstop as early as 6am and as late as 1am, and another child learning to walk using a roller-walker. Also, they like to move the furniture around a lot on the HW floors! They were allowed to wake us up at 1am the night before my brothers wedding with their stomping, but if we call (while their child still is running around at 9pm) they complain we wake up their other child, so we stopped calling. It got so bad my husband started hitting the ceiling with a broomstick when it got to the point we were going to rent a hotel room. We have been living in nonstop hell for 4 years and are moving to another apt in the bvuilding just to get away from them (we own the place so we lost a good mortgage rate and had to pay more for the new place) -- that is how bad it is. We first called up a few times, then asked the doormen to call after they'd swear and yell at us to suck it up. Then after numerous houseguest and visitor, and even my housekeeper (working in NYC apts for 25 years) says they are the worst she's ever heard, we started documenting the noise -- loud bangs, thumps, running literally going on four hours to a non-human degree, etc. We had 6 months of tears, frustration and very detailed documentation and presented the info to the Board - along with the doormen's documentation of the calls. The management finally investigated and immediately insisted they carpet the place with padding. They complained about their allergies, but I have very serious dust and mold allergies and was able to find hypoallergenic carpeting and just vacum regularly and use air-purifiers. It is my problem, not someone elses. The carpeting helped the furniture and the heavy walking, which now is annoying dull thuds, but did nothing for their child who PREFERS running on the HW areas, and they pull up the carpet do let her play with balls, and for the younger one to use her roller/walker. The Board member assigned to our matter when the noise didn't stop just said he sometimes heard the people above he and deals with it -- he doesn't understand we sometimes have 18 hr days of noise -- every single day! The neighbor to the side of them just sound-proofed his own walls with quietrock at great expense, and we were advised that ceiling sound-proofing is significantly less effective than floor sound-proofing. Some people take no personal responsibility for their actions and really should find places to live where they can be on a ground floor! Sorry for the venting, but I totally sympathesize with you and am so sorry you have to live with this. As these people who have never heard it can tell, it make people very irritable and ruins your quality of life . . ....See MoreDownstairs neighbor being unreasonable w/ noise...
Comments (11)I have a issue with my downstairs neighbour.they moved in 2018 first time they moved in they were rude to the kids in our street its communal garden all around the flats and they play all around the flats that are in the street they told the kids to f off whenever they are out side they slam their windows and shut the curtains they live underneath us the floors are super thing and very creaky and loud the buildings dont have very good sound proofing crap in the winter for getying damp ect.anyway since they moved in they have created hell for mainly us and threaten to report other neighbours to social services because they let their children play outside.their child never plays outside and only time it goes out is for school.ive been told they wqnt to move but cant swap because no one wants their flat as its groundfloor. so they want to make us and everyone else suffer.they bang when they come back from school runs and never go out apart from work and school runs or if they dont like music from one of the blocka or kids playing outside.they are very rude dont speak to any of neighbours at all except for one who was like them years back who upset others.they try to bully us peer behind their curtains when i take my children to school,sit in their car and watch the kids epsecially mine.now they are wanting to do mediation which we feel is a game because if they wanted to do it they wouldnt be so rude and result to intimate their neighbours.any ideas how to deal with this,they also called thr police on us one night because my firealarm went off due to water trickling into fire alarm as its wired into the ceiling as our roof was collecting water from loft this freaked out me and my family and we all started panicing they told the police we was shouting at our children which is not true.a neighbour also mentioned to us that their children a 4-5 year old and maybe a yr old doesnt have any toys in the apartment as one of her friends went to visit as she was intrested in swapping but they turned hers down so cant be desprate to get out obviously just want to make everyone miserable and cause trouble...See MoreCan my downstairs neighbor sue me for walking?
Comments (49)if anyone ever has any sitch similar, you need to move- as soon as you possibly can. I realize it seems unfair, and it is. But when you’re the tenant upstairs, you bear the brunt of the blame. I know, I’ve been that upstairs neighbor and I’ve been through he** bc of it too. It’s been a fluid situation but it all started with a bad downstairs tenant. It just got worse and worse, even though I don’t believe I deserved any of it. The courts somewhat agreed with me too. I’m talking about different counties even. Seriously, with the first bad tenant situation, uhh on a legal website the lawyers didn’t even believe my story. But it’s the truth. I got citations- as in tickets- for getting up too early in the morning. It was 645 am. I didn’t even shower when I woke up. I wasn’t being loud. I had a bad neighbor. Thats bad enough by itself. But again, it got worse. Almost 2 years later I ended up getting “assaulted “ bc a bad property manager unlawfully gave a copy of my key to someone she shouldn’t have bc she got mad at me. During a pandemic lockdown, She morphed criminal. She’ll pay for that for a very long time. I hope for the rest of her life. What happened to me is bad. But when ppl twist off, sometimes innocent ppl pay. I’m still paying. Please, try to make the best of your situation and if you can’t make the best of it, find somewhere you can move and have some peace. At a time like this, it’s of utmost importance. Cut your neighbor some slack. No need to complain about EVERYTHING. There’s literally noise everywhere. Sometimes you just need to deal with it. Good luck all....See MoreGlued Down Engineered Floor Creaks/Pops/Hollow Places
Comments (16)Oh dear. That's what I thought. Here's the skinny on 'prep'. Prep is the UGLY stuff that NO ONE sees and NO ONE knows to ask about...nor do they usually OFFER the ugly stuff in their quotes. The ugly stuff is expensive. And in the past they have quoted it and they have lost jobs to lower bidders who did NOT offer prep. Over and over again the 'good' companies offer quotes on prep and time and time again they LOSE the jobs. So they have started to work like everyone else. To stay in business they drop the preparation quotes. Which is how they get jobs....because their bids are now 'in line' with the companies around them. Subfloor prep needs to be paid for. And the company that promises it must deliver it. The basis is, you pay for it = you get it. This company has not quoted nor were they paid for prep work. Sadly (oh so sadly) you were the one who 'got what you paid for' (not meant in a mean way). So...to get preparation done, you will need to pay for it. An upstairs preparation costs = $1-$3/sf for a bit of sanding...a bit of levelling...a bit more sanding. The concrete slab can require $2 - $5/sf for preparation...and in this case the sealant will need to be paid for as well. A slab that is in good shape that is nice and flat, that only needs a good scrub to get a bit of bite to it = $2/sf. A concrete slab that needs a good cleaning (may have old carpet glue all over it) and plenty of grinding and plenty of patching (Self Leveling Compound = SLC) and more grinding can and will cost $4+/sf. And these numbers are why they didn't quote it. The upstairs = $2/sf x 609sf = $1,218. The downstairs concrete (just for fun we'll use $4/sf) = $4/sf x 694sf = $2,776. The prep alone *should have been quoted at $4,000. Their quote should have been more than $25,700. ***At this point, assuming you can prove they were all wrong on all things, they owe you removal of the improperly installed floor. They must replace with 'like for like' subfloor plywood that was there BEFORE they arrived. Be aware that you *might be required to pay the extra $4,000 for the subfloor preparation that you did not pay - that needs to be done...you may not. It depends on how good you are at negotiating. If they won't do this voluntarily you will be required to pay for the NWFA Certified Inspector to come out and document what you spoke about over the phone. And then you present the findings (but do NOT hand over the document...SHE who pays for the report OWNS the report). The findings will push them to do the right thing. Hopefully they will come to their senses before you have to spend several hundred dollars on the Inspection....See MoreGN Builders L.L.C
3 years agoMichael Greene
3 years agoTara
3 years agoparty_music50
3 years agoGN Builders L.L.C
3 years agoparty_music50
3 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
3 years agoGN Builders L.L.C
3 years agoHU-428894237
7 months agomillworkman
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agoNorwood Architects
7 months agoJoseph Corlett, LLC
7 months ago
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