Upstairs

[MollyMe]

The people upstairs have really heavy feet.
Every morning that I have slept here I have been awaken because of them moving around. This isn't the first time I have had upstairs neighbors, but this is the worst. It is sooo loud.
Is there anything I can do?

[Kitty]

Sleep with ear plugs. The quality ones block out ALL noise, it's amazing. I use them in NYC because we were staying in a hotel that faced a busy street and there was constant horns, sirens, traffic, etc. I would put them in and I couln't hear a thing.

[CityGal]

The people upstairs have really heavy feet.
Every morning that I have slept here I have been awaken because of them moving around. This isn't the first time I have had upstairs neighbors, but this is the worst. It is sooo loud.
Is there anything I can do?


Yes, you can bang on your ceiling with a broom. Remember that friends episode with Mr. Heckles? ha.

[wordsmith]

I will only willingly live on top floor apts. Even normal noise travels so much more to lower apartments than to apartments above you.

I've lived exclusively in vintage buildings, most with really old hardwood floors. When the rehab these apartments and wanna leave the original old-school floors in them for aesthetics, they have to sand them down to revarnish them and make them look nice...my last apt. in a Chicago 3-flat had been sanded down and refinished enough times since the late 1800s that it was super thin...didn't really probide much by way of sound insulation. So just normal walking around could be heard by the people below. I can't tell you how many times I got bitched out for, say, walking from the living room to the bathroom.

[wordsmith]

Sleep with ear plugs. The quality ones block out ALL noise, it's amazing. I use them in NYC because we were staying in a hotel that faced a busy street and there was constant horns, sirens, traffic, etc. I would put them in and I couln't hear a thing.

How does this work for alarm clocks? I live on a freight train track, and though I'm used to it now, when I was first moved in and getting used to it, I considered using earplugs, but I was afraid I wouldn't hear my alarm clock.

[winneythepooh7]

Ask them to put down rugs. Some places even require a certain percentage of the apartment to be carpeted.

[Kitty]

How does this work for alarm clocks? I live on a freight train track, and though I'm used to it now, when I was first moved in and getting used to it, I considered using earplugs, but I was afraid I wouldn't hear my alarm clock.
If the alarm clock were set on radio, you probably wouldn't hear it - but I am sure you' hear those siren type beeps that alarm clocks have.

[Kitty]

I will only willingly live on top floor apts. Even normal noise travels so much more to lower apartments than to apartments above you.



Same. D and I live in a stand alone unit that is us on the top an someone else on the bottom. We don't hear a peep out of them (and they have kids) but I'm sure we are super noisy for them..

[MollyMe]

I have some decent earplugs but it is so annoying to wear them. I am hoping I would learn to ignore it like people living close to railroad tracks.

It is them walking through the kitchen that makes the most noise. Even I have caught myself making a lot of noise as I walk around in there.

I am wondering how someone can walk around that much. Like right now...just sit down and watch TV.

I haven't heard any other type of noise from anyone, just walking around.

[pisces2473]

Thankfully, my new place has an upstairs and a downstairs so no neighbors really! I have one next to me, but the landlord says she's extremely quiet.

[NewMrs.]

I'm so glad I don't have any kind of apartment neighbors anymore!

When I first started seeing my husband, I was renting a townhouse-type apartment. The first night he stayed over, I fell asleep before he did and he told me the next morning that he could hear my neighbors having sex after I fell asleep. I never heard them and always thought of them as a real quiet couple. However, I used to hear my neighbor on the other side verbally abuse his wife all the time.

[wordsmith]

Same. D and I live in a stand alone unit that is us on the top an someone else on the bottom. We don't hear a peep out of them (and they have kids) but I'm sure we are super noisy for them..

My downstairs neighbors have three little kids, and even though the kids are noisy, I don't hear jack.

The one time I lived in a non-top floor apt, I had EXTREMELY loud sexin' upstairs neighbors. :neutral:

[cheshrcarol]

The one time I lived in a non-top floor apt, I had EXTREMELY loud sexin' upstairs neighbors. :neutral:Jen, when we were in college, my friend T had this roommate who had sex all the tim, whether she was in the room or not. My boyfriend lived in the room below hers and he and his roommate used to die laughing and pull people into their room to hear the loud "banging" (pun intended ;) ) from the ceiling.

[Krishna]

My own roommate was horrible about sex related noise. Our neighbor came in and asked me to turn the radio down one day. I invited her in, shut off the music for 2 seconds so she could hear what I had been listening to. She just smiled and turned the radio back on loud for me on her way out the door.

[wordsmith]

My sister's college roommate of three years and her had a falling out at the end of their senior year...they had been tight friends, but it was suddenly gloves off, and her roommate used to have sex with her BF on the top bunk, with my sister attempting to sleep below, just to be that way.

[CTGirl]

The floor above my apartment is really creaky and the dude that lives up there is huge, and has a very bad temper (I fear for his gf and son sometimes honestly :sad: ) so when I first moved in, I couldnt sleep for the first couple nights. I got used to it though, and now I barely ever even notice it.

[blueyes]

I live in a top apartment and I try to be good about what noise I make. The woman below my apartment (and above my coworker's apt) does her laundry and vacuums and does all other sorts of strange and noisy things any time of the day. My coworker claims it's not unusual for her to start laundry at, oh, say 3:45 am.

I have a friend in Beltsville who lives underneath of an elephant family. No, seriously - we might start shooting holes in the ceiling. They must do aerobic exercise for 14 hours a day with all the noise they make. Fortunately, none of it is sexin' noises. Ew.

[pisces2473]

You live near your coworker? Is that by chance or on purpose?

[cache]

My first apartment was on the second floor. My roommate and I had parties pretty much every night. There was a middle aged guy living below us, and he would bang on the ceiling, but we would just interpret that to mean he wanted us to turn up the music, and bang back. All of us. At the same time. LOL.

[sondra_finchley]

Oh man, I hate having sex fiend neighbors. My last roommate and I got along great- she was a no sex before marriage kind of gal, however, she enjoyed living in ground floor apartments. Our first place I got the bedroom under this white trash girl and her creepy mexican boyfriend who would bring over his chihuahua- they would yell at each other, have loud sex, and I could hear that damn dog leash being dragged all over the floor. Our third place was fantastic but.... once again I got stuck under this one gal who i swear to god- two times a nigh ( one in the evening one in the morning- at 5 am) with this gross looking guy- and it was EVERy night. I finally gave up and slept on the couch in the living room because i couldnt stand it anymore.

I will never live on a bottom apartment EVER again if i can help it.

[mishl982]

In college when I lived in the student townhouses (I lived in the downstairs one) and when in my first apartment I swear my neighbors up there liked to play wrestle mania or stomp like elephants. The neighbors in college liked to have loud sex at 3 am above mine and my roommate's bedroom. Knocking the broom or throwing our shoes on the ceiling does not work!

Since then I've lived in a top floor apartment and now in a townhouse where the only noises come from my side neighbors!

[Chameleon]

I was the 2nd floor of a 3 story apartment building at my last apartment. I shared a wall is a guy who would play video games loudly with his windows open until 2am. My first few months there I was woken up like clockwork at 3 am every morning by stomping, then squeaking (like nails on a chalkboard) then the sounds of a shower coming from the apartment above me. I left a note asking them to either change the hour of their activity or in the very least oil the joints on their bed and I rarely heard them after that!

My last few months there, I was assailed by what sounded like Oompah music every morning from god knows where, and the occasional thumping bass of the blue haired tattooed chick who always had guests over who I didn't even share a wall with!!! I couldn't wait to get out of there.

OP, you could try leaving them a note or talking to them and asking them to be more considerate.

[drdeadringer]

I must admit that I've had an occasion my senior year of skool to be asked not to walk so heavily. I still walk heel first, especially when in boots, especially on wooden floors, but I did try to stop during that time. The guy still had to ask me over and over, because I'd forget and revert to how I normally walked, but I did make an effort.

Granted I do walk heavy [despite being low weight, oddly], that's been the only instance of "could you not walk so noisy?" for me. I'm not sure why...

I've also had occasion to live below loud people. I'm not sure what was going on, but it sounded like continued furniture moving. There was also [perhaps two and a half] young children. It got loud enough that the person below ME thought it was I making the noise and came to me first, but after explaining and being open and honest, the person below me believed and went upstairs. I never did question it myself as I knew I wasn't going to be there long, but there was noise and I did have the thought of speaking up.

I do agree that noise seems to travel from up to down easier than from down to up.