Noise new build semi-detached

maryk123

Snoopy29
I think this is going to bug you until you say something to him. Approach gently you will feel better once you have it said because this is going to get worse.

We had this and got soundproof in main bedroom but ours was attached to next door. Can't hear tv etc but can hear doors and banging as that can't be blocked.

It will slowly consume your life say it and get it over with. You will know then what you are dealing with as to how he reacts. If he is decent it will be turned down (in fairness he may not know he is being loud) and if the noise increases well then you have another problem

I wish you all the best

fleet

There must be a place that rents a sound level meter.
Something that records as well so you can eliminate your own noise.

No point approaching the guy if he's being inside the normal range and it's just the OP being over sensitive.

snoopy29

I have a noise meter myself, as I said I do noise work. It is a dull but audible noise from the tv but the tonal element of the door banging would increase the noise level against the allowable 45dBa allowable at that time of the morning.

but anyways Im not looking to get all legal and technical, I just want him to keep it down a bit, even till 7am, that's all. I can live with door banging etc at other time.

The_Conductor

Many mobile phones have noise meters (particularly any aimed specifically at the construction industry). I've an old Nokia I keep handy- just for the noise meter.

iguana

Have you thought about playing loud white noise while you sleep? It's a trick I picked up while apartment living in London and it's been a huge help as it blocks out a lot of outside noise, while the white noise is actually very soothing and helps lull you to sleep once you get used to it.

snoopy29

Just an update on the situation, he is now getting up between 3.30 - 5.30 am and still banging doors. I had friends over at the weekend and they were quite cross because he woke them up also. The neighbour in question also told me he banged his front door so loudly the lock has broken into pieces. This is a double glazed wooden front door, he appeared to think this was funny. I know this was my time to say something but I lost my nerve.

Surely its ok to say something now? I'm seriously sleep deprived at this stage.

LynnGrace

snoopy29 wrote: »

Just an update on the situation, he is now getting up between 3.30 - 5.30 am and still banging doors. I had friends over at the weekend and they were quite cross because he woke them up also. The neighbour in question also told me he banged his front door so loudly the lock has broken into pieces. This is a double glazed wooden front door, he appeared to think this was funny. I know this was my time to say something but I lost my nerve.

Surely its ok to say something now? I'm seriously sleep deprived at this stage.

Yes, definitely time to say something.
I lived next to a door banger. By the time I moved out, I was fit to kill.
It's a matter of having a bit of consideration for others, IMO. Just wondering, is your house generally quiet, he may not realise how easily the sound carries...not that that is an excuse for door banging, especially at unearthly hours.

snoopy29

We do live in a quiet country estate and I really think he doesn't realise the problems it is causing me. My OH doesn't want to say anything and he thinks im being ridiculous because it still doesn't wake him up. I love everything about the house but this is seriously ruining the whole thing for me and I honestly just want to leave at this stage.

Even when he is out the back on his mobile he is totally shouting. Myself and few friends were having a glass of wine outside on Saturday and we eventually moved inside cause we couldn't hear ourselves talk!

Kevo

As a temporary solution maybe get better ear plugs. I find wax ear plugs are far better and let me sleep through just about anything. I've used these ones before and would recommend them.

PS I don't work for Quies :P

brooke 2

snoopy29 wrote: »

Just an update on the situation, he is now getting up between 3.30 - 5.30 am and still banging doors. I had friends over at the weekend and they were quite cross because he woke them up also. The neighbour in question also told me he banged his front door so loudly the lock has broken into pieces. This is a double glazed wooden front door, he appeared to think this was funny. I know this was my time to say something but I lost my nerve.

Surely its ok to say something now? I'm seriously sleep deprived at this stage.

I cannot believe that you have said nothing to him yet! He sounds pretty harmless
and is probably totally unaware of all the stress he is causing you by his inconsiderate
behaviour. You should pluck up the courage to ask him to take it easy with the door
banging and TV noise early in the morning. Good luck!!

rasgav

Simple, friendly communication is the key. If I was doing something that was unwittingly annoying my neighbours, I'd much prefer they said something to me.

gabsdot40

I can't believe you are going to ask the guy to be quiet in his own house. The noise you describe is not unreasonable IMO.
You don't say if you have children but there may come a time when your crying baby wakes him up at 3.30am. How would you feel if he came in complaining to you about that.
When we moved into our house the neighbours had small kids and were very noisy, lots of shouting, running up and down the stairs etc. Now 18 years later their kids are grown up and we're the ones with noisy kids. I'm glad I never said anything about it back then.
I've often been woken up by our neighbours alarm clock, we can hear conversations they're having perfectly from our bedroom and other stuff that goes on in that room.....Presumably they hear the same from us.
That's what you get when you live in a semi D.
It's very unlikely that your neighbour will change the habit of a lifetime just because you ask him to keep it down so the only solution is for you to just learn to live with it.

K.Flyer

There is obviously a huge deficit in the sound proofing between both of your homes and this is something that you are going to have to address, otherwise, from how you come across here, you may loose your cool and say or do something you may regret for a long time.
Also, you say that he talks quite loudly or shouts. Maybe he has a hearing problem and does not realise how loud he is. That could be quite tricky to get around, so you are back to sound proofing as your only option.

snoopy29

gabsdot I'm sorry but I disagree. There is a common courtesy which should be shown to neighbours in my opinion particularly when its semi d living. He goes to bed quite early some nights and I make sure I keep things quiet on our side out of respect for him and his early mornings. I would like the same respect to be shown to us.

I don't think banging doors at 3.30am is respectful, I'm surprised you think this is acceptable?

Mousewar

gabsdot40 wrote: »

The noise you describe is not unreasonable IMO.
You don't say if you have children but there may come a time when your crying baby wakes him up at 3.30am. How would you feel if he came in complaining to you about that.

Not much you can do about a baby crying. There is something you can do about banging doors (i.e. don't bang them). They're two different things - one can't be helped really, the other takes a modicum of effort to prevent.

OP - have you talked to him yet?

snoopy29

I haven't managed to yet as I don't want to specifically call to his house to chat about it so I'm trying to wait until he starts chatting to me and drop it into the conversation. He seems like a nice fella and apologies if I have come across wrongly in this post but that wasn't my intention. I do understand that a certain level of noise is to expected but I don't think this is an appropriate level at that time of the night.

BeatNikDub

snoopy29 wrote: »

So its reasonable for him to have his TV so loud it sounds like its my own on downstairs?


hmmm right if that's the overall opinion fair enough I'll have to stick with it or put the house up for sale.

You don't need to put the house up for sale! That's a bit of an over reaction indeed!

You are only there a few weeks, you will get used to this!

I am a relatively light sleeper and for a year I lived beside some carmelite monastery that played a recording of bells at 6 and 7.30am every morning, that in my opinion would wake the living dead. I could also hear the next door neighbour get up at 6.30am every morning without fail and go to the loo!
I didn't know how I was going to manage, or why the whole area wasn't up in arms. Anyway, after time (a month or so) I just got used to it and began to sleep through it. I loved the place otherwise and learned to focus on all the good things instead! After all, it is just a bloke going about his business of the day. He means no intrusion on you!

Try and relax, lack of sleep gets us really het up and stressed.

snoopy29

So I spoke with the neighbour last week as he asked me was the noise from the dog upsetting me, I said no not at all but we did hear a lot of noise from doors closing. He seemed genuinely surprised by this and seemed confused why we were hearing so much. He said he hears absolutely nothing from us and wondered do we live there at times. I was as nice as I could be about it and apologised for being a cranky neighbour but it was really affecting my sleep. He seemed to take it ok and said we'd speak again about it and "he was on top of it". There was a significant improvement for 3-4days but now its back to square one again. He has his TV on so loud with the door open in the evenings I can barely have a conversation outside with someone sitting next to me. I can tolerate this but not the door banging.

Anyone any thoughts? Dunno what to do at this stage:(

Mousewar

snoopy29 wrote: »

Anyone any thoughts? Dunno what to do at this stage:(

Yikes. You could try banging the absolute crap out of your own doors. He could do with a bit of reminding that doors banging cause noise.

snoopy29

I explained that I knew they did shift work and went to bed early so I said we tried to be quiet after around 9pm cause we knew they were sleeping and he said oh don't worry they would both sleep through anything anyways.

He is a nice guy, he really just doesn't seem to get it at all. This is beginning to cause rows with my OH as I know I'm getting cranky now with lack of sleep and am really focussing on it. Can't imagine living here for years with all this noise but I do like the house and the area.

PLUG71

Earplugs!!

Work great for me

snoopy29

Bought the special earplugs as recommended by someone on this post, I don't specifically hear him any more but I'm still waking from his noise, I just don't know why I've woken up until I take them out!

pablo128

Was your house built onto his house, or were they built at the same time?

snoopy29

Built at the same time

PLUG71

snoopy29 wrote: »

Bought the special earplugs as recommended by someone on this post, I don't specifically hear him any more but I'm still waking from his noise, I just don't know why I've woken up until I take them out!

I can see how its annoying you and as was previously said its not your neighbours fault.

If the ear plugs are not good enough the only other solution would be to sound proof your bedroom!

Not cheap to do though but once its done you would be able to relax and sleep properly.

Could you sleep with your radio on to mask the noise?
I know some people can.

snoopy29

yeah I'm looking into sound proofing, waiting on a reply from a few companies.

Mousewar

PLUG71 wrote: »

I can see how its annoying you and as was previously said its not your neighbours fault.

If the ear plugs are not good enough the only other solution would be to sound proof your bedroom!

Not cheap to do though but once its done you would be able to relax and sleep properly.

Could you sleep with your radio on to mask the noise?
I know some people can.

Soundproofing will do almost nothing for impact noise.

snoopy29

yeah Mousewar, I have been speaking to some noise consultant work colleagues, this was my fear and it seems to be correct.

jester77

I would be getting back to the building company, you shouldn't be able to hear your neighbours in a new house like that. What does it say in your contract regarding sound leakage? There are sections in my contract where it details in dbs what the minimum amount of sound leak allowed from next door, from the street, from flights passing overhead, etc. And the db's are fairly high, the only noise I've heard from next door is when they were drilling something in the wall.

dharma200

Have you looked into sleep therapy, hypno stuff... it would seem maybe you are not quite reaching the right level of sleep and it is something you could probably rectify if you looked into it... hypnotherapy cds are available to listen to at home.. also natural valerian from evergreen might help bring you to a deeper sleep and maybe not quite so wakeful with noise. I think usually people get quite used to some degree of noise but you seem like you just can handle it which means either find a way to handle it or move I'm afraid.. its worth a try...