Dealing with noisy neighbors in a duplex?

Question

We just moved into this duplex about a week ago. It is military housing, so its not like we can just move out. However, our neighbors are VERY loud. You cant hear them talking or anthing, but you can CONSTANTLY hear them running up and down the stairs and slamming doors. And on top of that, they have people knocking on their door at ALL hours of the night. It is so loud, that my 8 month old daughter keeps waking up in the middle of the night everytime they go up or down the stairs or slam the doors. It is very frustrating. Any ideas on what to do about it?

Answer 1

I would first ask them nicely during the daytime to keep it down at night, after a certain point. Your daughter can't sleep and that's that , could they please try to keep quiet. If it persists, knock on their door in the middle of the night, when they're noisy. Remind them that you already asked them nicely once. Play it by ear, see if they're even empathetic to your situation.

I'm cool with neighbors, my cutoff for noise is 2 am, but I don't have an 8 month old in the house. If after the middle-of-the-night knock they are still noisy, report them.

Honestly though,  they probably just don't know how noisy they're being and should feel a little embarassed when you approach them the first time. I know you might feel awkward even saying something, but you mine as well if you're losing sleep over it. It may not stop completely, but they may just cut it out, most of the time.

Answer 2

Yea I was living in an apartment with people like that for a while so I get what you mean. Even them just walking down a hallway can bug me at times. There really isn't much you can do about it though. Maybe if you buy a couple of those sound machines that produce a white noise to cover it up.

Answer 3

Go over and introduce yourself to that family.. be friendly and tell them that you have to work the next day and that your daughter is woken by the noise every night.. if out of consideration they can please keep the noise level down after 10 pm.. not to let anyone slam doors.. try the friendly approach first.. perhaps this family has a lot of teenage kids who run around the house or come home late..  it might be a family with 4 children.. then they can't stop going up and down stairs.. but they don't need to run and cause more noise than necessary and door slamming definitely can be avoided out of respect for ones neighbours.. I would tell the dad or the mother.. that you leave it up to them to please tell their kids ... or whoever is running up and down the stairs to please walk down and to not slam doors in the middle of the night as it disturbs your family and especially your daughter keeps waking up.. xx

Answer 4

Well, you are in military housing and usually only families get military housing so you should talk to the neighbors first.  Let them know that it's very loud in your home and your baby wakes up several times due to their loud noise.  If they don't care or seem to be a**holes about it, contact the military police and make a complaint.  If that doesn't work, then the great thing about the military is that you can complain to the neighbor's commanding officer.  They are always loving the idea of getting a little military person in trouble for something.

Oh, and it sounds a little odd that people are knocking on their door at all hours of the night.  Maybe a little something illegal going on.  Mention that to the commanding officer!

You could try to contact whoever you contact about housing and see if there is another unit available because of the problems with the loud neighbors and your baby being startled awake all the time.  It's an indirect way of complaining about the neighbors.

Good luck!

Answer 5

not much to do about that.. especially the stairs thing.. its not much to do if the acoustics of the building allows sound from stairs and doors to go throw walls... You can always try to put up sound blocking things on the wall you share, like huge wall carpets (like Persian carpets) or pictures etc.. anything to absorb sound.. and try using white noise in the babies sleeping area.. like a radio station on classical music turned down low, or a running fan (turned away from baby, but noisy).. so baby can get used to sleeping with noise.... I was always taught to make as much noise as possible when my babies were little to get them used to sleeping anywhere with any situation... funny now as they get older, they need noise now to sleep.. So I still have a fan going in their rooms..