Semi-D neighbour complaining about noise

DavyD_83

Eric Cartman wrote: »

might it be worth getting an engineer out to take a look. If I was living in an A rated insulated home and could hear my neighbours walking down the stairs id be rightly pissed.

Possibly, but really sounds like it would be upto the neighbours to get an engineer out to insulate their house. Presumably noise would be travelling in both directions, but is not upsetting the OP.

We are attached to students, who we can hear going up and down the stairs, etc etc. Usually it's not an issue. We have added extra insulation(soundproofing boards) our adjoining bedroom wall, to reduce the noise coming through and it works. Before the upgrade, we could hear the lads chatting next door at night (nothing loud or unreasonable).
I certainly would not have expected the neighbours to implement a vow of silence after our bedtime, or to insulate their wall to prevent sound escaping their room.

Our house (3-bed-semi) was built around '85, and seems like soundproofing was not a priority.

crusha101

My living situation is very similar to yours except we have never received a complaint, We have a dog that barks when a stranger enters the house or when other dogs start barking , 2 of us in the house leave at 7 am for work while our neighbors leave at 9, we live in a new build semi d which isn't as sound proof as we first imagined but neither us or our neighbors have ever had a problem , meanwhile on the other hand our good friends living in the same type house across the road have received complaint after complaint after complaint from their neighbor and i can assure you they are not a noisy bunch ,it has went as far as them ringing the guards and it just happened the responding guard was my friends uncle they have also rang the husband who they knew was in Dubai working to tell them that the dog is barking, what is he supposed to do in Dubai ?? Neighbors are like family you cant choose them, its mostly a lotto and it looks like you got the short end of the straw

snoopy29

We have the exact same problem with our new build semi. Our neighbours work shifts and always leave around 5am and the banging of internal and external doors generally wakes me up even through earplugs and the master bedroom is on the far end of the house. We had numerous "chats" with our neighbour during the first year as they were also playing loud music out the back garden. My husband went into their house and asked him to show how they were closing doors etc. I can hear them and the dog running up and down the stairs. We have complained several times but basically after 2.5 yrs its just not going to change. They have stopped the loud music and parties to be fair but the door banging and hearing him on his phone and loud TV is persistant and short of moving out, its unlikely to change.

Little CuChulainn

If you're dog is barking for the full two hours the cleaner is there then that is a very legitimate complaint. For the rest of the stuff it might be worth exploring the possibility of going halves with them on some additional soundproofing. It's unlikely they are making up hearing the doors open and closing so dismissing them is probably not going to make them go away.

REFLINE1

mad m wrote: »

Just a thought, can you suggest to neighbour to go half on a sound engineer and do a Building Acoustics test on both of your properties. If the engineer says its within limits of daily living then your neighbour hasn't a pot to pi$ in but if not the engineer will suggest measures to take.

http://acoustic-environmental.ie/building-acoustics/
In no way affiliated with company above, I just did a goole search.

Excellent practical non-confrontational advice. I would be making a friend of this person and not an enemy if at all possible. The "f&*k him attitude will end in tears. Make the builder the enemy
And sort out the yappy dog if possible

loyatemu

Poor sound proofing - if you can't hear him then it's his problem, ignore his complaints & let him sort it out by improving the sound proofing on his side.

Yappy dog - your problem; if you're both out all day leaving the dog home alone you should consider a dog-sitter/doggy daycare. It also undermines your case on the other noise complaint.

ted1

intheclouds wrote: »

So he has video evidence of your dog barking and you want to send him a solicitor letter?

You sound like an unreasonable neighbour who does not take a noise complaint seriously.

Why dont you sort out the noise rather than send a solicitors letter to the neighbour?

No he sounds perfectly reasonable. It's a semi D and there just going on about their business closing doors when they leave, going down stairs.

ted1

DavyD_83 wrote: »

Possibly, but really sounds like it would be upto the neighbours to get an engineer out to insulate their house. Presumably noise would be travelling in both directions, but is not upsetting the OP.

We are attached to students, who we can hear going up and down the stairs, etc etc. Usually it's not an issue. We have added extra insulation(soundproofing boards) our adjoining bedroom wall, to reduce the noise coming through and it works. Before the upgrade, we could hear the lads chatting next door at night (nothing loud or unreasonable).
I certainly would not have expected the neighbours to implement a vow of silence after our bedtime, or to insulate their wall to prevent sound escaping their room.

Our house (3-bed-semi) was built around '85, and seems like soundproofing was not a priority.

Ours was built in 84 and sound isn't an issue , the stairs and Doir are at opposite sides of the building. The only noise we here is the curtain rail being used in the front room.

intheclouds

ted1 wrote: »

No he sounds perfectly reasonable. It's a semi D and there just going on about their business closing doors when they leave, going down stairs.

Letting a dog bark for 2 hours doesnt sound reasonable to me.

DavyD_83

ted1 wrote: »

Ours was built in 84 and sound isn't an issue , the stairs and Doir are at opposite sides of the building. The only noise we here is the curtain rail being used in the front room.

Not saying it's an issue for all houses at the time, and OP's is a new build so prob not even that relevant.
Our stairs are on far side of houses too, unfortunately bedrooms are on joint side.

As the houses are new build, would you have any re-course with the builders? Although I'd imagine this would only be possible if can be proven to be below regulation rather than below buyers expectations.

If not, I still say as long as noise is as reasonable as OP has outlined (with exception of dog), then it's up to neighbour to soundproof their walls or get over it.

ThisRegard

For the poster with the accusatory question as to what someone in their 30s is doing at home all day, they might be like me, works from home. At this stage I know how every neighbour sounds who lives in my immediate area. By far the most annoying are those with dogs that bark for ages at the slightest sound.

You can live with the odd bit of music on a day like this(apart from the dsh dsh dsh of God awful euro ****e) but barking dogs push me to the edge, and I have 2 myself. Don't underestimate how irritating it is, especially when you know it might go on until when the owner returns home.

Interior noise can travel easily, best solution as others pointed out may be to agree to go halves on more soundproofing.

TheDoc

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

If you're dog is barking for the full two hours the cleaner is there then that is a very legitimate complaint. For the rest of the stuff it might be worth exploring the possibility of going halves with them on some additional soundproofing. It's unlikely they are making up hearing the doors open and closing so dismissing them is probably not going to make them go away.

IF the OP doesn't hear the neighbours making the same noise then I don't see why the OP should pay out of pocket for this.

The dog is something to deal with for sure and improve training and the environment for the dog so its not going mental. When we moved into our last house we realised our dog was barking in the middle of the night for ages.

I'm pretty conscious of not causing excess noise,so for a few nights I got up at the hour the barking would occur to scope it out. Coped that a neighbour behind worked nights and turned on his light at like 3am, and the dog caught the reflection in our door and would go mad.

Moved his kennel so he didnt get sight on the window, problem solved. We had no complaints, but took the first steps knowing it would be annoying. Other neighbours in that area have dogs who go non stop and it was a pretty horrendous noisey place at times.

As for the living noise, certain amount of tough **** here. Modern builds seem to be absolutely garbage for noise. Our old house was the same. I'd hear everything the neighbours would do, close a press, walking on floor, flushing a toilet. And surely the same for them with us.

We moved into a new rented house over the weekend, much older house and we dont hear a peep from the neighbours. Our little one got very unsettled first night in and it was a slog getting her to settle. Next morning going out to work caught the nieghbour and apologised for any noise from my daughter and he said he couldn't hear a peep, that the houses here are solid.

IF your neighbour has a problem with noise from general living, they can get an engineer out to assess. IF they are new builds, then its shocking for an A rate house they have walls that thin, but then I'm not surprised. New builds seem to have some poor quality material and building techniques as opposed to older houses.

As mentioned above no one will have an interest in this, so your neighbour cant threaten anything. So I wouldn't go down the legal route, courts or authorities literally wont give a **** and you will be wasting your money. Instead try maintain a relationship there, keep things civil, but I wouldnt go offering to open your wallet for a problem your neighbour has, that sounds unreasonable.

Bar the dog, the dog barking for two hours is a pain in the hole, daytime or not.

simdan

The OP has closed their account

Fian

For what it is worth I have a neighbour who would complain when our children were playing football in our back garden in the evenings. Their garden backed on to ours and they wanted peace and quiet in their garden so they could sit out and enjoy it. While I sympathised (slightly) I was not about to tell our children that they could not play in their own garden. We have never really gotten on since, they think we are "bad neighbours" and that we are unreasonable not to keep our children quiet. We think they are oversensitive and have unreasonable expectations of quiet in a suburban setting. As they got more frustrated they started calling over the fence to tell our kids to be quiet which meant we got very annoyed with them. I know it is reciprocated too.

Subsequently their own children grew a bit older and are now playing in their garden themselves, though not really playing football. Anyway we don't even notice the noise but we are getting less complaints from them as their own kids become louder. Also I suppose as they no longer want their kids to go to sleep at 7 pm.

Anyway we are never going to be friendly which is a shame because we are likely to be neighbours for a very long time. But basically the only sensible solution (imo) is to state clearly what you regard as reasonable in terms of noise demands and to just try to ignore each other after that.

athtrasna

simdan wrote: »

The OP has closed their account

And for that reason, thread closed. Hope the op takes into account some of the very helpful responses they got on here. Mod