We received a noise complaint from our management company. We have a 2 year old and its very hard to keep little feet from walking too loud or dropping things. We have rugs on the floor and we're still in the process of purchasing funature. What can we do to help reduce noise. We dont want to be bad neighbors. The management company said if they receive more complaints they will enforce the 80% covered floor rule.
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Hm...do you feel comfortable talking to the neighbors? I feel like it might be things you don't even realize are making the noise and perhaps they are more understanding of the 2 year-old noise? It might be worth it to approach them and say "I understand you've been hearing too much noise from us. I'd love to fix it. Are there certain sounds/times of day/etc. that are worse than others?" I think that will serve the dual purpose of 1) Showing them you care (they may be more lenient in the future) and 2) isolating some issues you can work on.
If you don't think they're approachable people, though, that's totally understandable. I've always been the downstairs neighbor, so I can't think of anything specific. Good luck!
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Do you have rug mats underneath your rugs? That might help muffle the sound a bit.
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Do you have rug pads under your rugs? It might help to pick some up specifically to muffle the sound, and they're not super expensive. Otherwise, I'd do what @Jess1483: suggested and talk to them - it might be something as random as your dryer vibrating directly over their own nursery!
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Hmm. I used to be a downstairs neighbor and the only thing that really made a lot of noise ( still not enough to complain!! ) was the guy's dog running. If you don't already maybe a no running in the house rule with LO (easier said than done though,
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I've had some loud neighbors. I'd much rather hear your LO running around than rap music and video games at 2 am! Hope others have some good advice.
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i don't know, but it reminds me of this video that i saw on cup of jo last week.
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I agree that you should try to talk to them directly. Maybe you could keep LO out of certain rooms during certain times of the day or something. It's worth a try!
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@Reese: @raspberries: yes we have the extra thick ones from ikea and we also have thick rugs
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I work at an apt complex, so we ask the neighbor that's submitting the noise complaint to give as much info as possible - time of day the noise is occurring, what rooms it seems to be coming from, etc. It's a little ridiculous for them to expect your toddler to tiptoe around all the time. Especially because I'm assuming your toddler goes to bed early? We ask residents to be more quiet after 10pm.
Have you tried slippers? That might help muffle the sound a bit.
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@birdofafeather: that is hilarious.
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@littlecasita1122: I've been on edge today telling dh and dd to tiptoe around. We must be really loud because we just moved in a month ago
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@birdofafeather: Hahaha, that was awesome.
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@bunnylove08: Honestly, we have lived in an apartment for 6 years and people walking around above you is just a part of the way that we live. I can't imagine complaining because people were walking loudly. The only time we ever complained about a neighbor was one who left his door wide open and blasted music very very loudly and another who was doing P90x in the living room above us. Even then, we went directly to the neighbor and talked to them about it. I highly doubt you are THAT loud. Are you doing jumping jacks? Dropping bricks on the floor?
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Was the apartment empty for a while before you? Maybe they aren't used to people and it's just normal sounds.
A family I nannied for was dealing with this and it took weeks of communication with the down stairs neighbors to figure out what it was that bothered them. Turns out wheeled toys where terrible, the play stroller especially.
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@bunnylove08: Can you have them call you when they think its noisy - that way you know exactly what the issue is?
Also, any time you have someone above you there will always be noise - maybe they have a low tolerance?
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@maddyz: The apartment was vacant for a while since they renovated it and we had a slightly long closing.
@bpcmarj: We had neighbors above us before we moved. We just chalked it up to people living above us, we did go up once and asked them to keep the noise level down. We think there was a domestic abuse problem and we had to call the cops on them twice when we heard breaking of glass and a threat to shoot the other person. Thankfully my neighbor kicked the guy out.
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@Mamaof2: Its a good idea. I think I might ask DH to do this because I'm a chicken, or maybe we can all go as a family, introduce ourselves and give our phone number to them.
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@bunnylove08: or have the management company pass it along
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We have a noise problem with the upstairs neighbor. There was a chair with wheels on it, and sometimes the kids would take that for a ride. Sounded like a bowling alley down here! We talked to them once and that problem went away, phew!
The other problem is the constant jumping and running of the kids, especially early in the morning and late at that. After experiencing that, we set up some rules to stop allowing our kids to jump off the couch and beds, etc., so our downstairs neighbor (a business) doesn't have to deal with that.
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Definitely talk to them. We've been the downstairs neighbors several times in the past and we were too chicken to go talk to the people upstairs at times, but when I was able to tell them what the main issue was (in one case, they would always vacuum at 6am on Sunday mornings and wake us up), they were able to fix it. If anything, they will appreciate you trying to help and may be less inclined to complain more.
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@catlady: Wow 6 am vacuum sessions?
So it's funny that they complained about us, we can actually hear their conversation through the floors.
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It might not be your fault. I lived in a place that was insanely loud, like walking up there sounded like a pogo stick/ sledge hammer combo. It was old floor boards that needed to be replaced.
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@Greentea: i think you're right. we'll just have to be more conscious but our neighbor also has to understand we living in an apartment building.
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