Advice on noise between flats please!!

mini-me66

I live in a ground floor purpose built maisonette. When i moved in i rarely heard my upstairs neighbours, just the odd thump when they ran up the stairs. Unfortunately they moved out and new neighbours moved in and have obviously done some DIY. I think they have put wooden/laminate floor down in the bedroom because suddenly i can hear everything.....drawers opening, mobiles vibrating, talking (cant quite work out the exact conversation) and plug sockets being turned on/off aswell as the usual walking around and daily 'tune tapping' on the windowsill (which makes me chuckle a bit). Thankfully i have only heard the bed squeek once or twice :rotfl:

I dont set an alarm anymore as every morning at 6.55 i wake up when one of them gets up.
I know there is nothing i can do as i chose to live downstairs but what concerns me is what sound will travel from my room!!
Has anyone lived in both 1st floor and ground floor flats and can advise whether me being able to hear their whole life means they can hear nearly the same of mine!!??

Thanks in advance for your help....or if you can recommend an amazing pair of ear plugs!

wssla00

Hi

I live in an upper and I can hear my neighbours but as long as you are considerate to each other things should be ok. Most people who live in flats know what they are getting themselves into and unfortunately it's part of living in a flat.

olias

Don't flat leases usually have a clause prohibitting the use of solid flooring in upper flats precisely to stop these problems? Have you checked your lease to see if this is the case with yours?

Olias

talkhard

I live in an upstairs flat and never ever hear my neighbours downstairs. We've been here 6 years so plenty of opportunity.

Unfortunately this cannot be said about our next door neighbours whom we've just got Environmental Health involved with.

mazinmouse

Up until 2 years ago we lived in a first floor maisonette built in 1960. A few years before we moved new neighbours moved in downstairs and installed laminate flooring in two rooms. The new neighbours were considerate so things were bearable. The next owner (rather a 'lad') finished the laminate flooring process (ripped up his bedroom carpet at 2.30 in the morning after a night out on the town because Dad was taking the carpet away in his trailer the next morning). From that point onwards we could hear every word of loud drunken conversations. At two or three in the morning you could picture their lives from the sounds alone. Eg, hear the kettle boiling, hear the switch click off, hear water being poured into the mugs and the teaspoon stirring the sugar in - as well as other 'activities'.

Neighbourly relations deteriorated but we didn't get Env Health involved; we put a large sign up in our garden listing our gripes and relied on parent power (his parents) to bring the situation back under control.

I don't think sound travelled down from our flat in quite the same way as we kept the place carpeted and curtained and quite a lot of sound was absorbed (I hope) . I did become paranoid about turning over in bed as our bed frame creaked quite a lot!

Now we live in a detached house. I didn't even comtemplate a semi or any aspect of a shared wall when we were looking for our current home - and thank my lucky lucky stars every day that we were in a position to do this.

sillywilly

I doubt they can hear as much of you as you can them. Depends on what flooring materials you have. But if you can hear them have no doubt they can hear you. Hope this helps.

mini-me66

Thanks for all the advice. I had heard that flats weren't allowed wooden floor upstairs but as ours is a a system where i own my leasehold and their freehold (and vice versa) we dont have any 'leasing agreement' as such.

I was more concerned how much they might be able to hear from me, as i hadnt really thought about it until i could suddenly hear everything!!
Thanks again.

Mankysteve

If you do owe the property and are really bothered by it then a false celling with loft insulation put in would sort it.