Advice on Floor issue due to Neighbour

Davesnave

Jaynorth wrote: »

Not sure if you read my previous post but I explained that the houses here are very old and are of "single skin" construction or single brick, so you tend to find with these types of terraced properties that noise travels very easily so you can hear when someone goes up and down the stairs or in the corresponding room in the neighbouring property. Particularly if you are interested in listening and following your neighbour around with the intention of causing trouble.

You're asking us to believe that the neighbour can sense what room you are in through a brick wall. Further, we must accept that he continues this activity at all hours of the night without sleeping or any apparent benefit to himself, other than knowing he's 'caused trouble.'

To be honest, this is a pretty big ask. That's not an accusation that you're lying or exaggerating; just a straight statement of my reaction to your account.

I accept that older houses of relatively poor construction can allow sound to penetrate from one property to another, even enabling conversaions to be followed, but if you're being very quiet,and your movements can still be tracked, this neighbour must surely have super powers.

Anyway, if it were me and I had this extremely poor level of privacy to endure, I would be planning to move as soon as possible, rather than invest in soundproofing or beginning any kind of formal battle with this perverted neighbour, which would later need to be declared. Modifying another's behaviour is generally very difficult, especially if they have a personality disorder of some kind.

Jaynorth_2

Davesnave wrote: »

You're asking us to believe that the neighbour can sense what room you are in through a brick wall. Further, we must accept that he continues this activity at all hours of the night without sleeping or any apparent benefit to himself, other than knowing he's 'caused trouble.'

To be honest, this is a pretty big ask. That's not an accusation that you're lying or exaggerating; just a straight statement of my reaction to your account.

I accept that older houses of relatively poor construction can allow sound to penetrate from one property to another, even enabling conversaions to be followed, but if you're being very quiet,and your movements can still be tracked, this neighbour must surely have super powers.

Anyway, if it were me and I had this extremely poor level of privacy to endure, I would be planning to move as soon as possible, rather than invest in soundproofing or beginning any kind of formal battle with this perverted neighbour, which would later need to be declared. Modifying another's behaviour is generally very difficult, especially if they have a personality disorder of some kind.

I did say that he usually has people round drinking until the early hours and apart from that he also has a wife although she does not seem to be around much and he has someone staying in his spare room who I am guessing is a lodger because the estate agent mentioned that he had a lodger. This person / lodger from what I can tell does not go to work and always seems to be around and so has the luxury of being able to stay up late or at least relieve the burden of just one person staying up late and not sleeping.
I do understand what you are saying though about it being a big ask for anyone to believe this. I found it incredible that all of this could happen barely 12 weeks after I moved in which leads me to think that maybe there is something else going on there at night when all of his mates come round for a drink. I sincerely hope not.

Jaynorth_2

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

I do wonder why he would only start doing stuff like this shortly after you move in? Is it possible that you could have upset him in anyway, even unknowingly and this is “revenge”?

For example, do you have a TV attached to your wall where the sound is transmitting through to his side? Or (personal question which you don’t have to answer!) do you snore and he can hear that?

No I don't snore! but seriously even if I did don't you think that it is a little extreme for someone to stay up for most of the night and use equipment to shake the floor in my property and not only that but follow me to the living room when I get up in the middle of the night to go there to sleep? That is the kind of thing you do when you have a real dispute with your neighbour which has probably built up over maybe a couple of years but just 12 weeks?? Maybe he is upset that I did not use his services as a decorator when I moved in but to go to that extent because of this ? I don't think so.

Abbafan1972

J_B wrote: »

Sorry, I don't understand - how can a neighbour tell which room you are in???

I was thinking this as well?

Mistral001

Davesnave wrote: »

You're asking us to believe that the neighbour can sense what room you are in through a brick wall. Further, we must accept that he continues this activity at all hours of the night without sleeping or any apparent benefit to himself, other than knowing he's 'caused trouble.'

From what the original poster has stated, it would appear that the party wall between them and their neighbour's house is unusually thin. Most party walls are made of solid 9inch brickwork or a cavity wall with two skins of 4inch brickwork/blockwork. However some small terrace houses built in the early 1900's or before have party walls comprising just a single skin of 4inch brickwork. Such walls will transmit sounds very easily. I have lived in a terrace house with 4inch party wall and can say that you easily hear a lot of what is going on next door.

Lorian

Other things can vibrate all night, for example:

Heating pumps
Faulty T-Valve Syncro motors
Air conditioning units
Dehumidifiers
Hydroponics ventilation fans

Jaynorth_2

Lorian wrote: »

Other things can vibrate all night, for example:

Heating pumps
Faulty T-Valve Syncro motors
Air conditioning units
Dehumidifiers
Hydroponics ventilation fans

Like I said, I can hear it being switched on - these are old houses and the soundproofing is very poor. Also like I said, I have moved from upstairs bedroom to downstairs living room and heard my neighbour carrying a heavy item from upstairs to downstairs at 2am and few minutes later the disturbance starts again.

Funny that the disturbance stopped when I pretended to make a phone call to the council's noise pollution team and had a "pretend" conversation stating the problem and my address as well as my neighbours address. I got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep in my living room but they started again around 5am when it became obvious nobody was coming round to investigate.

Davesnave

Mistral001 wrote: »

From what the original poster has stated, it would appear that the party wall between them and their neighbour's house is unusually thin. Most party walls are made of solid 9inch brickwork or a cavity wall with two skins of 4inch brickwork/blockwork. However some small terrace houses built in the early 1900's or before have party walls comprising just a single skin of 4inch brickwork. Such walls will transmit sounds very easily. I have lived in a terrace house with 4inch party wall and can say that you easily hear a lot of what is going on next door.

All of which I either acknowledged or agree with, apart from the bit about cavity walls between properties, because there is no need for them.


There's a lot of stud partition walls 4" thick inside properties too, but it would not normally be possible to tell if an adjoining room was occupied if the person inside was very quiet.

pimento

How about going away for a week and letting a friend or relative stay in your house?

See what they make of the noise.

Not that I don't believe you but if they don't hear anything then it might mean the neighbour is a wind-up merchant and if they do hear something, they might have some input about what it might be.

Mistral001

Jaynorth wrote: »

Funny that the disturbance stopped when I pretended to make a phone call to the council's noise pollution team and had a "pretend" conversation stating the problem and my address as well as my neighbours address. I got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep in my living room but they started again around 5am when it became obvious nobody was coming round to investigate.

If these people are playing games with you and are deliberately trying to annoy you, then do not try to play games as well. It will only encourage them to continue.

You either need to get help from the authorities or get some other third party involvement such by getting a friend to stay with you for a while.