How To Deal With Noisy Neighbors

Have you ever had noisy neighbors? Or have you ever been the noisy neighbors? I actually had a sitution where I was both, somehow. Years ago I was living on the second floor in an apartment building, with a backyard. I babysat kids during the day, and my downstairs neighbors was angry at me because she felt the kids were making too much noise... in the middle of the day. She got mad if the kids would go out and play with me in my backyard, because she wanted to be able to have her windows open and not hear children, so decided to blast music at really high decibels out her window to drown us out. Yet in the middle of the night she and her daughter stopped us from sleeping because of their 2 am screaming matches. It was such a pleasure to move away from her. If you are dealing with noisy neighbors, here are some things you might do to make things better.

Had enough of your noisy neighbors? There are a few things that you can do to finally get some peace and quiet. Below are just a few solutions for dealing with noisy neighbors.

Talk to your neighbors

If you’re being driven insane by loud music blaring through the walls or you’re fed up with your neighbor doing DIY late on a Sunday night, the best solution is usually to talk to your neighbor. Go to their door and politely ask them if they could turn the music down or keep the noise down. By keeping the tone friendly, you can usually avoid conflict and they will usually oblige.

Take your complaint higher

If you don’t feel comfortable confronting them in person - or they repeatedly keep making noise despite talking to them - you may want to consider taking your complaint higher. You could ring the police (this is particularly recommended if the source of noise is fighting or if your neighbor is quite an aggressive person). If your neighbor is a tenant, you could even try to contact their landlord. Such measures may be necessary to get through to your neighbor.

Wear earplugs

There is little you can do about certain sources of noise such as a loud snoring neighbor or a crying baby. That said, you shouldn’t have to have your sleep disturbed by these sounds - noise affects sleep in many ways and can be unhealthy in the long run. Wearing earplugs at night could be one solution to this. There are specialist earplugs that are made for wearing while sleeping that could be worth looking into. Try different earplugs to find the most comfortable option for you.

Soundproof your home

A drastic measure could be to soundproof certain areas of your home. There are several ways in which you can soundproof a wall to prevent noise passing through it. This includes adding insulation, adding acoustic foam panels or adding mass loaded vinyl. You can also explore ways of soundproofing ceilings or floors if you live in an apartment or condo and have a noisy upstairs/downstairs neighbor. There are soundproofing companies who you can pay to install these features. Alternatively, if you’re DIY-savvy, you could try installing them yourself.

Know when to move

Moving home could be another way to deal with the problem. Of course, if you love everything else about your home, you should probably keep this as a last resort option. There could be other ways to cope with the noise, such as reconfiguring rooms. For example, if you’re getting kept up by a noisy neighbor at night, consider whether moving your bed to the opposite wall could help. Or you could relocate your bedroom to a completely different room. If there are other issues with your home beyond your noisy neighbors, this may not be worthwhile, and you may be better off simply moving. Just make sure that when looking for new homes, you research into who your neighbors are - you don’t want to end up in the same situation!