Do you live in a condo or townhouse?

I live in a townhouse style condo.  I have lived here for over 25 years. Some neighbors have been better than others, but I really don’t hear a ton other than relatively quick bangs, barks, drops, etc.  Nothing really on going.  

I am a night owl so I am up late.  Up until a couple of years ago I was gone most nights to work and I didn’t get home until after midnight so noise wasn’t really an issue then.  The last few years we have been mostly work from home and I hear a bit more activity through the night but still don’t really hear very much.  I also usually have Music or the Tv on, so that may mask it some if there is some.

I wish I had some sage advice for you, but it really is you just have to put up with it.  If you think it is more than normal “living” noise from neighbors I would suggest talking with them or approaching your association/property management company if you think bylaws are being broken.  Good luck.  Sorry for your noisy situation.

Our condo building has 2 townhouse-style, a ranch, and a carriage unit.
The only time we can ever hear our neighbors is if they are in their bathroom and we are in ours (talking, not bathroom stuff). We are all generally quiet people so rarely an issue and it is solved by...leaving the bathroom

I live in a townhouse. I’m afraid my granddaughter was like your neighbor’s child. There’s a little boy next door and I can hear him going up and down the stairs if I’m in the kitchen. The son on the other side (he’s in his 40s) uses a lot of profanity when he plays video games. I hear him in the summer if I’m on my deck and he has his window open. Fortunately, he has a girlfriend now and I don’t think he’ll be around much this summer. Everyone else around here is very quiet. 

We own a semi-detached. We have had many neighbours in the other half. Some have owned it and some have rented (there are renters now). The worst were the owners who lived there when we moved in. He smoked like a chimney and the smell came over to our side. When he opened the back door the smell was horrendous. He ended up collapsing on the street and dying and his mother was put in a nursing home. A developer bought it and spent a year gutting and fixing it up. He invited me over to look after putting up with the noise. The worst is how many smokers have lived next door. The last lady was a single older person. She was quiet but she would sit right outside in the back and her cigarette smoke would come right in our patio doors in the summer. I would have to go close the door every time and she was a chain smoker. She didn't seem to clue in the our door closed everytime she lit up.

Other than that, a single mom with teenagers had one who played loud music. And they had a pot bellied pig for a summer which gave us lots of flies.

One time someone rented, had their belongings delivered and then almost burnt our two houses to the ground. After her stuff was delivered, she went out for the evening. Around 7pm, a man started banging on my door to say there was a fire next door. He grabbed all our fire extinguishers (we had a lot because we had just taken them off our boat for the season) and he called 911 before using the extinguishers. Luckily the whole fire department was just a block away practicing at the pond. My husband came home to fire trucks and all the neighbours watching. Next door was gutted and had to be totally redone. Our house luckily had no damage, just a really bad smell for a while. The movers had leaned her mattress against the gas fireplace that was the only heating in the house. Anyway, we had no neighbour for a year.

We had one family with little kids next door and the 3 year old kept calling my younger son a a-hole. Guess where he learned that? His parents were always fighting, when they weren't staring at us over the chain link fence. One weekend when we knew they were going to be away, we build a high wooden fence.

We've just put up with whatever. We don't use our backyard very much since we are away on our boat every weekend. We have been getting luckier with whoever has moved in as time goes by.

I lived in a NYC apartment for 10 years. No noise from upstairs as there was concrete between levels, but there were three guys living next door and their nighttime visits from various ladies would occasionally shake the walls. I lost it one night, walked across the hall to their apartment door and started ringing the bell and banging on their door. That was the end of the problem. 

I suggest speaking to the person directly and asking politely for the, to keep it down. Many apartments have rules about carpeting. 

I don’t think I could do that at this point unless it was an adult only type of place and mostly older folks. We are in a house and we have always been pretty lucky. The end of 2019 we got new neighbors the littlest was almost three. She is a screamer. She can give you an instant migraine. She was constantly screaming and crying and still does at the drop of the hat but thankfully not as often. We have a park on the other side of us and they play there often as I think the mom just doesn’t want to hear them. So even if you live in a house little girl screams can be really deafening. Even living in a house they might be screaming only 10 feet from your window. There are 4 girls that play together and it’s just the one little girl that’s bad. When she is playing at the friends house 4 houses down you can still identify her specifically from her screams and squeals. I hope the little girl across from you out grows it quickly. I have only lived in a small apartment complex and was in the second floor which was the highest so no one walking on my ceiling. I take that back I lived in a dorm and there was a floor above me but I don’t remember hearing them walking above me but it was a small single room so that might be why.

I live in an apartment style condo. I was OK when I 1st moved in but has gone downhill the past few years w who the owners are renting to. It is what I could afford at the time and it's cheaper than renting.

The people upstairs have 3 dogs and the run around (laminate floors) and it's loud. I have the laundry room next door to my unit. It's loud but it really bothers me when people use it outside of the posted hours.

They took the carpet out of the halls and replaced it w vinyl plank. I get it for durability, but the noise when people are at the entry talking or stomping up/down the main stairs is crazy. Oh and the slamming doors in the stairways.

Worse than the noise? The people on their balconies smoking pot. Gag. The way the building is built it just all wafts into my open windows.

#shouldasavedupmoreandboughtahouse

I live in a single home on about a half an acre. We moved from a lot that was less than a quarter of an acre. Even now I can't imagine going back to less land. I lived in a downstairs apartment for about 18 months right after we married and I swore I would never go back. (Never say never, right?)

I would really struggle in your situation. I get not wanting the outside maintenance, but the noise would drive me batty and probably make me cranky.

I live in a townhouse and my neighbours said they like their privacy but always say why don’t I come over more. She said she likes privacy? Also she has a smoothie at 8 am that I can hear. That’s all the noise they make.

Also I should say we have an end unit and the neighbours we cannot hear ever.

When I was single and renting, I lived in a 3 story apartment. The lady in the apartment did aerobicize. And it sounded like someone was hammering right above me.

I'll never live below someone again.

I live in a 3 story townhome so I share walls and not ceilings/floors.
It is very well-built, and I have not once heard my neighbors in the 8 years I've lived there. My neighbor did ask us what we were doing in our place a couple weeks ago, because he could hear a lot of noise. We were jackhammering tile.

I rarely hear neighbor noise and more regular city noise. Like the guy who lives down the street who puts his whiny/yelpy dog on his patio when his parents come over.

MIL lived in a condo before she passed. She got complaints because the neighbors all down her wing could smell her cigarette smoke smell from her unit all the way out in the hall, all the way down to the other end. Yeah, it was true and it was BAD. We got her an air purifier which helped some but didn’t eliminate the smell entirely. After she passed away, it took multiple coats of Kilz and paint in every room, all new flooring, carpeting and carpet padding and we had to get rid of all the curtains and window treatments to totally get rid of the smell before we could put the place up to sell. 🤢 I guess I would much rather deal with noisy neighbors than stinky ones.

It all comes down to the underlying construction. My parents have a very nice townhome and you can’t hear a single thing between units. The walls between units are constructed like two exterior walls and filled with sound-deadening spray foam insulation. We were there a couple weeks ago and their neighbor is mid kitchen renovation. We couldn’t hear a thing from inside - i had idea it was going on until we went outside and saw/heard the workers. They’ve lived there for 20+ years and say they haven’t ever heard their neighbors from inside.

They also have windows that dramatically reduce any exterior noise infiltration.

But..: I think the construction is really the only thing that makes a real difference. If it wasn’t built to minimize sound transfer, I’m not sure there’s much you can do after the fact.