Why am I hearing my neighbours?

January 26, 2024 6:08 PM

For two years, I have heard no sounds from neighbours in my sturdy concrete condo building. Suddenly, I am hearing them. Why might that be?

The only time I ever heard neighbours since we moved in was if they were talking in the hallway, and rarely, water in the pipes. Suddenly, I am hearing things like drawers opening and closing, dog barking, group laughter. Always around 9 pm. Clearly someone new has moved in and they like to entertain.

What I can’t understand is why I’m hearing this now when, for two years in this building, I’ve heard nothing. I emailed the superintendent to ask if they had many units above me which had changed their flooring or insulation or something, and he said there hadn’t been in this sounds like regular apartment, building noise to him. And it is, and they aren’t up until 4 in the morning or anything, so in that sense, it’s fine. I just can’t figure out why I’m hearing it now when I didn’t used to.

Any ideas?

posted by ficbot to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Some people like to move quietly through the spaces they use, as a matter of personal policy. Me, for example.

Some people do not. I know exactly which room in our house little ms flabdablet is in, for example, because each one has its own characteristic orchestra of bangs and thuds and thumps and she conducts them like Bernstein.

I think you're hearing your neighbours because they're noisy neighbours.
posted by flabdablet at 6:29 PM on January 26 [11 favorites]

Acoustics can be weird. If they're in the exactly the right spot in their apartment, I can occasionally hear the neighbors who live two floors up from me, which is very strange when it happens. Possibly your new neighbors could have their apartment arranged so that they're more often in places where sound carries well to you.

Also, if your prior neighbors had a lot of soft surfaces (rugs, upholstery, carpets) and your new neighbors don't, their place could generally be louder since there's less material to muffle sound. If they're also just louder in general, like some people are, that would magnify the difference from your prior neighbors further.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:11 PM on January 26 [7 favorites]

Any chance the old neighbor had a partner of some kind (or was a flight attendant or whatever) and so they just stayed in another place most of the time?
posted by raccoon409 at 8:33 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

I mean, have you ruled out your hypothesis that someone new moved in and they just like to entertain more?
posted by MiraK at 8:38 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

My previous upstairs neighbors had rugs all over their apartment and were generally quieter people. My current upstairs neighbors don't have any rugs and stomp-walk. I hear everryyy step now.
posted by dabadoo at 8:52 PM on January 26 [3 favorites]

A change in people can mean a substantial change in how the space is used. For many years, my bedroom shared a wall with the bedroom of a rotating cast of single, very religious college aged folks. They were almost always very quiet - only one person in the room at a time so I never heard people talking, no sexual partners so none of the noise that comes from that, and for some reason I never heard their alarm clock except with exactly one of the tenants. Then I got new neighbors - a family with a young child. I constantly heard the couple talking and the kid running in and out of the bedroom every morning at 7:30 am. I could hear their TV when I stood outside their apartment. It was a radical change and the only difference was the humans (and to the best of my knowledge the room on the other side of the wall had wall to wall carpeting!)
posted by A Blue Moon at 9:18 PM on January 26 [3 favorites]

Agree that some people are just heavy-footed. I have been astounded at how much more noise we can hear from our new next door neighbors compared to previous neighbors. Sounds are coming via the ceiling, which is confusing since we are on the top floor and last I checked there wasn't a rooftop cabin. I believe "flanking transmission" is the technical term for this phenomenon.
posted by spamandkimchi at 2:43 PM on January 27

Old tenants had bookcases full of books, rugs on floors, were not loud talkers, new tenants, not so much.
posted by theora55 at 4:18 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]