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by tayo42 1639 days ago
It drives me crazy. I really don't know how other people deal with it. Like my neighbors are so unbelievably loud, its starting to get to me. (I think some cultures identify with being loud?) Or do people just accept a poorer quality of life.

Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea. People are are to inconsiderate of each other to make it work I think and construction quality is too low. I hate being subjected to other people's noise. I'm a light slight sleeper so it wakes me up or it makes it hard to concentrate or even just relax. I don't want to live on some strangers schedule.

I can go on forever with a huge rant about how terrible noise is. I hate dealing with it. Talking to every person who is just way to loud is like whack a mole with noise.

3 comments

> Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea

You can have quiet and soundproofed dense living. It just takes some standards and codes to take it into account.

NotJustBikes recently made a video about how some Dutch cities are taking this very seriously ( like Delft), and how it works ( Cities aren't loud, cars are is the video name). In France good soundproofing is mandatory on new constructions, etc. People and regulators just need to care :)

they won't care, quality of life issues don't matter in the US. Someone will just call you a "karen" or something.

Im skeptical of sound proofing actually working. I think to actually sound proof you need an airgap between walls? This is all really expensive too

But that only stops some sound. If its warm and you need to open your windows all of that effort doesnt matter. Your just stuck hoping you don't have loud neighbors. Right now my neighbor is practicing their saxophone, its loud and grating (and not well played) everyone's windows are open the weather is mild so im stuck listening to it

75% of the reason I live in the country is because of the reasons you listed, as is 100% of the reason I'd never live anyplace other than a single family home.
I don't really get it though, like you want it to be quiet everywhere always? I definitely hate motorcycles or loud cars, but I've never been bothered too much by people noises or music. I've lived in highrises and above a night club and it was ok.

Construction can be annoying and I once lived next door to a tire shop and that was pretty bad, but even things like fireworks don't bother me.

I've lived in nature and on a farm before as well and both are pretty loud. Animals are loud and on the farm chickens, cows and geese can rival and humans noise or music. In nature bird noises are pretty crazy too and the coyotes will wake the dead from about 2-5am.

Silence is too weird, not all sounds are the same. Like chickens are horrible though and not really a natural part of most environments. I don't want to live on a farm. I didnt think cows were to bad when I stayed next to a small farm.

Some how I can deal with fireworks too though i would be pretty irritated if it happened every night and woke me up or something. Loud music drives me crazy, especially if its not music I enjoy. Bass particularly is bad, i struggle to drown it out with noise. I had a neighbor who I guess wanted to dj, the kick drum would go straight through the wall for hours. Cars that drive by with loud music or idle out side my window i found irritating.

Speaker phone conversations bother me, not sure why, i can usually tune out most regular conversations (except when its not in english?), but they also wake me up. Hearing muffled conversation through a wall is distracting. Loud tvs suck. Children screaming is terrible, babies crying etc.. My downstairs neighbor wakes me up when they start yelling at each other at 7am. Closing doors or cabinets or walking is mostly fine for me.

I guess no unnecessary or sudden, loud, repeated noise would be great. Like a car alarm or a child screaming for no reason. I'm not totally sure what the pattern is or what a tolerable noise is or bad noise is. Crickets are nice, i had no problem when i lived next to a lake with frogs or in pr with coqui frogs. Construction is bad.

Bass can wiggle through walls in ways that surprise even the person generating it. Worse, the wall filters out much of the other frequencies that might make it bearable. I think most people with their music rattling through their car doors don't even realize it. Think about it: the only way they would know is if they left the music on, got out, and shut the door. Not a common occurrence.

Plenty of music people think to treat their rooms with the usual foam on the walls, but not everyone thinks (or cares) to treat it with bass traps.

The incessant mooing.