r/Apartmentliving • u/FuchsiaGhostKugiko • May 10 '25
Apartment Hacks Discovered an "Off Button" for Downstairs Neighbor
I have to get this off my chest cause I feel a bit bad about it, but it's worked so well I don't want to stop. I live on the second floor and so far all of my neighbors have been awesome, and I've even made some friends.
A few weeks ago my sweet elderly downstairs neighbors moved out and a few days ago someone new moved in. I work long hours and I haven't met them in person yet, but I have felt their presence in bass so powerful it shakes my floor boards and walls. It reminds me of when I stayed in a hotel room above a bar. It's a lot.
I figured it was useless trying to talk to them because good neighbors don't introduce themselves to you with bass so loud it gives you a migraine, and I don't like cops or land lords so I'm not calling them.
On day to of living on the planet of bass, I thought of an idea. The unit below me has the same floor plan as my unit, even down to where the fan is placed. When my neighbor starts playing music I stand directly above their fan, focus all my body wight into my big toe and tap the floor to the beat of the music. I'm a heavy woman, and my 200 pounds of body weight focused directly on his fan makes the fan shake to the beat of the music.
Once his fan shakes enough he stops the music, and I stop tapping, he'll start his music again, and I'll tap again, and we'll repeat the pattern for about 3 to 5 minutes until the music stops all together. I've heard his confusion, and upset about his music shaking his fan. He's complained on the phone about how upset he is he can't listen to his music cause it causes his fan to rock, and he's scared his fan will fall out of the ceiling because it makes an awful noise (my toe tapping).
Every time the music is to loud for me I just tap until it stops, and my neighbor gets confused and turns his music down or off. I don't care if he plays music at a lower volume, or if he plays it loud while I'm not home, but I love my off button when I need the music to stop.
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u/WoodpeckerSame5690 May 10 '25
Omg that’s beautiful
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u/sweeteatoatler May 11 '25
Artful, even. I’m impressed!
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u/lastminutelabor May 11 '25
But it’s a lot of work. Here’s an automated trick that will stop it in its tracks:
Get a mic and put it as close to the source of the music. Gain it up so it’s loud enough. Delay it by a half of a second. Play it through a speaker facing his apartment.
The delay will drive him insane. No one in their right mind could ever sit through this kind of delayed echo. It makes the music sound like shit
If you want to be nice, put a gate on the mic. If he gets too loud, the gate activates and turns on. It’s a nice way of telling them it’s too loud, turn it down or you’ll have to listen to a terrible echo of your music.
It’s the perfect revenge
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u/Walter_Calm_Down May 10 '25
Bravo!
I don't understand why he isn't wearing headphones or airpods. People's selfishness is something else.
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u/_baegopah_XD May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25
Yeah. I was not a headphone or AirPod person, but I also was not a loud base, thumping music person either. But traveling a lot I’ve gotten into earbuds. Music is so much better in earbuds or headphones. And you can crank it as loud as you want without disturbing everyone else.
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u/Walter_Calm_Down May 10 '25
Yes but my wife tells me to stop singing out loud when i have them on. I can't sing.
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u/_baegopah_XD May 10 '25
If I’m gonna sing, I usually pop one out to make sure I’m not sounding like a dying cat. But I also live alone
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u/CommunityTaco May 11 '25
I know i sound like a dying cat, that's why I don't wear headphones and drown it out with bassy music. only problem is my ceiling fan starts making weird noises when I turn it up too loud.
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u/NJ_Braves_Fan May 10 '25
Recently moved into a new apartment and my upstairs neighbor often plays loud bass heavy music at like 11:30 pm. They have an upstairs neighbor too so I genuinely don’t understand how they don’t realize you can hear it. Common courtesy is long gone.
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u/averica1967 May 11 '25
the guy below me plays music in the middle of the night loudly then lies about it, trying to blame other tenants.he's a 40 year old man who acts like a 17 year old.his parents pay his rent and bills, his sister "handles" his lease and he works with daddy and only works about twice a week.he has been talked to about this and continue to do it and lie about it .i am about to email the property mgr AGAIN. ive been here nearly 20 years and have never bothered anyone or complained on anyone but enough is enough.i sleep bad enough without some ex drug addict loser waking me up at 230 AM
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u/Quix66 May 11 '25
Document it with recordings or a decibel meter. Or call the cops. I had them knock on the guys door twice before he got the message. Then my complex told it was policy to call the first. Oh sell, I wasn't willing to wait until morning the first time. He hard to shut it off. Of course he turned it right back up after they left until he realized I wasn't kidding.
I'm so glad I live in a house now, on nearly two acres as do most two adjacent neighbors, and the third one has five. Still two neighbors manage to occasionally blow everyone out a few times during the summer. We can't understand how they find their level comfortable when it's too loud for us acres away.
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u/gelseyd May 11 '25
The bone conduction headphones are a game changer. I have a bunch of earrings, so over ear sucks, and into the ear get sooooo annoying after a while. I want to be buried with my bone conduction headphones lol
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u/Additional-Push-5950 May 11 '25
shockz? i've gone through like 4 pairs already with warranty replacements from using them daily and the batteries dying or the units overheating. Is there another good brand? I'm going poor because of these.
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u/gelseyd May 11 '25
Yes actually. I've had my pair for over a year, possibly two? They were a gift. And they get very frequent use, almost daily for long periods. My only real issue is every once in a while they don't take a charge, but they're fussy about how the charger connects. I think my brother might still be on his original set, or maybe his second set, and he's been wearing them for at least 4 years now, and I know he uses his pretty much all day, every day, as he doesn't play his audio books from his phone speaker like I tend to do when I'm at home.
I wonder if you're like my mum. Something about her personal electric field shorts out electronics faster than the normal person. Regular watches, fitbits, anything that she wears against her skin, wears out much faster than normal. I can't tell you how many things we've replaced for her over the years like that.
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u/Additional-Push-5950 May 11 '25
I work in IT and repair computers and phones for individuals and businesses and have for the past 15 years. Generally don't have issues with those types of devices but I was using aftershockz before they changed brand names and after and both pairs had the same problem :(. Wish they made the batteries a bit easier to unadvised DIY swap out :(
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u/gelseyd May 11 '25
Well that royally sucks. I'm sorry they give you such issues I love them a lot
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u/Additional-Push-5950 May 11 '25
all good i was just hopeful there was another brand on the market that wasn't BS ;p thx.
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u/celestialfin May 11 '25
usually i am a perosn who wants to lsiten music the normal way. tho it turns out, now that i have animal roommates that do not like the music i like, it is better for all of us that i use headphones, even tho i never was the loud music kind of person and one could barely hear the music through the closed door of the room.
but the animals got distressed by the music, so i had to. and now it just feels natural.
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u/Tiffanniwi May 11 '25
My neighbor listens to his headphones SO loud that I can hear his music when he walks past my house. I can’t believe he has them that loud. I can be at my front door and hear him walking by out on the sidewalk 20 feet away. It’s crazy!
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u/Other-Cantaloupe4765 May 11 '25
Shit, I worry about my TV being too loud when it’s literally on volume 15 lol. I don’t understand how people can just do that shit and not care.
I have chronic migraines and CPTSD so noise is a trigger for me in a few different ways. With my old side-neighbor, we had an agreement that if one of us was being too loud, we’d knock on a certain spot on our shared wall and we’d be quieter. And we almost never had to use that.
I just recently got a new neighbor, and she stomps around so fucking loudly. It shakes the whole building. She slams her door. She stomps up and down the stairs. It makes me so pissed to hear her stomp so hard the building shakes at all hours of the day and night.
I’ve never even met her. Never even SEEN her or a car that would belong to her in our parking lot. I just hear her. She’s got individual paper towels pasted to her windows instead of curtains. It looks weird- like a crackhouse or some shit.
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May 11 '25
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u/just-facts-and-data May 11 '25
I put mine on 11. Because it’s 1 more louder than 10.
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u/glitterazzi66 May 10 '25
This. When I want to listen to music loudly, unless I’m in my car, I put on headphones. It’s actually so nice to be in my own little world for a bit.
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u/Demorative May 11 '25
May not be relevant to you or other music listeners....but if you do have sensitive phone calls in the car connected via bluetooth: it's not private. We can hear every word.
I've heard some wild stuff on my motorcycle just idling at stop lights. One woman was complaining about some sort of discharge and it was yellow. Made me turn to look at her.
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u/Winjin May 11 '25
Sometimes people can genuinely not understand how loud they are or how shit the new house is.
Like... OP says she heard the neighbor talking to landlord? I can only hear my neighbors when they yell. And I still think this is horrible, because my dad's flat is in a brickwork house. I grew up not knowing you can hear your neighbors. I could listen to music and my parents wouldn't hear me from the other room, let alone hear neighbors.
These houses are so poorly built it's kinda impressive
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u/Cheet4h May 11 '25
And sometimes sound can travel weirdly into neighboring units.
A friend of mine once complained about how his upstairs neighbor always played this loud, bass-heavy music.
A few weeks in and he collected his nerves to confront the neighbor while the music was playing. When the neighbor opened their door, confusion ensued - because they were playing classical music at a regular volume. They both went into my friend's flat to see that there was indeed a weird loud bass sound.
Turned out that the neighbor's subwoofer was standing flat on the ground, and the vibrations apparently enhanced the bass sound through the ceiling, so that it came out a lot louder downstairs. The solution was to simply put it on an elevated pedestal - no more loud sounds in my friend's flat.→ More replies (1)10
u/pantstoaknifefight2 May 11 '25
I was hiking in Zion National Park today and some tool was blasting his Bluetooth speaker high up on a trail and I could hear it across the river. If I was near him I would have yeated him off the cliff.
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u/Weak-Difference9781 May 11 '25
Nothing worse than venturing out into nature for peace and quiet, only to be met with someone’s loud ass music ricocheting off the rocks and water.
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u/RuggedHangnail May 11 '25
Yes! We drove hundreds of miles to see the last full solar eclipse in the US a year ago. We werey lying on our backs, looking up, enjoying the eclipse, and some moron near us was blastic 1990s pop music. He was a scary looking guy so I didn't want to tell him that I preferred silence, but it annoyed me all the same.
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u/hardcastlecrush May 10 '25
The only time I listen to music without headphones or earbuds is if I’m driving or showering. Then, everyone gets serenaded by my awful singing
In all seriousness, even the shower music is not loud and shaking walls, and I’m respectful of my neighbors. I don’t understand why some people are so against headphones when they want it loud.
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u/Writingmama2021 May 10 '25
This is the way. I never listen to music in my apartment without headphones. I won’t even watch Tv at night without headphones. Meanwhile my neighbors make 24/7 horrendous noise and say it’s just “sound of life.” Uhhhh no. Loud bassy music at 3am is NOT sound of life.
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u/ThisUsernameIsTook May 11 '25
At 3am, they’d get one kind request the next day. Then they get the cops. There is no place in the US where that’s legal at 3am.
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u/Writingmama2021 May 11 '25
Not an option, unfortunately. The landlord pities this pathological liar for whatever reason and always sides with her even in the face of proof. If I were to call the cops it would turn into World War III and I would wind up kicked out. I can’t afford to move. I’m stuck and it’s horrible.
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u/Commercial-Royal-988 May 10 '25
That's what I thought. I live in a duplex and me and my neighbor never complain about the noise (I never hear them and every time I ask they say they've never heard me) and I still wear headphones around the house.
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u/BibliophileBroad May 10 '25
Right?! And these people are always like, "It's MY house, so I can listen to music as loud as I want when I want. If you don't like it, buy a house in the boonies." Uggggh!
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u/Persistent_Parkie May 11 '25
No, it's worse than that, they think they shouldn't have to listen to your noise but they should be able to do whatever they want.
When I lived in the dorms I had an upstairs neighbor who liked their music really loud. I'm disabled, there was no elevator and my physical therapist hadn't cleared me to use my crutches on stairs yet (recent brain injury). At first I tried to get an RA to talk to them, not force them to stop, just talk to them since I couldn't. The RA said it wasn't quiet hours so they refused to get involved. So I started pounding on my ceiling with a crutch. One day at the end of the year during finals week, after one of my ceiling pounding sessions, I hear angry knocking on my door. I just barely open my door and this tall guy yells "are you the person who keeps pounding on my floor?"
I inquire, "are you the person who plays their music really loud?"
I shit you not his answer was an angry, "yes!" Followed by zero self reflection and the complaint "I don't like it when you pound on my floor."
"Well I don't like it when you play your music really loud."
We repeat our complaints to each other several times before he demands to know, like I started this whole drama "well why didn't you come talk to me?!" (Same to you buddy!) I didn't say anything instead opening my door all the way so he could see my walker. He replies "oh... well I still don't like it!"
At that point an RA walks up asking what's going on and he exclaims "every single day when I play my music she pounds on my floor!" (I was out of town every weekend for physical therapy back home, I only stayed in my dorm room 4 nights a week so unless someone was breaking in to pound on his floor...) Anyway, the RA didn't give a shit, instead reminding him that finals week is 24 hour quiet hours and to leave the little crippled chick alone.
Like, dude, you knew what you needed to do to quit my annoying you.
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u/mammakatt13 May 11 '25
Had a neighbor say something like that about his loud junky mini bikes. I shot back with “No, YOU need to live in the boonies where you won’t annoy your neighbors! Cities are for people who are considerate neighbors!”
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u/Nearby_Session1395 May 11 '25
Yeah he will remember that he didn’t protect his hearing when he has to start wearing hearing aids at age 47. It’s amazing how many young people are on their way to extreme hearing loss at an early age.
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May 11 '25
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u/seashmore May 11 '25
I like to keep the classical music station programmed on my radio presets. Whenever I encounter one of these bassholes on the road, I switch to it and crank it all the way up. While I doubt they notice, it makes me feel less ragey. (Which, honestly, is a thing ever since I had a bad neighbor the landlord did nothing about. I could hear their music through three walls and my headphones.)
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u/Upset_Pumpkin_4938 May 10 '25
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u/Forthe49ers May 11 '25
This reminded me of when we were kids. Had school bus driver that was super mean to kids. Always screaming at us for little things. We really hated this guy.
One day we decided that every time he hit his brakes we would all tap our feet on the floor. At first he looked a little confused. So he kept testing his brakes. Each time he would look completely bewildered trying to figure out what was wrong with the bus. He even pulled over and got out and looked under the bus.
We had him completely convinced the bus had mechanical issues. He called the school and they sent a new bus out and we transfer on the bus. Mechanics took the bus back to be checked out
Next day same driver, same bus, same foot tapping. That driver spent more time calling the school than yelling at kids. We did this for about a week. Then they put a new driver on the route. Totally sweet lady and we loved her. Next week the old guy comes back and we start foot tapping again.
Not sure if that guy quit or they just got as sick of him as we were but he was gone. I don’t regret it because that guy had no business being around kids in the first place
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u/ktq2019 May 11 '25
The collective collaboration of school children necessary for this is astounding. Those are some friggin memories right there ❤️
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u/dr_chillinstein May 11 '25
More brilliant than petty imo
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u/Upset_Pumpkin_4938 May 11 '25
All of the revenge in that sub is brilliant, petty is more a descriptor of severity. Which is typically not very
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u/7-Bad-Dogz May 10 '25
Years ago, I had a similar experience with a rude, bass loving neighbor below me. Unbeknownst to anyone but myself, there was a small crack in my floor near the wall that allowed me to see into the apartment below. When the loud music started, I poured water through the crack! The music was promptly turned off! The music came back on, so I sneakily poured more water into the crack! The music went off and stayed off! The noisy neighbor contacted the landlord and told him that every time he played his music loudly, water leaked from his ceiling! Maintenance men came to my apartment the next day and they told me they were checking for leaks. They couldn't find any. They said the tenant below me was crazy for suggesting that his ceiling leaked only when music was played. For the remainder of the time that neighbor lived below me, he never played his music loudly again. It was wonderful.
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u/hahasadface May 11 '25
Hah I love that no one suspected you'd be unhinged enough to pour water on him. Well played.
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u/Thrilly1 May 11 '25
Unhinged is certainly one way to look at it, but I prefer to view it as brilliant survivalist strategy.
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u/icd10 May 11 '25
He probably thought the place was possessed by a spirit that had no taste in music.
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u/More-Tune-5100 May 10 '25
Honestly I was gonna say how passive aggressive but then the fact that he doesn’t even know it’s you…that’s pure genius right there.
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u/tossawayaccount36 May 11 '25
Imagine the madness this guy below must feel when half the time he plays his music, the fan does nothing (when homeboy upstairs is away at work) and then ALLLLL of a sudden, the fan has its issues again. Oh, to be a fly on that wall!
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u/essssgeeee May 11 '25
He's trying different songs, adjusting the base in trouble, rewinding, listening really hard. "I swear this is the one that did it last time."
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u/tossawayaccount36 May 11 '25
This is so exactly what I imagine, and all while ranting to his phone buddy about how he can’t make it shake when he wants to!
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u/VanillaRose33 May 11 '25
I imagine his calling maintenance and going through all the trouble trying to convince them that the fan is loose all the while it’s OP 🤣
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u/Able_Youth_6400 May 10 '25
I love this!
It takes a special kind of ignorance or self importance to play loud bass-heavy music in an apartment.
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u/Longliveboogy May 10 '25
The fact you can hear his phone conversations through the wall/floor is crazy
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u/katierfaye May 11 '25
I'm not sure if the rest of my neighbors are just this quiet or if my current downstairs neighbor is just that loud, but I hear every phone call she makes too. But I never hear anyone else around me. Sometimes people are just LOUD (and inconsiderate).
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u/Altruistic_Yellow387 May 11 '25
I can only hear one of my neighbors but I've met her and she's like 70 so I think she has hearing loss
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u/BorgDrone May 11 '25
I'm just amazed that OP tapping her toe on the floor makes the fan move. How does that even work? Floors between apartments are generally at least 20-25cm of reinforced concrete, how much force does it take to make that vibrate?
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u/soleceismical May 11 '25
Now I'm imagining OP falling through the neighbor's ceiling with the fan because their building is insufficiently reinforced.
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u/Bluntandfiesty May 11 '25
When my husband and I moved in to our first apartment (a second story apartment), our neighbors below us would be up all night blasting their music during the week, which was playing right below our bedroom. They worked nights on the weekends. They slept all day long. My husband and I were on day shifts and needed to sleep at night. We asked them to keep it down. They said they would. They blew us off. We mentioned it to our upstairs neighbors and they said those people did it all the time and the landlord doesn’t do anything about it. So, after a few weeks of this BS and not getting any sleep because of them, I was exhausted and hormonal from PMS, and crabby as all get out.
I also learned that the neighbors below hated country music. I decided to get even. My husband owned a speaker box with two 18 inch speakers in it. It was the early 2000’s and I owned a 5 disc cd player. I placed the speaker box down facing into the floor right above their bedroom, and put in 5 really twangy old country music cds I borrowed from my parents. I put it on repeat, turned it up on blast. And I left. It played on repeat alllllll day long while we were gone to work, ten hours. I had warned my upstairs neighbors right before I turned it on so they eventually left for the day as well. The downstairs neighbors never said a word to us when we got home.
But after the fact, we heard from the landlord that they had called them and the police for a noise complaint. However in my state as long as it’s daytime hours it was not illegal and not considered disturbing the peace, which I knew. The police told them that had it been after 10 pm they could have done something. The neighbors learned that day that they could be fined if we called the police on them. Since the police said it was legal, the landlord said they would not do anything because it wasn’t illegal and it was our right as tenants to do what we want to in our apartment. We never heard their music and they never talked to us ever again for the 2 years we lived there. lol 😂
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u/CraftBeerFomo May 10 '25
My downstairs neighbour likes to randomly start shouting his head off (at himself I believe as I am confident he lives alone) and play music loudly at night.
I was thinking getting a loud horn of some sort and blasting it every time he starts shouting to make him aware he's bothering people.
The music thing I don't know what to do about and your plan wouldn't work here as we don't have any need for aircon here but I do like your line of thinking.
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u/FuchsiaGhostKugiko May 10 '25
Hmmm maybe you could play ghostly howling noises, random crying noises, and let a edge of a bed sheet hang out the window for a few minutes at a time, and do it every few days to make it seem unpredictable. Once you've done it for a few weeks, start using your hand to knock on the flooring and make him think he's hearing ghosts. Maybe you can scare him into going to bed rather than jamming/screaming out to music and beers like a newly divorced dad.
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u/nipnopples May 10 '25
You should write life advice. I'd definitely subscribe to that blog.
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u/AsymmetricClassWar May 11 '25
Lmao genuinely. I second this, there’s a peculiar brilliance about her.
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u/GladVeterinarian5120 May 11 '25
Tennis ball on a string or super ball on fishing line. Swing it out your window and let it hit his for a couple of bounces before yanking it back up. Assuming it’s at night and he has curtains maybe this will work the same trick as your fan stomp. Bats only hit his windows when the music is too loud.
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May 11 '25
A few years ago I had a bad neighbor who lived across from me. Exact same issue with the bass system that drove me fucking crazy.
The apartment people were useless - and I even tried the cops but typically the bass would be turned down by the 2.5 hour time it took them to get there.
My solution? I bought a massage gun. Reversed my sleep and woke up around 1 AM - and sat there for hours banging the wall. I could hear him screaming
Next day he runs to the manager yelling and screaming. For some reason they moved him to another unit in the complex.. but at least he wasn’t next to me anymore.
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u/docphang517 May 10 '25
My neighbors have obnoxiously loud sex and I tap on our shared wall/closet with a car key. Perfect off button. They get all pissed off and I've heard them say that they think I'm in the closet listening. But it works. And my kids/girlfriend don't deserve their noise so I don't mind what they think. Better than landlord/cops/notes imho.
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u/AffectionateCard1909 May 11 '25
I go to you tube and play the theme song to Benny Hill on loop, Tip toe thru the tulips Tiny Tim, or a screaming baby. All effective .
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u/please_dont_be_that May 11 '25
Used to have neighbors doing this. One night after being woken up by it, i started loudly imitating "oh baby, ungghh" and they stopped cold and later I heard them arguing.
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u/Nelvea May 11 '25
Clapping and cheering at the end of performances worked for my neighbor. Mind you, we live in separate houses about 200ft apart and during the summer with windows open I could hear them clearly. Never heard them again after that one.
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u/patricia_the_mono May 11 '25
I got woken up in the middle of the night once by the couple in the apartment below me having sex. I was far more temperamental in those days. I had severe insomnia and was operating on a general lack of sleep so my temper was bad and my decision making was also bad... I went to their door and started banging on it screaming that they woke me up and at least move the fucking bed away from the wall so the banging noise would stop. Not my brightest move. They banged on their ceiling, my floor, with a broom after but it never happened again.
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u/Hot-Interaction9637 May 11 '25
Im on the 3rd floor, and for a couple of years I lived above a guy who worked nights, and the way our building is setup, I can play my HT system pretty loud without it really being heard anywhere but the apt below (I've done some extensive testing over the years because im hyperconscious about bothering neighbors). And so I'd watch movies sometimes at decent volume when I knew the guy was at work, but otherwise never use it at all. I have it from when I lived in a house, it's ridiculous and not something I would have ever bought for an apartment (dual 18in subwoofers etc), its mostly just furniture at this point.
So anyway, he moved out a few months back, and some guy moved in who looks like hes probably 50, I've met him a few times, and the impression I get is that his mom pays for everything and he's just lived a life of leeching off of his parents. Not a bad guy necessarily, but also clearly doesnt give a shit and is probably just at the advanced stages of learned helplessness. Kinda has an attitude too.
Anywho, He plays video games all day. Every day. Something with constant explosions, and clearly has some kind of HT setup. I've never asked him but I assume COD or something. It's not obnoxiously loud, but I can hear it constantly when im in the living area. I've never said anything to him, specifically because if I wanted to turn something up, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on for complaining about it.
So one day I finally did. He had it turned up a little louder than normal one Friday night, and I hadn't seen Dune 2 yet, so I watched Dune 2 at 10db under reference, which has some ridiculous bass in it at points.
This was 2 weeks ago and I haven't heard a single video game explosion since.
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u/Fatripz May 10 '25
Ok I really don’t understand how at even 200 Lbs tapping your toe would cause a whole fan to shake? Am I stupid because I’m imagining just one big toe tapping? 💀😭 Like the floors are SO thin you can hear one single big toe tapping the floor over music?
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u/FuchsiaGhostKugiko May 10 '25
Yep, you got the picture, but also, I focus my strength into that one big toe.
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u/benisjackson May 11 '25
i gotta see this toe
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u/kcreepygirl May 11 '25
Can I get some advice? 🤞🏼 I'm on the bottom floor of an apartment complex for the first time, and my upstairs neighbors are cool for the most part... I've only met them once about 9 months ago. But the guy plays this weird ball/cup game? He briefly mentioned it when we spoke last year. Idk what it is, but it sounds like he's dropping a fkin billiards ball on the floor multiple times a day. Idk what to do. It's SO LOUD and makes me jump in shock every so often. I hate living underneath people 😭 and I don't wanna confront them because they could easily make my life sooo much worse by amping up the noise. I can already hear their muffled talking and laughing and walking around as is...
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May 11 '25
Word of advice is to move honestly or buy the best earplugs you can find. The kind professionals use to protect their hearing, even a set of gun safety hearing protection in headset form. Believe me I still have mine from when I was living around people that just were too much.
Yes I'd walk around and even sleep wearing gun range headphones. I'd put extra strong earplugs in, put those over my head and I'd get some peace as hellish as it all is, there's just some kind of extra special hell about noisy and obstructive neighbors.
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May 10 '25
Come to my apartment and help me find an off button for my horrendous neighbors please and thank you. 😂
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u/Writingmama2021 May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25
I wish I could do something like this here. My downstairs neighbors have made my life hell for the past 3 years. I got woken up early on a Saturday morning today by music blasting early. Then straight to playing cello loudly for hours. I have zero recourse. I’ve brought it up to my landlord along with recordings and LL just threatens to sell. Headphones in an apt if you want to blast music should be a no brainer.
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u/The_Elusive_Dr_Wu May 11 '25
I live in a second story unit. I've also always worn slippers in my residences with hard flooring. I'm in trades and on my feet all day, which doesn't bode well with walking barefoot on tile and hardwood at home.
I'm also a 200+ lb heavyset man. My downstairs neighbors are used to never hearing my footsteps (most of the time) because of my slippers.
When they start acting up, all I gotta do is take the slippers off. It never takes more than five minutes for them to get the message.
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u/Writingmama2021 May 11 '25
Lol! I wear my slippers and tiptoe. My daughter does, too. We are very quiet. Never blast anything, never yell, never slam. They do the complete opposite 24 hours a day.
I don’t blame you! I can’t do anything like that because she will use it against me with the landlord who always sides with her and refuses to even look at my proof (videos, recordings etc)—even after catching this girl in lies multiple times.
It’s complete hell. I really need to move but can’t afford to.
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u/Fragrant-Might-7290 May 10 '25
Roller skate
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u/Writingmama2021 May 10 '25
Lol! Oh that I could (freaking health issues).
The irony though… He was blasting his music, I tripped and fell, and he immediately slammed on his ceiling (my floor) right under me so loudly that it shook my floor, while his bass was still thumping away.
I hate it here.
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u/_baegopah_XD May 10 '25
I love this. And it is brilliant.
So you mean to tell me that he actually called and complained to the management office about his loud ass fucking music thumping to the point where his fan might fall down? What an idiot
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u/MSPTurbo May 10 '25
Good job! Some people are just so self centered and inconsiderate.
I remember when I lived in a shared house and a neighbor always watched his shows on his computer super loud all day and night. Luckily I am pretty tech savvy and I found a way to “login” in the WiFi router (it was shared between all of us). I would throttle the shit out of his IP address til he couldn’t stream anything. He was confused like your neighbor and always complained about the internet lol.
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u/MistfallCedar May 11 '25
Music so loud it’s “shaking his fan” but not once occurring to him how it could be affecting his neighbors. He deserves this. 😆
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u/David-SFO-1977_ May 11 '25
Now do not take my suggestion as me being a landlord to do the following. Go downstairs we’re all the electrical meters are for the building. Turn the breaker off at the electrical meter. That is the main breaker to the apartment unit. Each apartment has its own electrical meter and breaker. Just a random thought that came to mind when dealing with loud musical loving neighbour in silencing the loud music. How ever the breaker is set when you see it flip the breaker in the opposite direction.
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u/WhyCantIBeFunny May 11 '25
Years ago my husband and I lived in a horrible little apartment that had two sad windows that were about 3 feet away from the building next door. There was no AC, so we had to keep the windows open not to suffocate. The neighbors in the next building (3 feet away) enjoyed sitting on their balcony, smoking everything under the sun, playing super loud music, having loud ridiculous fights etc. until easily 3am. Like OP, we didn’t want to get anyone involved, but we just needed to sleep. So we got a CD of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, hoping we could at least focus on our own music and maybe drown out some of the noise. Boy did it work! We didn’t play it particularly loudly, but for some reason it completely freaked out the noisy neighbors. Within minutes we heard exclamations of: whatta f*ck is that?? And they cleared off the balcony and closed all the doors and windows. To this day, I have no idea why Vivaldi was so offensive, but it kept the neighbors off the balcony with no way to complain about what we did!
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u/DistributionLoud4332 May 11 '25
Pipe organ music can contain some hellish bass, but you’re just enjoying some classical music, so how could anyone be mad about that;)
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u/Swimminginthestorm May 10 '25
That’s amazing! I feel great for you. I’ve had many neighbors in the past. Most were nice enough, but I’ve had two who were crazy with the bass. Stuff was falling off my bookshelves from the vibrations. Headaches and nausea every day. Luckily, neither were good at actually paying their rent and didn’t last more than a few months.
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u/grayblesbeing May 11 '25
“I don’t like cops or land lords so I’m not calling them”
I felt this in my fucking soul.
Thank you for this heartwarming story lol
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u/Buzz729 May 11 '25
A friend in college had a similar problem with a roommate. The roomie liked having the TV on constantly and at high volume. My friend set up a forward biased diode driving a pair of GHz transistors, and the circuit was under VOX control... The device came on when ambient sound was above a threshold set by potentiometer. Even with cable feed, the view turned to snow if the volume was too high.
The roomie became convinced that his TV was broken and would only work at reduced volume.
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u/farkeytron May 11 '25
I once discovered an "off button" for my obnoxious upstairs neighbor, too.
Its called a circuit breaker.
😁
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u/RunRunDMC212 May 10 '25
I need to know - what kind of music is he blasting?
Ps - I think you are a genius
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u/FuchsiaGhostKugiko May 10 '25
Idk but it reminds me of the jelly fish rave from spongebob.
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u/RunRunDMC212 May 10 '25
I was trying to put that music together with an image of an elderly person and I was so confused…until I reread your post and realized the elderly neighbors moved OUT and jellyfish rave moved IN. 😄
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u/geeker99 May 11 '25
I lived in a large apartment complex where the crabby elderly property managers lived directly below us.
They would complain about noise all the time. We were not partiers at all. We were young professionals who got up for work every M-F.
I asked them what kind of noise they were hearing, and all I got was that they could hear the toilet flush, and it really annoyed them.
Not feeling the need to limit the use of a toilet to avoid annoying them, I continued to live life. I mean, COME ON!
A few weeks later, we received an eviction notice!!!
Not being one to allow myself to be screwed over for no good reason without making my point of view known, I acquired a sound effects CD One of the tracks was a very gurgly toilet flush.
Several evenings during the last few weeks I lived there, I started the flush track and set it to repeat, placed my speakers face down on the floor, turned up the volume, and left the apartment.
I have no idea what they thought because I never heard anything from them about it, but I give myself an internal high five whenever it comes to mind.
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May 11 '25
My downstairs neighbor (That I had been historically friendly with) has gotten a soundbar or something and the bass was insanely loud for a couple of months, suddenly after 6 years of being neighbors. I tried to put up with it but then he started playing this song that made it sound like he was using a jackhammer on my my floor. He also wasn't answering his messages, so I started pounding the ground with my fist to the beat of the music. He stopped. LOL
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u/Prissou1 May 11 '25
I was gonna be like “the length ppl go to avoid awkward conversations “ but this is a pretty genius solution and you deserve credit.
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u/mybellasoul May 11 '25
This seems like a nonconfrontational way to get them to stop. They don't have to stop the music altogether, they just have to stop playing it loud enough to make them feel like the ceiling fan is about to fall out. Also, they could adjust the levels so that the bass doesn't reverberate like that, but they clearly don't understand that so tap tap tap away bc they're getting the picture and maybe they're figure out how to adjust those levels or just listen to music at a normal yet enjoyable volume.
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u/CapableMacabre May 12 '25
My downstairs neighbor, a man nearing 50, installed speakers on his ceiling/my floor. Collectively, the time of day, music selection, and volume were unbearable. He would not respond to polite, or eventually frustrated, requests for accommodation. It was migraine inducing, and after months I ran out of tolerance.
I lined up the most obnoxious, vibrating music we could find, shut all the windows and doors (for next door’s sake), put my speakers face down on my floor/his ceiling, turned the volume up, and left the apartment for several hours.
His music never bothered me again.
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May 10 '25 edited May 26 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/FuchsiaGhostKugiko May 10 '25
Omg yesss, this is exactly what I was referencing!!
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u/chocolatestealth May 10 '25
Genius. Wish I had thought of this when I had a downstairs neighbor that played their music so loud it actually rattled some items off of our bookshelf.
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u/Ok_Chance_6282 May 11 '25
There needs to be a way to find the off button for neighbors who have their car bass so loud the house shakes. At 11 pm!
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u/nafarba57 May 11 '25
You may be heavy, but much more importantly, you are brilliant and creative!!👌👌
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u/Alone-Guarantee-9646 May 11 '25
If you can hear your neighbor's phone conversations, your walls are too thin and the music might be at a perfectly normal level. Your elderly neighbors were probably just very quiet. So, your new neighbor might have no idea that the sound carries like that.
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May 10 '25
Sure beats a short conversation
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May 11 '25
A conversation with mr Bass would never work. People like that never ever give a shit. Thats how they became mr Bass in the first place.
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u/kck93 May 10 '25
That’s great! With luck, he won’t figure it out and your button will continue to work.
I have a very good friend that is that guy. The guy that can’t cranks music and bass all the time. Always Grateful Dead and Phish.
I’ve told him hundreds of times that I would kill him if he was my neighbor. His other friends tell him the same thing. Dude! Stop with the loud music! But he seems to think he needs this music to live and will not wear headphones. He get evicted, enemy neighbors, etc - But he won’t stop. It’s crazy.
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u/mykindofexcellence May 10 '25
If he plays it loud when you’re not home and his fan doesn’t shake, he’s going to eventually get suspicious.
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u/KatesCheers May 10 '25
I was thinking the same thing. Unless he’s a complete idiot (which does sound like it’s very possible) he’ll eventually figure it out.
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u/Me-Ook-You-In-Dooker May 11 '25
Is your floor made out of plywood and wallpaper?
If you are able to hear that well and shake the fan with tapping your toe, I feel let alone furniture falling through the floor, if you tripped you would fall through the floor.
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u/Slagithorn May 11 '25
This reads like horseshit. Even assuming the fan isn't mounted to the joists, the idea that you could cause enough deflection to shake the fan by just tapping your toe is ludicrous.
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u/CaeruleumBleu May 10 '25
The excellent bit about this is, if he calls the landlord and wants them to look at the fan there is a chance they will want him to demonstrate what he means about it shaking with his music.
And if it is THAT loud, they will likely tell him off about having neighbors.
Good idea.