Noisy neighbours....today's job

[poobear]

I empathize and sympathize with your problem with the noise inside your apartment. I too can't stand the noise in Thailand coming from very cheaply constructed houses and even cheaper windows. I have tried varios noise reduction methods and some have worked and some have not. My last house was so noisy that even after spending  about 40000 baht on doubling up my windows and insulation the ceiling I just sold cheap and ran. Life is too short and the noise makes me too angry.

 

When looking for last place I purchased noise was a major consideration . Its almost perfect in my Mooban except the few inconsiderate owners that have barking dogs and the idiots who think it is smart to feed the wild soi dogs outside our gate.

 

Of course your block wall and insulation will help a bit but the only thing I wave really found to work the best is white noise. Try soft music or search for white noise rain on your computer. 

 

Good luck

[BobBKK]

7 hours ago, JimTripper said:

Why don't you get quality recording studio insulation and put that up instead of building that crazy wall?

 

You can douple or triple them up, they have ones that are interlockable/stackable.

 

When you sell up you can just take it down and prospective buyers don't know about the problem. You're turning your unit into a construction zone for no reason. I don't think that cinder block type cement is really going to block sound that well, it's more meant to be a barrier.

 

 

Thank you - where to buy?  it's adhesive?

[JimTripper]

26 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

 

Thank you - where to buy?  it's adhesive?

https://s.lazada.co.th/s.lA36F

 

Audio or stereo/speakers stores probably have better quality professional ones available.

Edited December 7, 2023 by JimTripper

[Jenkins9039]

Why not pop round and see if they want to cuck

[charleskerins]

On 12/6/2023 at 9:05 PM, Rampant Rabbit said:

Ah I see why i stopped  posting on Thai Visa its because most posters are utter  <deleted> <deleted>, no change after a year off I see ta ta. 

Are you going to leave the block exposed or go over it with a material ,what is it sitting on?

[Nemises]

Yet another thread, and yet another reason to “only rent, never buy in Thailand”. Makes no sense to buy when rental costs are so ridiculously low here compared to our home countries and because of Thai’s obsession with maximum, objectionable noise and their blatant disregard for their neighbour’s peaceful living. 
 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Nemises

[JimTripper]

6 minutes ago, Nemises said:

Yet another thread, and yet another reason to “ only rent, never buy in Thailand ”. Makes no sense to buy when rental costs are so ridiculously low here compared to our home countries and because of Thai's obsession with maximum, objectionable noise and their blatant disregard for their neighbor's peaceful living. 

You're usually stuck somewhere for a year if you rent. The nicer places only accept long term leases. So, renting can get you out sooner, but it's not a perfect solution unless you like throwing away deposits.

Edited December 9, 2023 by JimTripper

[scorecard]

On 12/6/2023 at 6:18 PM, soi3eddie said:

Walked back up the local Soi in Bangkok an hour ago. A number of quite new replacement houses (no shortage of cash rather evident). Lovely floor to ceiling windows, none of them double glazed. Think of the noise reduction and lower cooling costs that that could be enjoyed by double glazing. The Thais just don't get it. A small extra amount upfront will lead to better enjoyment and lower costs for the life of the property. A friend built an A-Frame raised cabin in a southern province a few years ago, he stipulated high ceilings and cavity walls with insulation and a long overhang roof - locals and builder thought he was nuts spending the extra money. Result? No need for air conditioning. Maybe one-day...

 

 

"...The Thais just don't get it..." be fair, many farang also don't get it. 

 

A different example; I owned a big condo on Petchaburi Road. For several years no issues whatever with neighbors. 

 

Then a farang bought the condo next to me. He moved in with his farang GF, and:

- His old well used big moving boxes (10 old supermarket product boxes) left in the hallway. Thai neighbor moved them into the garbage room on our floor, but farang quickly found them and moved them back to the hallway near his front door. I had asked him several time to move them out of the hallway as a respect to all neighbors on our floor. He refused.

- His front door wide open all the time he/gf at home, TV blaring until early hours of the morning.

- Old plastic bags of food scraps put in the hallway against the wall opposite his door. Plus a row of empty beer bottles. Farang had told the maid who cleans our hallway 'don't touch'. This remained until end of each month when juristic person warned the farang he would have the electricity turned off is the food scrap bags/bottles not removed to a central rubbish storage on first floor at back of the building. 

- After 4 years of this farang suddenly moved out. New owner moved in, very pleasant farang with pleasant Thai wife (an engineer). Very thoughtful/pleasant neighbors.

Edited December 9, 2023 by scorecard

[KKra]

on the photos I see an angled metal stabiliser to the new wall. (between row three and four)
If that is drilled into the wall, and then fixed to the partition blocks, I would be concerned that it may become an effective noise transmitter.

[Nemises]

52 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

You're usually stuck somewhere for a year if you rent. The nicer places only accept long term leases. So, renting can get you out sooner, but it's not a perfect solution unless you like throwing away deposits.

I have never lost a single baht of a deposit in 6 years of renting in Thailand and I have never been forced to take out anything near a one year lease. Furthermore, on two occasions I moved out the SAME DAY because I wanted to move elsewhere immediately. On both these occasions I also got my full deposit back! - just needed to be polite, offer a good explanation and clean the room thoroughly. TIT. 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Nemises

[Lee65]

Be careful.  I found a quiet place in a noisy city.  Now I can never move and don't want to go outside. 

[jaideedave]

On 12/7/2023 at 2:49 PM, poobear said:

I empathize and sympathize with your problem with the noise inside your apartment. I too can't stand the noise in Thailand coming from very cheaply constructed houses and even cheaper windows. I have tried varios noise reduction methods and some have worked and some have not. My last house was so noisy that even after spending  about 40000 baht on doubling up my windows and insulation the ceiling I just sold cheap and ran. Life is too short and the noise makes me too angry.

 

When looking for last place I purchased noise was a major consideration . Its almost perfect in my Mooban except the few inconsiderate owners that have barking dogs and the idiots who think it is smart to feed the wild soi dogs outside our gate.

 

Of course your block wall and insulation will help a bit but the only thing I wave really found to work the best is white noise. Try soft music or search for white noise rain on your computer. 

 

Good luck

In our situ we've lived in the same moo ban for over 16 years.They knocked down the old house beside ours and built a 12 mil 4br Pool Villa as advertised on Booking.com.

Every 3-5 days a new gang arrives and like clockwork the party starts when the bars close around 3 am.The pool parties are very noisy as our br is on that side.Apparently a Chinese investor owns it via the moo ban manager so its legal.

We've complained to city hall but of course nothing will come of that.

I've invested over 40 k in double glazed + laminated PVC windows and more.( hope it works) The owner says to just contact her if it gets too noisy but that won't change anything because a fresh group keeps recycling.I'm 73 and once I get woken I have a hard time getting back to sleep. I'm at my wits end here.( sleepless in Pattaya)

[JimTripper]

I'm guessing due to the extreme measures in wall construction you don't want to live around other people, and the noise is secondary.

 

Maybe it's time to move out of the city. I'm that way also so. Most I can do usually is corner unit top floor and just live away from the one common wall as much as possible.

[ChrisKC]

On 12/6/2023 at 10:03 PM, NickyLouie said:

 

Maybe also check the quality of the common wall construction. 

And what if a good neighbour leaves and a new (noisy) one arrives?

[brianthainess]

Never tried it but I think on windows you could use this just using double sided tape to stick it on.

[NorthernRyland]

On 12/6/2023 at 9:03 PM, Rampant Rabbit said:

The problem isnt the negihbour its the crappy aac block walls,

I thought one of the features of those blocks were noise reduction? Maybe they were a bad quality 12 years ago?

 

Anyways I applaud your efforts.

[NorthernRyland]

7 hours ago, Nemises said:

Yet another thread, and yet another reason to “only rent, never buy in Thailand”. Makes no sense to buy when rental costs are so ridiculously low here compared to our home countries and because of Thai’s obsession with maximum, objectionable noise and their blatant disregard for their neighbour’s peaceful living. 

That's true but it's also true that unless you build yourself and choose the location it's impossible to get acceptable quality in my opinion. So many things wrong with how they design and build the houses plus the only thing they build now are congested housing developments where one bad neighbor will ruin your life.

[The Theory]

1 hour ago, NorthernRyland said:

Maybe they were a bad quality 12 years ago?

I have seen such condition. Q-con wall was full of cracks and then was fixed by simple wall patch and looked perfect, but the fact is sound will pass through cracks since the cracks were not filled by filler. One layer of Q-con won't be sound proof anyway. 

Edited December 9, 2023 by The Theory

[The Theory]

7 hours ago, KKra said:

on the photos I see an angled metal stabiliser to the new wall. (between row three and four)
If that is drilled into the wall, and then fixed to the partition blocks, I would be concerned that it may become an effective noise transmitter.

You are right. In fact if I were him I would use tin studs from floor to ceiling and screw Gipson boards to those studs without any wall to wall supports and have insulation between only. 

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, NorthernRyland said:

I thought one of the features of those blocks were noise reduction? Maybe they were a bad quality 12 years ago?

I doubt that the quality was any different 12 years ago, and they are excellent at noise reduction if the construction is correct. My house has about a 24db noise reduction.

[Chris Daley]

Where's the door?

[natway09]

Get rid of that metal clip in the brickwork for a start. Reverberation transfer straight through.

Can use isolation clips though.

People who have recommended (like Mr Jim Tripper ) the acoustic material have no idea what they are talking about

& even 5 layers will do nothing.

You have an STC problem not NRC.

What you are building may help a little  but flanking will determine how much.

Transfer through & above the ceiling will negate most of your efforts unless take your  2nd wall right up to 

the slab or roof.

You are lucky they are not playing music with a lot of bass.

Good Luck

[747man]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:40 PM, Rampant Rabbit said:

Walls are made of AAC blocks in this  condo, they appear to  do nothing for noise so Ive done a bit of modification today.

The last neghbour spent  all night banging his girllfriend.......oh .oh....oh.......oh., urgh,...............urgh.........urgh.........Kamikaze......he was Japanese and sounded like he was  killing her. The new neighbour seems to come in at 1am regularly and has laughing fits with her friend until 3 am..then goes out to work at 8am, beats  me how she only gets 3-4 hours sleep a night. Also by  cunning design her bed backs onto my wall and has built  in drawers which she likes to bang shut.

Mass  kills  noise fibreglass in between also.  After  will be doing built in wardrobes over the wall.....probably wont hear much then.

The last neghbour spent  all night banging his girllfriend.......oh .oh....oh.......oh., urgh,...............urgh.........urgh.........Kamikaze......he was Japanese and sounded like he was  killing her....But HOW Did he keep it UP,ALL Night.....Lucky Guy !!

[RocketDog]

On 12/6/2023 at 9:05 PM, Rampant Rabbit said:

Ah I see why i stopped  posting on Thai Visa its because most posters are utter  <deleted> <deleted>, no change after a year off I see ta ta. 

Agreed.

I'm not sure if it's gotten worse or I've just tired of the ping pong insults blighting every thread after the first five replies. Blocking certain prolific blowhards helps a bit, but not enough.

 

I also used to help with input if I had specific information that might help someone, as you just did. I don't bother now or spend much time here any more.

[Kinok Farang]

I'm a bricklayer.Very impressive blockwork there my friend.

[JimTripper]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:04 AM, RocketDog said:

Agreed.

I'm not sure if it's gotten worse or I've just tired of the ping pong insults blighting every thread after the first five replies. Blocking certain prolific blowhards helps a bit, but not enough.

 

I also used to help with input if I had specific information that might help someone, as you just did. I don't bother now or spend much time here any more.

Well, thanks for returning to offer those great insights.

[RocketDog]

3 hours ago, JimTripper said:

Well, thanks for returning to offer those great insights.

Hardly an insight. Everybody on the forums knows such posters.

They also know who they are. That's why they are sensitive to such 'insight' being put in writing. 

[GammaGlobulin]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:40 PM, Rampant Rabbit said:

Walls are made of AAC blocks in this  condo, they appear to  do nothing for noise so Ive done a bit of modification today.

The last neghbour spent  all night banging his girllfriend.......oh .oh....oh.......oh., urgh,...............urgh.........urgh.........Kamikaze......he was Japanese and sounded like he was  killing her. The new neighbour seems to come in at 1am regularly and has laughing fits with her friend until 3 am..then goes out to work at 8am, beats  me how she only gets 3-4 hours sleep a night. Also by  cunning design her bed backs onto my wall and has built  in drawers which she likes to bang shut.

Mass  kills  noise fibreglass in between also.  After  will be doing built in wardrobes over the wall.....probably wont hear much then.

 

Would it not be simpler just to move out of a condo and into a house?

 

That is really the only fix.

 

Moving into a house, instead of a condo, was my last resort, and I am thankful every day, these days, that I decided to make the move.

 

Unless you live in a BrownStone in NYC, like Sherman McCoy, a house is better.

 

 

Edited January 4 by GammaGlobulin

[GammaGlobulin]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:29 PM, jaideedave said:

I'm at my wits end here.( sleepless in Pattaya)

 

Sounds really terrible for you.

 

The only solution is to move, I think.

 

You are too old to waste time trying to endure the unendurable.

 

Only solution is to move out, and find someplace which is peaceful. 

[jaideedave]

7 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Sounds really terrible for you.

 

The only solution is to move, I think.

 

You are too old to waste time trying to endure the unendurable.

 

Only solution is to move out, and find someplace which is peaceful. 

Yes as a last resort. We've lived in the same house for 17 years now in peaceful harmony with the neighbours until this invasion. bah