I have tried the police, I have tried my landlord, I have bought a subwoofer.
Any audio clips I could play that are bass heavy to torture my shithead neighbors. I am not joking. these dicks party lame until 5am. They are the reason I am awake right now. I want to shoot them in the face.
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When you say you tried the PD and you tried your landlord, what did they all say?
DOn’t go for low vibrations – they’re used to that.
Get some high frequency sound emitter. That will bug them more.
I know this is a revolutionary and unprecedented idea, but…
have you tried talking to them?
Why aren’t the police responding to your calls? They should send someone every time you call.
If you haven’t already talked to them – obviously, that is the one thing you should try. Are they reasonable? Find out. If they are not, then nothing you can do will work. It will either be a waiting game (how long do you expect them to live in the building?) or you will have to move. Sometimes that’s just the way it is.
But your trying to torture them with bass is not going to work. Since it is what they are already doing, they will not recognize it as torture. And regardless of whether or not it’s effective, it makes you the douchebag neighbour who is torturing other people in the building who have done nothing to deserve it. Don’t do that.
Check with your city council. They should have a noise ordinance on the books.
@ragingloli People who are so inconsiderate and dense are often hard to get through to. They know they are F-ups and get really defensive when someone suggests that they are F-ups.
What do the police do when you call them?
I wouldn’t follow this course, as it’s my experience that you’ll be the one that the police cite. It just seems to work that way.
That said, if I was trying to drive them nuts I would probably choose some opera, Jónsi Birgisson, or maybe a continuous loop of this. If that doesn’t break them, rent a room and look for a new apartment.
I briefly had a very cheap apartment that ended up being in 24–7 party central. Like 50+ people regularly at the house across the street. Sleep was impossible. I stayed with friends for about a week while I looked for a new place and moved out. There would not be any negotiating with drunk twenty somethings. Calling the cops would be a band-aid fix at best. If you can get out of your lease that’s the best. It cost me $1800 to bust my lease at the time
$1800? Wow. It must have been REALLY bad.
Not sleeping like, at all…. $1800 was worth it. It was still probably the worst financial blunder of my entire life. My next apartment was in a nice part of town in a complex filled with old folks, divorcees and young couples.
Try noise-suppression headphones and an inexpensive white noise machine.
Document document document. Document every call to the police and your landlord (And keep calling,) the hours of the offenses, the traffic in and out of their apartment, everything.
At least, when you finally move you can get out of any lease and guarantee the return of your deposit. You have a right to “quiet enjoyment” of your apartment. At least that’s the law in California. I’m pretty sure it’s the law in most states. I would use that term with your landlord.
Shooting them in the face is probably not the best solution. It is messy and will, unfairly, get you on trouble. I would go with the high frequecy. A supertweeter, amp, and a sound generator app that will let you run at 15kHz and above will be very annoying to the under 25 crowd.
No excessive noise is allowed in Portland between the hours of 10:00 pm and 7:00 am. They’re breaking City Code – Title 18: “Intent of code is to control the level of noise in a manner that promotes the use, value, and enjoyment of property, conduct of business, sleep and repose and reduces unnecessary and excessive sound in the environment.”
Noises covered by the code include:
amplified sound
music
construction
events and parades
animal noises from legal animal facilities
ONI Noise Control Hotline: (503) 823–7350 – 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. After 10:00 pm, contact the Police non-emergency: 503–823-3333.
I have called the cops and the management company. The cops said there were multiple complaints but did nothing. Management company (a few weeks ago) said they would talk to them. Nothing changed.
But today I noticed something. The needle dicks are using the porch as a dumpster.
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
I would hope this pisses off the managment company.
Try the noise complaint hotline, specifically. Hopefully that will get you somewhere. If not, I suggest putting all of the trash on their porch. :D
DD.. I no longer live in Portland. I am back in Eugene.
Oh, well shit. Lemme see if I can find the Eugene noise complaint hotline for you.
Amplified music, or other noise disturbances between 10:00 p.m and 7:00 a.m: Impacts from these types of noise should be reported to the Eugene Police non-emergency department at 541–682-5111.
:-/ So that probably won’t help you much, since you’ve already tried calling the cops. I still say you should put all of the trash on their porch. Or next time they get really loud, call anonymously and say there’s a fight. Yes, it’s a lie… but if that’s what it takes to get someone out there… so be it. You shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of crap, especially at five in the morning.
Or, make friends, get invited, instigate until there is a fight, them, not you, and step back and call the police to stop it.
The cops said there were multiple complaints . If you can discover who else is complaining and band together, there is more power in numbers. If the landlord gets a written complaint from t0 apt. owners (or renters) it may carry more clout. Perhaps also call the local newspaper as a group and discribe the inadequate behavior of both the police and the landlord.
Wait until you smell reefer, then call the cops. By the looks of that porch, it’ll be there at some point. It’s a tough situation, getting out of it may be just that…leaving. Apartment complexes that allow this don’t care. They’re happy just to get the rent, take the deposit and spend a couple hundred bucks repainting and cleaning the carpet when they leave.
Shoot them in the face with your video camera.
I was thinking about about pointing a webcam and mic at them and streaming their stupid rape jokes live, on the INTERNET.
If you are in the US then it is easy, document everything, then if there is an ordnance on the books about noise pollution, you sue the twits and the city. If the partyers are not scared out of partying that loudly, the city might actually force them to stop to make the suit go away.
So you haven’t talk to them?
There was a recent (well a few years ago) precedent setting case where a neighborhood sued a landlord for not controlling drug activity and creating a community nuisance. The community members were awarded the apartment complex.
No, I haven’t talked to them. I have no way to get into their apartment complex. And I don’t really want to stick my head out the window and complain. There is like five wannabe frat-boy losers that start drinking at noon. I am fairly certain that they would throw buckets of shit at my window if they knew I was complaining to the management company about them.
And considering the way these guys talk I wouldn’t be shocked if there was physical violence directed at me.
@ragingloli: “I know this is a revolutionary and unprecedented idea, but…
have you tried talking to them?”
I know this sounds like a reasonable first step. But in many cases it just isn’t. It’s a mistake that he would be unlikely to recover from. Once they identify him as the source (or a source) of the complaints, it’s very likely that he’ll go from noise pollution and a fear of violence. Things could get much uglier.
When people are exhibiting extreme anti-social behavior, attempts to appeal to their social, empathetic side are rarely effective.
This is clearly a job for the police and the town/city. But unfortunately, here in the states there are towns and cities that are very hands-off.
I have experience with this.
@hominid For sure. At worst he’ll be someone they’ll actually want to mess with when they get drunk and stupid. He would really have to move out then.
You could try talking to your landlord. Explain that you like the place, but the peace and quiet is missing. You’d like to stay, so would he be willing to help you go to the police so they’d listen?
@johnpowell:Can you please specify why the cops won’t do anything? It is hard to comprehend this going on till 5:00 a.m. and the cops not taking action.
@snowberry :: I have emailed the pics of the mess to the landlord. I think they will take that a bit more seriously than noise complaints. That mess is just asking for a rodent invasion
But it is the weekend here and nobody will see the email until around 10am. So 5.5 hours to wait.
@jca :: I live around seven blocks from the University of Oregon. There are lots of parties the police have to deal with. I really don’t have a problem with parties. Be loud until 2am, I don’t care. But screaming at 5am is when they should consider renting a house.
@johnpowell: What did the police say? Did they say “We deal with a lot of parties so this is nothing?:
They said there were multiple complaints and said thanks and hung up.
@johnpowell: Wow. I would probably make a visit to the station house and speak to someone high up.
I don’t live in Mayberry. :)
Are the police scared? LOL
If that was your only call to the police, obviously you should try again on a different night. But if you get the same response, then write to the local paper and get them involved. The police can’t ignore the problem, and they can’t simply blow you off. They should be willing to answer your questions about what’s being done.
This was my early morning revenge-bass song back in college; I bequeath it unto you. Any drum&bass would probably work too. Or the more cacophanous Black Dice songs.
I think you need to start emailing the city government. It’s free, quick and might force the hands of the cops.
I once took on the local paper for throwing their free version in my fenced yard. When I went to the city council they actually threatened to start arresting the paper carriers if the paper didn’t institute an “opt out” procedure.
If you can get the attention of local government, them just contacting the landlord or police might force someone’s hand.
If you want immediate results, just soundproof your windows. It ranges between $25—$100 per windows depending on the quality/window. Works great.
@eno Certainly more sensible than buying a subwoofer.
@eno
But that is not even close to being childish enough.
Apparently people haven’t had to deal with this. Soundproofing windows?
That answer is as helpful as “why don’t you move?”.
Out of curiosity, what makes you think the windows are the only ” weak ” point here?
How is spending $25 on a window, the equivalent to moving?
Common sense. Brick or cement are natural sound barriers, plus I had personal experiences with noise disturbance, and soundproofing resolved it while indoors. When I was disturbed while outside, I phoned the police. Unlike in jonh’s case, the police were helpful. The last two homes I built, soundproofing was a standard.
@eno…
1. I have many years of experience with this. Windowless rooms are no match for bass.
2. This “solution” requires that @johnpowell keep his windows closed. This is completely unacceptable.
3. The problem shouldn’t be that @johnpowell needs to go out and drop any money on sealing himself into an airtight container in order to get some peace any more than women need to dress conservatively to avoid assault.
Does that help? Oh, can @johnpowell put his landlord in contact with you so they can retrofit his apartment to meet your building standards?
Your answer is just as helpful as telling him to move.
1. Windowless rooms with wood/sheetrock walls are no match for bass. Brick and cement are, unless you’re using low grade garbage and even then. I know because I’ve experienced both.
2. So it is acceptable to continue bitching and whining about noise and remain a victim to its abuse, but it is “completely unacceptable” to have a window closed to get some good quality sleep at night or get some work done? That is pretty irrational if you ask me, but good luck with that logic.
3. You’re making useless theoretical/idealistic arguments that doesn’t help women or john because at the end of the day, they’re the one’s who continue experiencing abuse while you’re philosophizing on the internet about how things ought to be in your perfect world.
These are the type of arguments I hear from people who are looking for an excuse not to pay because they’re cheap.
I think your calculator is broken.
@eno: “1. Windowless rooms with wood/sheetrock walls are no match for bass. Brick and cement are, unless you’re using low grade garbage and even then. I know because I’ve experienced both.”
I get it. You’re an amazing developer of soundproof homes. But @johnpowell didn’t build his house (it’s an apartment), and stating that his materials are insufficient to withstand large amounts of noise pollution is not going to find much controversy here. Why are you mentioning it here?
Re: #2 – You’ve told me many times that you are amoral and don’t concern yourself with the suffering of others, so it might be difficult to explain the problem with having to seal up your windows – even if summer happens to be over – just to not be ear-f*cked.
Re: #3 – How does telling him to pay money he doesn’t have to buy soundproofing that won’t work helpful? We get that in a perfect world, people would have the resources to build their own homes so that they could protect themselves from douchbaggery, but he’s not in that situation. Telling him to buy things that don’t work is still as useful as saying, “why don’t you move?”.
To buy sound proofing that he probably wouldn’t be allowed to install.
I’m a software engineer, not a soundproofer. You don’t need to be an amazing developer for soundproofing a home.
It doesn’t matter if he is an apartment. If he isn’t allowed to change the window, there are many alternative methods to soundproofing. He can get soundproof curtains, plug/mats, magnetite method, etc..
#2 is incoherent. Can’t respond to it.
He has money for the monthly internet bill and to buy a computer, but not an extra $25 for soundproofing? I don’t think so.
Try $125, at the minimum
Soundproof windows cost anywhere from $125 for simple inserts with professional installation to $1500 for installed high end replacements.
And how many windows?
Those are not even close to competitive prices. It is the higher end of the range and who says you need to hire someone to soundproof your window? Who says you have to use inserts as oppose to alternative methods? This isn’t rocket science. Buy the material and do it yourself.
He. Is. Renting. You don’t spend that kind of money on a rental, unless the landlord is going to reimburse you.
Do you have a link showing where you can get sound proof windows for $25, @eno? I don’t think you can even get regular windows for $25.
That much money? lol. We’re not talking about $100,000 here and if he wishes to continue listening to loud music and not getting any sleep at night or work done, be my guest, save your $25.
Who said anything about changing windows? Reread, carefully. I find I always have to repeat myself when talking to you. It is pretty tiring.
Window Box Plugs – Price Range: $25 to $50 installed
Quote from your link, @Dutchess_III. I think you could do it yourself easily and for a lot less, if it works.
I’m thinking about trying this on my front bedroom windows.
Aesthetically pleasing soundproofing methods are the ones that cost more.
Well, even the low end, just the windows are $125. That’s before installation.
@ibstubro I can’t find a thing on “Window Box Plugs.” All that comes up are window boxes, for flowers and stuff.
Yes, @eno But so far the cheapest we have are $125. Waiting on @ibstubro to clarify.
Do you read your own links or was this a kneejerk link?
First line, Soundproof windows cost anywhere from $125 for simple inserts with professional installation
It isn’t talking about purchasing the windows. It is talking about inserts and part of the large price is because they’re calculating professional installation, something you don’t have to do.
You’re right. Soundproof window installation encompasses a huge price range, from $25 for simple inserts to $250 per opening for higher end replacements.
I would assume that’s $25 per window. Let’s say he has 6 windows. That’s $150. Then when he moves out he has to restore the apartment to its original condition or he forfeits his security deposit.
Depends. You might not have to soundproof every window. From the looks of his description, the bedroom is where he would like the most amount of peace to get some sleep, so that is 1 or two windows, plus maybe whatever windows might be near the room which comes out more to $50—$75. Even if all 6 windows need to be done due to sound leaking from other windows, at $125, that is a good deal to solve a supposedly really annoying problem.
Since you’re not messing with the actual window, the only restoration is a few minor holes which can easily be sealed up with something called “spackle” that you can get for $2.
Let’s hope he doesn’t need the window for fan or AC unit.
Even if he does, you can soundproof the top of the window and the the sides of the AC unit where the standard panelings are located.
Noise would still come up through the vent, but it would be at a minimum. You can also plug the vent temporarily when the AC is not in use, but that is a bit of a hassle. Doable, nonetheless.
@gailcalled
You can open up a window for fresh air after it has been soundproofed.
Luxury cars do a really good just of soundproofing the windows, but you can still raise and retract the windows. Even with a bulletproof window package.
@eno: Yes, but if the window is open while the noise is being produced, then the room won’t be soundproof.
Well, you don’t have to have fresh air circulating in your room 24 hours a day. You can open the window when you go to work or if you work from home, open it when you’re taking a break, showering, eating, stepping out, whatever.
If you really worried about air quality, then you can invest in a portable air filter. You can get a decent one for around $40.
I don’t know much about @johnpowell but for some reason I think he has not too much money to spare. Just because these kids want to party all night and the cops won’t do anything, I’m at a loss why @johnpowell is already going to be stuck in an airless room and over $200 out.
Soundproofed room, not airless.
It is always better to handle problems yourself instead of dealing with bureaucrats, but if he is as poor as you make him out to be that $100 is too much to spare for peace and quiet, then his only option is to keep whining and tolerating the abuse until maybe some bureaucrat will hear his cries of anguish one day and do something about it.
If you still lived in Portland, the cops would have gone over and killed them all, so I guess in this case it’s unfortunate you moved.
All kidding aside, keep us updated @johnpowell!
LOL! That would have been a nice solution for @johnpowell!
Depending on the construction of the building, I think I might give the plugs a shot, in the bedroom only. Sheet Styrofoam (insulation) might work as well, and has the advantages of being cheap and easily cut with a serrated knife.
I once plugged an interior basement door with 4” Styrofoam successfully, but for draft rather than sound.
If you took accurate measurements of the windows, you might get an upholstery to cut foam plugs reasonably.
Landlord seems to not give a shit. I guess I have carte blanche to be the loudest dickhole I can. I have always wanted to make electronic music. I am going to point some speakers out the window and make horrible noise until I am the next Dntel or I get evicted. I no longer care. This isn’t doable.
I can always move back in with my mom.
Please document this and keep up the pressure on the po-po and the landlord. You will be helping others.
@johnpowell Don’t you give a shit about all the people you’re disturbing with your own music?
What this will become is a lose-lose situation. Everyone loses. Everyone will be pointing fingers at each other (“well, they had me up till 5:00 a.m. What about them?”).
Can you write reviews about this situation on apartment rating sites? I’ have no doubt there are many. I’m sure others in the complex would gladly help you.
Posting pictures and video clips would be useful as well if you could you somehow make them visible to people searching for info on the complex.
The landlord would be more inclined to respond if he saw that potential tenants are being sent away by the noise.
Make sure you are scrupulously honest about your posts.
Also try writing or calling the building’s management company.
@dappled_leaves :: I will bite the bullet if it means the Management Company starts giving a shit about noise complainants.
@jca :: I have shared pictures and audio recordings of the noise and garbage for the last week. Two emails in total over 7 days. I am not being the crazy cat lady.
But it is all moot. My sisters kid has a spare room and I can move in on the first. I have started packing. I don’t really care about breaking my lease. It is hard to make bad credit worse.
They are still loud and there is a pile of growing trash outside my window. Luckily I work from home so moving 120 miles isn’t a big deal. It can be sorted in a day.
We need to find Judi. She runs a property management company.
@Dutchess, I already commented above.
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