noise nuisance/pollution through wall mounted flat-screen tv of neighbors

Complaints Corner
1
Not sure if this is the right forum, as it might perhaps also be suited for the 'daily life' forum or 'housing' forum (or even health). But this really annoyes me (which is suitable for this forum ). I am in need of some advice.

My neighbors (a couple with children) bought a new flat-screen tv which they mounted on the wall that we share with them. From the day they mounted the tv, we here this thumping sound coming through this shared wall, even at low volumes (My neighbor and I tested it and confirmed it was the new tv). Although they understand the problem they do not want to remove it from the wall. I did not ask them directly (yet), but their argument goes: 'we sometimes hear also noise from your house'. Ironically the volume of their tv goes down when their children go to bed around 8:30

I tried explaining that there are different types of sounds: 'peak' sounds which last a short time and are incidental (e.g. somebody shouts, or drops something on the floor), incidental sounds that last a little bit longer but are still incidental (e.g. loud conversation, turning the volume very high for your favorite song once in a while), and periodic long lasting sounds (like turning on the television every day for several hours). There are probably more categories but these are perhaps the most important ones for this particular issue.

My point was that most of the sounds they hear (and I hear from them) fall in the incidental (usually man made) category. But a television sound every day for several hours is slightly different (at least to me).

My question is what to do? Below (in order of preference) some options I might have. Only option one looks appealing so far.

* Look for a technological solution. I think the sound is propagated through the wall as the acoustic tv is directly mounted on a hard surface (the wall). Are there any (proven) solutions for hard surface to hard surface mounting? E.g. some kind of soft material that can 'dampen' the sound (although there are still screws involved)

* Ask them to remove the tv from the wall or turn down the sound substantially (although the sound is already turned down a lot)

* Is there a legal solution for this (can I force them to remove it)?

* By a bigger television with bigger speakers and mount it to the same wall

Do people have any other suggestions (other than wearing noise canceling earphones in the house)?

Is there any scientific research on the topic of noise nuisance and pollution that shows what kind of noises are (on average) tolerable or not or highlight these kinds of noise problems?

John

2
I wonder if a layer of some kind of foam material could serve as a buffer between the TV and the wall? I'm afraid I don't know how successful that would be, but it's the first thing that came to mind. Maybe someone else will have had experience in sound-proofing.

Good luck!

3
Check out a sound studio and what they use there. Worse comes to worse, egg cartons work a treat...

4
Maybe you should talk to your landlord about it. This is something they would definitely know what to do about.

5
Ok Two things you can do:

The thumping sound is obviously coming from the bass generated by the TV, the first thing to try is regulating the equaliser, if the bass has a boost function, turn it off, balance the bass so that your neighbours can hear the volume well enough, and little bass is projected through the wall.

The second is to go to a professional music store and get some ultra dense compact foam that is used for soundproofing and that reduces vibration to put behind the TV.

Hope this helps

Simon

6
It seems you should be able to "denounce" them. In a place like CH where work is not tolerated on Sundays to the extent that the laundry room door is locked, it seems that something as horrendous as mounting a loud thumping TV on a shared wall and subjecting your neighbors to constant irritation would be unacceptable! Just pop into the local police precinct and find out. The worst that can happen is they send you away and laugh at you. And who really cares if they do that?!?

This situation does remind me a of a story a Swiss man told a colleague of mine. She asked him one thing she should know about Swiss culture, about the ways of the Swiss. He said this: Let's say in Switzerland that a neighbor has a tree that blocks the other neighbor's view. The neighbor with the blocked view is very unhappy about this, so does he speak to the neighbor about it? Of course not. He remains happy and smiling by day and at night when everyone is sleeping, he takes his drill, goes into the neighbor's yard and drills a few holes in the tree's stump and roots. When the tree dies and must be removed, he expresses what a pity it is to the neighbor, then sits back on his balcony and enjoys his view.

I did not make up that story. I'm just telling you what I heard. Getting your neighbor to move the TV may be impossible, so perhaps just take the egg carton advice above. Or try to ignore it if at all possible! It seems that once we notice something and fixate on it, it's magnified ten-fold. Anyway, good luck and do what you can!!!

7
John

I think you won't be able to eliminate this problem on your own.

Insulation on your side of the wall will have little affect because base travels through everything so I suggest you talk to you neighbour about the problem and invite them over to listen to the noise.

It's possible that the noise is not from the TV but from the surround sound system they bought for it (if they did) in which case they can turn it off at night and they can stay with the TV sound. If they don't have a surround sound system then follow Simon's advice and ask your neighbours to adjust the sound settings. Another option would be to place the TV on a floor cabinet or to relocate it to another wall and perhaps turn their sofa the other way.

It's important to be friendly to your neighbour and to try to work with them on this but you can also find out what your rights are from the authorities. Below you'll find the relevant web page in English and if you can speak one of the other languages they may have more information there.

http://www.bafu.admin.ch/laerm/01127/01131/index.html?lang=en

You won't be the only person in CH who has this problem so the authorities should have some experience on this and will offer advice.

However, if you still want to be talking to your neighbour after this exercise I'd be careful not to dob them into the authorities. IMO it's best to try and elinimate the problem on your own by talking to your neighbour. If talking to them doesn't work then there is your landlord and as a last resort the authorities.

Good luck.

8
I think that is a fantastic idea to talk to your neighbors about helping them control the base better. I too like to hear the base thrumming through my bones though (Jurassic Park is fantastic when you can FEEL the Tyrannosaur running and roaring) so this may not work as easily as it may seem.

Something that may work for you both is to investigate a sound system that will eliminate the sound coming from the wall. I am unsure of the particulars of those systems but hopefully they override the TV speakers to make use of the much better ones used for the system. I'm not suggesting that you should pay for it but perhaps a discussion between your families could help find a selection of options that would work in ways which will ensure happiness in both homes.

Barring that... what do you have going on on that shared wall? It won't totally take care of the problem but perhaps you could use that wall for some book cases (actually with books as opposed to nicknacks) or else a decorative rug / woven blanket? I don't think it would be a perfect solution but perhaps it would be enough to dampen the sound to the point of no longer being annoying.

9
I think you should buy a flat screen TV and sound system and mount them on the same wall

10
I am guessing that you dont have a leg to stand on with regards to this matter. TV noise is part and parcel of normal apartment living and its just unlucky that your neighbour decided to mount their new telly on the wall you both share.

You even indicated that the noise level of the telly reduces around 830pm, which is well before the legally required time of 10pm.

I would follow the advice of some posters on here, and talk to them nicely and work out an amicable solution. As said, unless the tv volume is turned up excessively constantly, they are not obliged to do anything. Putting myself in your neighbours shoes, I would be extremely ticked off if I was told to remove the tv from my wall if I have been reasonable with the noise level and will say "tough" if you were to tell me to remove it.

11
is it a samsung tv? they have the speakers at the back pointing backwards, which makes the sound very loud at the back, but very quiet at the front (we have one) only solution is to get a surround sound system or a sound bar and turn the internal speakers off.

We got the samsung bluetooth soundbar for the tv, and its much better

12
I was going to suggest exactly that. In fact use a model with Xtra turbo base speakers.

13
Thanks for the advice everybody. I think the best strategy to follow here is tit for tat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat

John

14

The only problem I see with tit-for-tat is that many of the apartment structures in Switzerland seem to be plaster or whatever over concrete... I'd think if you are having an issue with neighbor's base, probably others are as well

AND

if you go and up your base, now you both would be annoying "everyone" instead of just them being the bad guys.

15
Wait until they go out then bang as hard as you can on the wall until you hear the sound of breaking glass.

16
Cultivate good relations with your neighbor. You don't have a leg to stand on here legally, so you need his cooperation. Homemade cookies would probably not go amiss.

Don't ask him to do anything. If you try to make it his problem, he will get defensive and insist that it is not his problem (and legally he's right, it's not.) So what you do instead is solicit his suggestions for your problem: bring him over so he can hear the noise, express how dreadfully disturbing it is, and then ask him "what can I do?"

Play the dumb-foreigner-who-has-never-lived-anywhere-with-such-thin-walls card. Does he have any idea how one normally solves this? Are there special wallhangings one can install that dampen the noise? Does he know anyone who has had similar problems? The idea is to get him involved in helping you find a solution - without in any way intimating that it is his problem to solve, because it isn't.

Good luck!

17
This isn't a solution. If talking to your neighbour is really hopeless, involve the landlord. Living in harmony with one's neighbours can be a real challenge today not just for tenants but owners as well. If "tit for tat" were a solution I'd be the owner of an electric guitar and a set of drums.

18
Good man. That's the spirit!

I was thinking more along the lines of an EMP device that you can hide in a hurry and do it while they are watching TV. Hang it on the wall your side of the offending TV, discharge those capacitors, snatch it off the wall and hide it in a cupboard for when they bang on the door and ask "what was that loud bang?" and "why has our TV exploded?". Then you could pretend you didn't hear a thing and fake regret over the demise of their TV. That would be truly the Swiss Way of doing things.