ᐅ Garden Photos Chat Corner

Does the neighbor have other neighbors? If so, how do they feel about it?

And sorry, retaliatory noise is really just childish. Then he turns up his music even louder, which apparently doesn’t bother him at all. What do you do then?

kati1337 schrieb:

I can’t quite imagine that it can be considered normal room volume (at least the low frequencies) if he’s playing music on his property and I can hear it OVER my TV in my living room with the windows closed?

I don’t think so either. But then it’s not just 45 dB.
Your own TV at normal volume should be around 60 dB.

Actually, room modes can increase the sound pressure at a specific spot. When two peaks of a sine wave coincide, they can double the effect. And bass frequencies are definitely a special case.

I gather the neighbors are not very willing to compromise anymore? Have you ever invited the neighbor over when his speaker is on? Maybe then he’ll realize it can no longer be considered normal room volume.

Difficult situation. Legally, you can only be sure by involving an expert assessment, but unfortunately, there’s no guarantee the measurement will be in your favor.

haydee schrieb:

Try really using sound masking.

I tried that on Sunday. I put our small Alexa device outside, told it to “play Rammstein,” and turned it up as loud as possible. I don’t think it made much of a difference; I’m not sure if he even noticed it. We only have a small Echo Dot in the living room, which can’t get very loud.
Besides, that didn’t help me much because I can’t stay outside with all that noise myself.

Regarding other sounds: If people are working in the garden on a Sunday, if there’s cheering on the sports field, or if kids are making noise or screaming – none of that bothers me at all. I’m not disturbed by sound pressure from those sounds. Those are noises I can easily ignore in the background. They are not annoying to me.

What bothers me is music or background tunes. I’m someone who doesn’t listen to music “on the side.” Either I listen to music and focus on it mentally, or it’s off. I don’t understand people who listen to music casually in the background. I just can’t do that, even in other situations. Many people listen to music while gaming – that doesn’t work for me at all; it distracts me heavily. When there’s a rhythm, a melody, or a bass running, my mind follows that line. I can’t shut it off. I don’t remember ever being different in that regard. Regarding psychological issues, I have visited a doctor before and would do so again if needed. But I doubt you can “cure” a certain sense of musicality or a strong musical focus. You can’t cure language ability or color blindness either. Some traits are simply part of a person.
I have actually considered moving. But on the one hand, I would feel bad about our beautiful house and all the work we put into it. Plus, we partly financed it with government-supported retirement home savings and subsidies, and I dread the bureaucratic effort of untangling all that.

@halmi That might be childish, but what if talking doesn’t help? Calling the police due to noise disturbance?

@kati1337 What does the neighbor say to the other side?

haydee schrieb:


@kati1337 What does the neighbor say about his other side?

This really only concerns us. We have the only garden that directly borders it. Behind our gardens, there are meadows and trees. On the other side, there is first a pedestrian path and some natural area, and the next neighbor basically lives “around the corner.” Between the noise source and that neighbor is his house—so he shouldn’t notice anything. For us, it only affects the living room and the garden. In front of the house, I hardly hear anything anymore.

Edit: When we first met, the neighbor also mentioned that they once had very “particular neighbors” in their rental apartment who kept calling the police on them just because they played music sometimes… 🙄

Tolentino schrieb:

Me neither. But then it’s definitely not just 45 dB.
Your own TV should be around 60 dB at normal volume.

Room modes can increase sound pressure at specific locations. When two peaks of a sine wave meet, they combine to create double the strength. And bass frequencies are especially tricky in this regard.

I sense the neighbors might no longer be very willing to compromise? Have you ever invited them over when their speaker is on? Maybe then they’d realize it can’t really be considered just normal room volume?

A difficult situation. Legally, you can only be sure with a sound expert’s report, but whether the measurements will definitely be in your favor is uncertain.

We don’t have our TV very loud. For example, kids’ programs usually don’t have much talking when we watch with our little one. And whenever there’s little going on on TV, you just hear the bass humming.

I don’t know if they’re still willing to compromise. We have kids the same age. The kids get along well and we have good conversations. We’ve also talked a few times about the music—plus exchanged 1 or 2 WhatsApp messages. I once sent a message asking if they could turn it off when they’re no longer outside because we wanted to watch TV. There was no reply, but they did turn it off afterward.
In face-to-face conversations, maybe I’m a bit too tentative. I told them that the bass echoes terribly in our place. He said something like “That’s weird, we don’t hear anything from you,” and I thought “No surprise, we don’t make noise,” but I didn’t say that. I’ve always tried to hint at it gently, but at some point he said “It’s just normal room volume; you have to live with that. To be that loud that I can hear it while working, I’d have to raise it.” And then I never know what to say. I don’t want trouble with them, but like this I can’t even use my garden.
If it happens again next Sunday, we’re thinking about going over and politely asking if they could turn it off because we’d like to sit outside and it annoys us a lot.

I always handle them with kid gloves. I don’t know if you know people like this—I don’t know much about them, but from little small talk, I keep hearing the same pattern: They have stress with their (ex-) employer, court cases, previous trouble with neighbors, problems with childcare… The picture emerges that they always feel “treated unfairly.” It reminds me a bit of the old man on the highway who hears on the radio “wrong-way driver on the A28” and says “One? Hundreds!”…
I want to keep things calm because I don’t want to jump straight into the group of people who have conflicts with them. 😀 But I also just want to be able to enjoy my garden on Sundays.