"I hear voices!"

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No, not ones inside my head, but they're as maddening!

I've lived in this flat for a few months now, and throughout the only people talking were ones outside, passing by... somehow I thought that, since the floor seems to be concrete, (at least) unlike the one in the previous flat, that I don't hear any neighbours due to that... or possibly because there wasn't anyone living in the flat below, I wasn't sure. Well, they began yesterday, just before midnight for some reason, in addition to some audible scraping.

During the day yesterday, for about five hours, there were children running around outside, some of them screaming their brains out as if they've attended a boyband concert or something, so I had to put on heavy metal until it became dark and they left... but then I had to retain heavy metal because some other people began speaking, and they're still speaking today as if they didn't even sleep! If yesterday happens again, every single day, I'm not sure I'd even be able to sleep, at some point (if these people never seem to sleep)...

f**k! How I hate every single f*****g flat in the UK seems to be made out of cardboard! If people are to be confined above/below/near each other, at least make the partitions actually feel like partitions!

ps. I've noticed that in the US many people have separate housing for themselves, even if it doesn't look like a solidly built house... or many even seem to live in trailers, although they're often denigrated... is that because housing there is cheaper, or there's more space? Could a single person actually afford such a house (as opposed to a whole family living there - whole families can easily own houses here too, it's just that single people don't have a chance of, at most, not having a flat that doesn't immediately touch another flat - even housing benefit only pays for a separate flat if a person is 35, if they're single. Oh, it was 25 some years ago... so, I assume, when I'm 35 it'll go up to 45, yeah, so whatever).

I'm not sure if anyone would think I'm exaggerating if I say this, but every time I can hear people speak I say to myself that "it's a nightmare"... I mean, sure, it would be even more of a nightmare if it was really loud music blaring out of a neighbour's speakers, but as it is I can't even switch off my own music/white noise, unless I'd like to hear intruding voices! (And as such, as it is, unless I wouldn't mind hearing them in between the silence, I can't even listen to the radio, since it usually involved no music!)

Last edited by Mootoo on 18 May 2013, 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

I can understand your frustrations.

Has someone just moved in? Squat party?

If you do have new neighbours, prolonged exposure to metal at high volume is probably not going to help a solution, unless they also like the music.

I doubt someone's squatting - these are some recently built flats, but they all seem securely locked. Also, there doesn't seem to be any parties, and hopefully won't turn into one, but I hear a lot of thuds... and scraping, at some points as I mentioned, which makes me think they're renovating or even (horror of horrors) doing DIY.

As in new builds? The build quality can be very poor, sounds like you have experienced this before.
I thought current standards for acoustic isolation had improved, there could be essential void blocking that has been missed.

Are there still contractors on the site doing finishing and snagging?

If people are moving in the DIY should not last for long.

It's not being built right now, but recently built, as in, it can't even be found using Google's Street View... I'm not sure I notice any difference in acoustic isolation in any of the flats I've been in to be honest, but then again I've been in mostly newer flats (I think), with the exception of one room which had a Victorian window. This flat does, though, have different flooring... I don't feel like I need to tiptoe at night since every step can be heard, so I'm not sure where the sound is coming up from... the sidewalls perhaps, which are still made of cardboard?

Last time I got misdiagnosed was because of saying I heard voices.

Well I was asked "do you hear voices?" I said "yeah"

"what do they say?"

"It depends on the conversation we are having"

"Are they saying anything now"

"I said we are talking?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Voices"

I think I ruined that interview. lol

More space, I think. From what I understand, population density is a lot higher in Europe than North America.

My Dad's school division, in southern Saskatchewan, covers 31,000 square kilometers, and includes 8,155 students. Whereas Belgium covers 30,528 square kilometres and at January 2010 had a population of 10,839,905 people, with 1,679,676 being between 0-14 years old. (Not exactly comparable stats, but you get the picture.)

Yeah, I hate the sound of hooomans speaking too, yuck yuck yuck.

Maybe some earplugs would help