If you’re like many people, you probably live in an apartment, condo, townhome, or duplex with shared walls. You and your neighbors probably also enjoy music, movies, video games, or just loud conversations. Unfortunately, many developers don’t prioritize soundproofing and you might be hearing your neighbors more than you want to.
If a neighbor’s TV can be heard through the wall, it’s best to ask them to turn the volume down. The neighbors may just not realize their TV is loud. If the TV is at a reasonable volume, some basic soundproofing will help. If the neighbor is rude or refuses to change, involve management.
It can be frustrating to hear your neighbors through a wall, especially if it’s late at night or is a recurring issue. We’ll go over a few things you can do to make it more tolerable.
Talk to Your Neighbors
Before you do anything else, you can likely resolve the problem just by talking to your neighbors. They might just not realize how loud their TV is, and they could adjust if you let them know. Most people are nice and don’t want to bother their neighbors.
Talking to your neighbor first is always the kindest thing to do. Nobody wants management or law enforcement called on them. Doing that could cause resentment between both of you and create problems that they don’t deserve.
It might be uncomfortable, as many of us don’t get to know our neighbors, but there are a lot of benefits to knowing your neighbors, and talking to them will show decency. Getting to know your neighbors will create understanding and lead to mutual respect.
You should also consider if asking them is appropriate. When you live in a building with shared walls, you’re not going to have silence. A little sound bleed is normal through shared walls, and as long as it’s not past 10:00 pm or excessively loud, you should probably let it slide and focus on things you can do in your home to make it quieter.
Simple Soundproofing
If you live in a building with a shared wall, it was likely built by developers to be sold as an investment property, and since it was an investment property, they were incentivized to cut costs in areas so that the investors can maximize the return.
Unfortunately, soundproofing is often sacrificed in favor of thinner and cheaper walls, especially in buildings built in the last decade.
If you can hear your neighbor’s TV, it might be partly due to how thin the walls are, and if you’re hearing them mostly during the day and it’s not super loud, you should focus first on some of these basic soundproofing tips since it will help you both out in the long run.
Heavy Curtains and Rugs
This is an easy way to deaden the sound in a room. Adding heavier curtains or a rug to your room will make it so that the sounds can’t bounce around in the room. This will help a little to make them quieter and can also help not to spread the sound to other parts of your home.
These curtains on Amazon help with noise reduction in a room.
Put Furniture Against the Wall
One of the easiest things you can do that does help with noise reduction is to put furniture against the wall. Sometimes when a TV is near a wall or mounted to it, it can cause the wall to vibrate when the sound is on.
By placing your couch up against it, you can reduce the vibrations and you put an extra barrier between your ears and the sound, making it difficult for sound to enter the room.
You can use a couch, bookshelf, or anything else against the wall to accomplish this.
Caulking Cracks and Outlets
This one might seem strange, but the results can be surprising. Sometimes the sound isn’t coming straight through the wall, but through cracks in the wall or through things like outlets. There often isn’t much insulation around outlets and things like that, meaning the barrier between you and your neighbors can be really thin there.
If you remove the plate on the outlet, you’ll often find a gap between the wall and the electrical box. You can fill this dead space with some acoustical caulk or a piece of material. This will help keep the sound out. Just don’t use spray foam insulation. Those don’t reduce noise hardly at all.
Add a Layer to the Wall
This is the most difficult solution, but possibly the only one if you have really thin walls. If you are the owner of your place and are allowed to do this, you can soundproof your home by adding mass to the wall.
You can purchase mass-loaded vinyl, which is a sheet of vinyl that you install between the studs of the wall and your drywall. The vinyl weighs about 1 lb. per square foot of vinyl and significantly deadens the sound.
This is an expensive way to do this, but it is the most effective method if you’re allowed to make an install like this. If you intend to live in your home for a long time, it could be a great investment for you.
A Note about Foam Acoustic Panels
Foam acoustic panels are often marketed for soundproofing, but they will not be effective in preventing sound from getting in. Acoustic panels are made to stop echoes and vibrations to improve sound quality in a room and only have a marginal effect on keeping sound out.
Contact Building Management or the Police
If you’ve talked to your neighbors and they aren’t willing to listen to you, it might be time to involve a third party.
If your neighbors are using their TV late at night or it’s excessively loud, this is a good reason to contact your building management or even the police if it’s really bad and you don’t have management to go to.
Try to be reasonable and work with both management and your neighbor. Hopefully, they’ll be able to resolve the situation and everyone can go on with their lives.
