kids & noise in a coop

ask them to put carpets....

Hope they grow up quickly. Depending on the building's structure, no amount of carpeting will get rid of noise from upstairs. Luckily noise doesn't really bother me, but if it did I'd have a hard time justifying buying because you just never know who is going to be your neighbor. After 8 years of zero complaints our new neighbor at PCV came up to ask us to go barefoot in our home, and could my husband please put on his work shoes in the hallway rather than the apartment. She had no complaints other than footsteps, and we generally do go barefoot, but she called the instant anyone wore regular shoes. She complained about the carpet situation, but confessed to me she had no carpets, and she had a toddler who I'm sure was driving her downstairs neighbors insane with the push-toys and falls, etc.

Having said that, do a search on noise and reduction here, because if you're committed to staying where you are, some people have given some great ideas.

manhattan coop is not family friendly, just by the nature of it's physical structure, period.

caonima, you are on a roll.

huntersburg: But caonima's Engish, it getting better!

walpurgis: !

Please forgive me...I just couldn't resist THAT one!

O.kaaay walpurgis!

A letter to the managing agent sent by e-mail is best, if the floor covering rule isn't being complied with.
But kids are noisy, even if floors are 80% covered.
They yell and play with delight and scream and cry with frustration and the usual kiddie letting-off-steam.

I found that bare feet can make a lot of pounding noise, especially from a man. I solved foot noise with rubber-souled shoes that we only were in the apartment. They absorb the pounding.

Should have been WEAR....

& soles...

I meant SOLED...

Misspellings aside, I remember how surprised I was when the footfalls from above me turned out to be from a very skinny guy!

They were these barefoot "fwumps"...with reverberation reminiscent of the pounding bass you hear from a distant loud car stereo.

I've always gone barefoot the moment I walk through the door - who needs the dirt on the floors & carpets anyway?

I also try to walk as lightly as possible, as not to be accused as being a cast member of "Stomp"!

Egads, me with the spelling this morning! But yes, I had a friend, tiny, female, who had new people move in below her, and it was her bare feet that drove them crazy, even after she put down rugs. She began WEARING rubber-SOLED shoes in the apartment and all was well. :)

Slippers are the solution. Don't walk barefoot.
Most rubber-soled shoes are heavy.

walpurgis and Bird are Beatles fans.

There's only one solution: Quiet, indoor use Jet Pack-like devices, enabling the wearer to float through their apartment with nary a sound.

Whoever comes up with this one will knock good ol' Bloomie Babes down a notch on the Forbes 500 list!

Get to work on it in your laboratory.
Cook something up in Murray's Hill, walpurgis.

This is where Asian cultures have known the truth for centuries -- no shoes indoors. Tracking wetness and mud inside is disgusting.

Get some soft-soled slippers and nobody will be able to hear you!

Ideally there could be some separation or rules on this matter in regular NYC coops or condos, as some have already raised their kids and could do without the nose except if the grandkids visit.

So grandkids are noises? Or your grandkids are not noises? Or you want the world to revolve around you?

Noisy

One more thing about shoes and noise: they should carpet the hallways, too. In my building, in Tokyo, people take their shoes off indoors, but each floor's hallways are uncovered linoleum. So on my floor, we always know when the woman across from us or the one next to us is leaving or arriving because their high heels clack all the way down the hall.

The elderly folks in their rubber-soled sneakers are quieter. Of course, when they're in the hallway talking, they're that much louder because they're hard of hearing!

genie clips and egg crate foam. lose about 3 inches of ceiling height and gaining peace of mind.

LOL! Proof that ya just can't win! Clomping Clysdales when they're young... yacking, yenta-ing & kvetching loudly (while holding the elevator doors open, of course) when they're old...OY!!! Enough already!!! Get me the #$%& outta here!!!

Please explain how grandparents can miraculously do without their noses until the grandchildren visit.

Are they some new, mutated (possibly amphibious) breed of multifamily housing dweller?!?

I don't think that approaching the neighbors would have any effect in this case because kids are kids and they like to run around. One of the difficulties about living in the city is that kids have few places to run around outdoors. Even if your building has a children's playroom, the kids are still going to play most of the time in their apartment. If the noise really bothers you, I would suggest that you soundproof the ceilings.

I've dealt with this issue. Ask managing agent to inspect the apartment and make sure proper carpeting and padding are installed. If not, have agent enforce the 80/20 rule. If noise still bothers you (and it probably will), make sure neighbors are aware that children are causing noise for you. They need to control the kids to a reasonable degree. For me, this means I ignore running / jumping spurts up to a couple of minutes in length. But it is unacceptable for running / jumping / playground-like behavior to go on for 20 minutes. In these cases, we call down to the doorman and ask him to call neighbors and tell them to keep it under control. GL.

Brooks is back - he has no shame after being caught lying about his staus as a retired Air Force fighter
pilot.
Retired Air Force fighter pilots are not posting comments on streeteasy, freaking out about overpriced RE listings. Nor about noisy grandkids and noises.

They don't curse and rant about petty topics.

get lost with your B.S., Brooks.

huntersburg--- is brooks your left hand or your right hand? either way, it feels good?

helps to know the age of the kids.
If they are H.S. age then a reasonable period of time will solve the problem.
If they are young then a more measured responce would be in order.
Remember the house on Halloween that gives out the apples with razor blades deeply imbedded?
That's you.

columbiacounty
about 1 hour ago
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>huntersburg--- is brooks your left hand or your right hand? either way, it feels good?

Neither, you delusional senile old man. Neither.

hilarious.

lame oh.

>lame oh.

?

Some people should really opt for the suburbs. Or certain buildings with very good sound control.

How many people want to opt for wall to wall, or even 80% area rugs? Hardwoods are all most people want. Even with carpets, depending on the building, the noise can be intense. Instead of calling down to the doorman every time your neighbor's kids spend MORE THAN A COUPLE OF MINUTES being normal kids, maybe you ought to consider that you are the one imposing the unreasonable standards. Most property owners enjoy the increase in their property values that has come about because people have elected to have families in the city, and not moved to the suburbs, creating greater demand. Hell, people, the worst neighbors I've ever had were a young gay couple who pounded out broadway songs on their awfully tuned piano at all hours. They were very nice, but their noise level was appalling. And more recently I had a bunch of frat kids in PCV who seemingly set up a makeshift bowling alley on the floor above me. I did go up and ask them not to engage in such things after midnight, and they were OK with that. This is a city, and one with not very good noise insulation.

>Hell, people, the worst neighbors I've ever had were a young gay couple who pounded out broadway songs on their awfully tuned piano at all hours. They were very nice, but their noise level was appalling. And

Harrible. Just harrible.

>And more recently I had a bunch of frat kids in PCV who seemingly set up a makeshift bowling alley on the floor above me.

Um...

Also, how did you know they were frat?

The usual StreetEasy thread: an OP presents a preposterous situation and a whole chain of posts ensues, talking about everything except the scenario that the OP set out. (frats, huntersburg? Really?). And then OP is never heard from again after the first post.

For those of you with reading comprehension difficulties (which is everyone who's posted so far), the question involves noise from goats in the apartment above, in a coop. That's somewhat hard to believe, city-slickers, given that goats are not kept in coops (as chickens are). In any event, City of New York regulations disallow the keeping of livestock in residential structures.

Well, in that case our co-op is in flagrant violation of the livestock ordinance, as one of our highly esteemed board members re'sembles a cow standing on its hind legs.

Noise problems in apartments are often difficult to deal with and I would think that any situation which requires frequent vigilance such as dealing with noisy kids is particularly difficult. I agree with kas's ideas in theory, but not in practice. I would not want to be telephoning my doorman every day to complain about the kids upstairs being noisy. Carpets and rugs are problematic if you have allergies which many city people do.
I have found that music issues are easier to control. No playing musical instruments at certain hours or no playing your stereo over a certain volume. I think this is because you are dealing adult to adult. With kids, they have alot of energy and asking a parent or nanny to shush them every 5 minutes is too much an imposition. I would soundproof the ceilings.

When my child was young it would be safe to say that "WE" were that noisey apartment.
Being good and fair New Yorkers, we had our child fitted for a head to toe Nurf suit. We transported her around the apartment in a devise inspired by the mechanism utilized to transport Dr. Hannible Lecter. We kept our child on a steady round the clock diet of dairy products and cold medicine. Sound proofed our walls and floors and had an industrial 'WHITE NOISE' maker installed (at great personal expence).
Still the neighbors continued to complain until one day we just decided to stop caring.
It was an interesting experience with one peculiar side effect. To this day, my child's favorite food is liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Very walpurgian, falcogold. lol.

Very nice - who knows? Before long, s/he will be the founder of a bungee jumping
evisceration service with a special discount for Italian investigators only!

I believe the spirit of Michael O'D. has been reincarnated in walpurgis!

I agree with falcogold. I think if you complain too often, the upstairs neighbors will most likely stop caring. I would save my fight for something more annoying than noisy kids. Having lived in NYC apartmenst for a long time, I've learned to do what I can within my 4 walls to minimize hearing noise from neighboring apartments. People have differing levels of tolerance to noise and it's often a situation where people grow tired of hearing complaints.

A nice set of earphones, some good music. A cup of tea.
Take a break from the noise.
The kiddies get tired and fall asleep eventually.