Thin floor/ ceiling??

Hi, our upstairs neighbor moved in 3 months ago and since then, I feel like I live with them. I can hear them eat, the little boy playing, the issue why he is throwing a tantrum, DH scrubbing the floor, etc. I do understand that in an apartment, you have to live with your neighbor's noise to a certain extent and our household too is creating noise so, it's give and take but, is it normal that I can hear other's lives full on in HK? I used to live in other apartments in other locations and did not have a case where I was informed of every detail of the household. Moreover, I am starting to worry that in 2 months, we will have a new born baby and how much our neighbors will be annoyed with the crying if I can hear this much going on. Is it something I get used to or just have to train myself?


Thank you so much for your opinion!!

For some HK apts you do have do live with your neighbors noise. Just the fact of life in HK where everyone is crammed into a small place.


I wouldn't worry too much about your apt being the "noisy" one. After all, it's a baby, whether it's yours or someones else's. Your neighbors will just have to get used to it, not you.

I too have exactly the same problem. Every afternoon without fail, i hear the, chopping their food for dinner. It is so loud it wakes my baby. Then there is the scraping of furniture each day. Saturday nights are just great when they drag out the mahjong table at 11pm no less, then play until 2am. You can hear them swirling the tiles around. It drives me insane!


The woman used to wear clackity heeled shoes at all hours of the night and day. Finally one evening around 10.30pm I had a "falling down moment" and stormed up there and asked them to please stop banging things around. I also wrote a letter asking the woman if she couldn't possibly not wear clackity shoes at night which is has blessedly agreed to.


I hear the children playing ball games late at night. I just get a broom now and bang on the our ceiling, usually it quieten downs a bit, but honeslty it is like chinese water torture.


I am not at all concerned about my baby crying at all. We are so quiet all the time, even my 5 year old doesn't make a great deal of noise, so I figure nobody else cares, so why should I?


I think you have to try to switch off, as difficult as it is. I have written a couple of letters (very polite ones) before I finally snapped and stormed up there that evening. My husband has also spoken to them, but not alot has changed.


You may wish to write a letter, they probably don't realise. It may help and they might start to be a little quieter maybe. But that's Hong Kong!

Hi alcheng, Hi neenib ; ) thanks for your replies.

I should take it as experiencing a uniqueness of HK!! And maybe I will load some soothing music on my ipod...

I think I will fire back when someone comes and says that we are too noisy.


neenib, how do you still keep your sanity after all that????? wow. Majong until 2am..................

"I too have exactly the same problem. Every afternoon without fail, i hear the, chopping their food for dinner. It is so loud it wakes my baby. Then there is the scraping of furniture each day. Saturday nights are just great when they drag out the mahjong table at 11pm no less, then play until 2am. You can hear them swirling the tiles around. It drives me insane!"


Can't you complain to the management? I'm sure there's got to be a rule about late night noises in your building.


I agree, renovation noise is by far the most irritating, specially if you have a newborn who needs sleep throughout the day! Even w/out a baby it gets in your nerves! Unfortunately, that's all part of living in HK. BTW, your management should have set rules on renovation noise. Usually M-F 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-1pm, Sunday no noise. Wonder if the same applies to majhong/party noise?

renovation noise is one thing, but the dust, paint smell, varnish and other chemical smells, in my opinion tops the list. my next door neighbor is renovating their flat and the dust and smell still permeates my flat...and lingers throughout the whole night the only thing i could do is to ask them to close their doors when they are working so the smell and dust going to my flat is minimized.

Hi brian.don,

you are absolutely right that when leasing, we should have been careful. I think this is a price I am paying because we totally forgot about noise.(We arrived in HK during the cold spell this January and the Service apartment we stayed in did not have heating devices so we were fixdated on flats with heating devices!!) In the future, moving will be in our agenda so I will make sure that I do the noise test, including the fist banging : ) !!

Also, yes, once again, I do agree that I should not loose consideration no matter the circumstance. I thank you for verbally mentioning that to me. It is so true that no matter what, it is different from maintaining my integrity, and that's my problem!!! My eyes are awake now!!


alcheng, I did not know that there are late night noise rules!! I think i should read the contract etc, again for my own sake too.


Wiz Bang, I do agree that smell gets to you too! Before our upstairs moved in, they did the renovation and it was noisy and smelly. I went out all day, and at night after coming home, scented candles everywhere, incense, those aromatherapy oils came in handy + it was quite romantic!!



have a nice day everyone!!

"renovation noise is one thing, but the dust, paint smell, varnish and other chemical smells, in my opinion tops the list. my next door neighbor is renovating their flat and the dust and smell still permeates my flat...and lingers throughout the whole night the only thing i could do is to ask them to close their doors when they are working so the smell and dust going to my flat is minimized."


Wiz Bang, closing the front door of the apt being renovated is a must and there are rules about this. They have to do it and you have the right to complain to the building management. Of course the workers will always find an excuse to open the door again. Just be patient but persistent with the building security and management. The contractor will get blacklisted if they (management) issue enough warnings to them. No contractor would like that, money nowadays is much harder to make!