I had trouble phrasing this question. I do think that there is a factual answer. My SO is a very loud person in everything he does: talking, walking, slamming things around…EVERYTHING. Drives me out of my nut, it does…but that’s another story. Anyway, I’m always on his case because I’m afraid it annoys the folks above us (we live on the bottom floor.) I say this because I can hear the guy upstairs: coughing, taking a shower, going to the bathroom (if I happen to be in our bathroom.) I can also hear his phone ringing. SO says that it’s totally different living above someone and that he probably doesn’t hear much of us at all and it would be a totally different story if he lived below us and it would suck to be him. Is he correct? If this is true, why? I really hope he’s wrong because I would like him to be quieter just for my own nerves. I also hope that this even makes sense.
Neighbors above are much louder than neighbors below. Most of the things that generate noise are connected to or sitting on the floor, and transmit noise straight through. Speakers, chairs, feet, dropped shoes, roller skates, etc.
Some things, phones ringing, voices should carry equally well up or down.
When standing on the ground floor of my house, my ears are about 2.5’ from footsteps on the second floor. When standing on the second floor of my house, my ears are about 14’ from footsteps on the ground floor. I think a telephone ringing at the same volume should be about the same?
Neighbors above can be loud if they’re “loud walkers”, or other activities which get transmitted through their floor / your ceiling. I’ve lived downstairs from “elephants” more than once, though the worst was a heavier woman who wore high heels, and stomped her way around.
When my wife and I first got married, we lived in an apartment on the 3rd floor of a three-floor building. The apartment below us was a revolving door of loud people:
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First, we had the young woman who regularly had screaming fights with her boyfriend (to the point where we had to call the police several times, as they kept threatening to kill one another). She moved out, and then we got…
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The hard-of-hearing middle-aged woman who fell asleep every night to her television (which was directly beneath our bedroom, blaring all night). She moved out after a year, and we got…
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Mr. Showtunes. A young man who aspired to be a Broadway singer, and would practice all evening. We would regularly have to go downstairs and knock on the door, to ask him to end the evening’s performance once it got past 11pm or so. (It didn’t help that, while the guy was certainly dedicated, he was also very flat.)
Insulation can do wonders on cutting down noises like talking or music, but doesn’t help as much for things like stomping on the floors. So, if you insulate well between floors, the upstairs neighbors are going to be noisier than the downstairs.
Sounds like your place isn’t well insulated between floors.
All of these responses make sense to me. To be clear, we are not bothered in the least by the sounds from upstairs; I’m just afraid that my SO’s noises bother them. We’ve gotten no complaints; I’m just very sensitive to noise and assume everyone else is, too. I’m just glad that we live on the lowest floor. Thanks.