If you live in a flat....

[NeverGuessWho]

And you are a considerate neighbour, what’s the earliest time you’d:
Put a wash on?
Hoover?
Been desperate to do both since 6:00am, but haven’t yet. I’m new to this flat life, so just wondering what others think.

Also, how early is acceptable IYO for your neighbours to do the same.

Background: my neighbours are furloughed but don’t work nights anyway, and I live in the top flat with another family adjoined on one side, and a couple in the flat below. My washing machine won’t be heard by the family living to the side of me, but probably will be heard by the couple below. I have laminate flooring throughout, so no carpets to soften the noise.

TIA

It probably depends a lot on how thin your walls are and where you are doing these things in relation to where your neighbours are.

I wouldn't do anything too noisy before 8am on a weekday or before 10am at the weekend, or after about 9pm.

We are lucky to live on the top floor so we don't have anyone above us, but we have hardwood floors everywhere so we never wear shoes inside. In my experience it's the noises people could avoid making if they were a little more considerate that are the most annoying, so for example loud stomping from the floor above (when we lived in a different flat) or very loud talking or shouting, especially late at night. I once flat-sat for a friend whose neighbour loved to shout on the phone constantly. If I'd been there longer than two weeks it would have driven me insane and we'd have had words. And in our last apartment we had a young couple next door to us who worked in bars and restaurants, and so they'd come home at midnight and stay up for most of the night before sleeping all day. The girl in particular would get drunk (or possibly take drugs) and rant at the top of her voice through the night. I had to ring their doorbell at 3, 4, 5am on weeknights to ask her to shut the fuck up.

So for me, if you live in a flat, the rule of thumb is this.

1. Is it necessary for me to make this much noise? (If the noise is shouting or stomping on hardwood floors with your shoes on then the answer is always no. If the noise is hoovering or putting your washing machine on then the answer is yes.)

1. If the answer is yes, then when is it reasonable for me to make this noise? Answer: not when most people might be trying to sleep.

If your neighbours knock and ask you to keep the noise down, or to try and be quiet at a certain time, try to accommodate them.

If the noise is something like music practice then I think you're entitled to make it. (Learning a musical instrument should not be a privilege reserved for those who live in big detached houses.) But same timing rules apply as for hoovering and washing machines.

Also I would treat weekdays as weekdays whether people are furloughed or not. Lie ins at the weekend are a treat for when you've been working hard all week. You don't need them every day.

It can be difficult if your neighbours work unusual hours (e.g. night shifts) and so the timings that apply to most people don't apply to them. You can't be expected to be aware of this is they don't tell you, but if your neighbour knocks and tells you that they're a nurse just coming off their night shift and need to sleep during the day, I would try to be accommodating as much as possible, but equally you aren't expected to be silent as a mouse in your own home. It's all about give and take, and respect on both sides.

I’m middle floor flat. My landlord lives downstairs so I’m always super conscious of noise and disturbing him.

That being said, he’s mid 70s so usually up and walking his dog at 8. I tend to put my washing machine on around 8:30am in the week, 9:30am at weekends.

I’d be pretty annoyed if the couple above me put theirs on anytime before that as it would definitely wake me up.

Anytime, the sound proofing in our flats is very good, it’s something I thoroughly checked before buying it, I have never heard any of the neighbours.

My lease has an 8am to 9.30 pm clause for washing machines, hoovering etc. My downstairs neighbours don't stick to the 9.30 pm bit for washing but the noise doesn't bother me. What does bother me is when they are on some kind of Zoom / Skype call when for some reason voices get raised (in a happy not angry way) and this sometimes happens at 11 at night.

My upstairs neighbours have laminate or wood flooring and seem to clomp about at all hours with shoes on. I would trade the noise of a washing machine for the stomping. But I would also say after 9am on weekdays and 10am on weekends for hoovering / noisy stuff.

You can get some thick rubber matting type stuff to put under your machine to absorb vibrations, if you're worried. Haven't got a clue what it's called though.

You sound very considerate and are welcome to move next door to me so I can get rid of our door banging, wooden floor and wooden stairs stomping, dog barking, screaming knobs of neighbours...

Hoovering I would do between 11am and 8pm.

The washing however...I only ever do a quick wash (half hour setting) so would happily do it any time of the day or night. Doubt it would be heard in bedrooms anyway.

My neighbours have hoovered as early as 8am, pisses me right off. I think 10am on weekdays and 11 on weekends is fair.

Used to live in a flat, but I was the ground floor so would hoover and wash whenever

We recently moved out of a flat but only did laundry and hoovering after about 9 or 10am, and about 8pm was when we wouldn't have any of that noise. Before we had to wfh etc this meant always doing laundry around 6 on a weekday, but we had to hang it to dry indoors anyway.

I live in a gf marionette so whenever I want to

We have the entire middle floor of our building. The ceilings are 11ft and we hear very little from upstairs so assume downstairs can’t hear much of us but just in case we keep quiet before 8am during the week and 10am at the weekend and after about 9pm.

I lived in a flat for 15 years. It must have been well built because I never heard the neighbours. Even worked nights for 5 years with no problem.

When I lived in a flat there was a covenant for no electronic/mechanical noise between 10.30pm - 7.30am. I'd say that was reasonable. Does it really not say on your leasehold documents? I thought they all did.

I can hear my upstairs neighbours talking so some flats definitely have more soundproofing than others

@trotesio agree with you installing laminate but some developers actually install (cheap)laminate when they build flats
ds in learning guitar via youtube in his flat - it occurred to me in may be in self defence his next door neighbour is a pain with loud night time/middle of night music (he is learning acoustic guitar during day not electric - he likes his other neighbours )

I live in a block of flats. It's never quiet. Ever.
But I will say it's never washing machines or hoovers I hear. It's people's telly or loud talking or yelling, dogs barking, babies crying, people having phone calls in the echo-y hallways and worst of all shitty 'boom boom boom' music all hours of the day (I mean ALL).

(I don't mind babies crying because they're babies and they can't help it)