Will a white noise machine stop my neighbours from being able to hear me?

[evelynn03]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this.. Basically I live in a maisonette type of flat where the walls are really thin.. I live on bottom floor and there's one person above me.. She has said that she can sometimes hear me when I'm on work calls but can't make out what I'm saying.. Now I don't talk loudly at all and actually always have people telling me that I'm too quiet and need to be louder so this has made me really paranoid.. I know people complain all the time about noisy neighbours but honestly I'd rather have a noisy neighbour than be one) :
If I got a white noise machine would that help stop her from being disturbed?

typo in title edited by MNHQ

Also does anyone know which machines are good? There's so many on amazon I'm not sure which one is best

Omg pls ignore the typo I meant to say white noise machine

I don't think so I'm afraid. If your neighbour got one it would work, but I think it helps soften the noise for the listener, not the noise maker. Happy to be corrected though!

What noise does that type of machine make? Constant farting?

No help from me but definitely typo of the week!

I'm sorry but I love your spelling mistake. I'd rather hear the odd muffled conversation than perpetual white noise if you were my neighbour.

I think a good white noise machine could make a difference to her if she was using it, but a shite one won’t help at all?

That's just it..im not sure if she's just being polite when she says she can't hear what I'm saying and I hate to be a nuisance

Try it free. I use this all the time.

mynoise.net/

this is amazing thank you! Just a question do you know if white noise stops other from hearing you? Or does it just stop you from hearing other people?

I imagine it would be like singing while you’re hoovering - you can’t hear yourself because you’re near the hoover but everyone else can.

You’d probably end up raising your voice too over the white noise.

what about pining up some sheets of polystyrene or similar on the adjoining wall of your wfh room to muffle the sound?

White noise will do nothing to block out YOUR sounds from the neighbour. It will only help is SHE has a white noise machine in her own room.

I know a little about white noise having had life changing tinnitus for last 7 years.

Check out "Sound Oasis" for good white noise machines if you do want one or want to recommend one for your neighbour. They are a great company and I've had a lot of good products from them over the years. They have their own website or you can buy on Amazon or similar.

No, it won't stop them hearing you. If they had one in their house, it would muffle/lessen it for them, but it won't do anything if you have it in your place.

Also, stop worrying so much. You live in a flat, neighbours are going to hear muffled nosies coming through walls/floors, it's just how it is.

Think it depends. The ones on the app have a 'speech blocker', which plays at the common frequencies of speech. You could try that. Play the radio/TV and go listen to the other room, then play the white noise too and see if it blocks out the radio?

Do you have really good headphones/mic? When I replaced mine I could hear and be heard much more easily. Previously I was raising my voice slightly all the time.

Our semi detached house has awful sound proofing. I know what your neighbour is saying as it's the same for us: you can hear talking but can only pick out maybe a few words here and there. We have learnt to zone out from it. We also bought a fish tank and placed it next to the main wall so now we tend to hear less over the sound of the bubbles from the filter. I'm afraid your neighbour is the one who will have to do something rather than you. As long as you're not saying anything really private or anything, your neighbour will have to just put up with it or do something themselves. If you don't hear them, then it's not your problem I'm afraid.

Do you use a headset for your calls? I find that when DP and I both work from home, he has a tendency to project his voice if he's using speakerphone or his laptop without a headset. Getting him a headset already helped lower the volume he was speaking at.