Upstairs neighbours hoovering at 5.40

[Movelikewater]

My neighbours go to bed VERY late, like 1 or 2 am, they’ve not woken me at that time but I do notice because of the noise if I’m awake. They then wake up at 5.30-ish. Their alarms go off, I hear vibrating through the floor (their bedroom is directly above mine). This morning they are hoovering. Right now. At 5.50.

I am not certain why they wake up this time, both work from home I believe, office hours. My friend told me he himself wakes up at this time to pray, they share a religion, could this be the reason?

I like them very much and don’t want to upset, I also have a live and let live policy in general - but it’s so upsetting to be woken so early every morning, including on weekends!

YABU - toughen up, wear earplugs, get over it, accept living in a flat can be noisy
YANBU - speak to them and ask them to cut out the vibrating alarm clocks, early showers and hoovering.

Hoovering at 5.30 in a flat is antisocial, and thankfully most leases ban that sort of noise until 8am.

I don't see why getting up early to pray means you have to hoover.

Alarms, showers - that sort of thing is just standard flat living noise. Hoovering? No.

I give my neighbours a free pass the first time in case it's a one-off, but if they're noisy twice in a row, I have a word.

I've never once needed to use earplugs in a flat. With considerate neighbours, I can't see why you'd need to, unless you're a shift worker. If normal noise is bothering you, someone's done something stupid like take carpets up.

I'm sorry but that is ridiculous. Worms aren't spread by eggs being walked around the carpet.

Out of bed, wash hands, wash bottom, clean underwear, wash night clothes.

Utterly selfish to hoover in the middle of the night

@SomethingVexesThee ok 🤣

If they bring in those energy costs rebates for using electricity overnight, a lot of people are going to be hoovering and putting their washing machines on through the night.

Macks silicon pillow earplugs are great (Amazon sell them).

@fuckingworms Eggs hypothetically making their way to the carpet is a red herring if you're tackling a worm infestation. Overwhelmingly, the cycle is supported by eggs travelling to mouths on unwashed fingers.

And I still can't think of a good reason to hoover at 5 in the morning because it's really antisocial

@SomethingVexesThee when you have tiny kids with worms, who scratch their bums all night, in and out their bed crawling to your room, I think best bet is to also Hoover.

I mean, I do see why you feel the urge to hoover, especially if they are crawling, not walking. When my DC were crawling they couldn't get out of bed on their own, so I never had that particular scenario to deal with.

But transfer to and from carpet is going to be a very small factor in your infestation. It's primarily about stopping unwashed hands going into mouths. Of course that's easier with some ages/some kids than others. I presume you already do double layers i.e. pants/nappy plus pyjamas, and wash hands on waking, before meals etc.

You do have my sympathy and my advice is well meant! I just don't agree that hoovering at unsociable hours is warranted. It's not going to rid your kids of worms and it's likely to wake your neighbours.

Worms! Wasn’t expecting that turn of events! @fuckingworms i hope you get this sorted, but I have to say I’ve always treated the whole family with a quick dose of ovex repeated a fortnight in, fresh sheets and little else! Good luck getting rid of the fucking worms!

Thanks all for sensible advice. I’ll look at earplugs. I would want to know if my behaviour was upsetting them. I’m sure my fishwife bellowing to get socks on every morning is irritating. As I have get on well with them I will ask them if there is anything I can do to improve noise relations, and slip in about alarm clocks as I presume there is a way to have them go off without the vibrate, also they go off on repeat when neighbours are in shower so they go on for what feels like hours! Showers I guess I need to pipe down about. Hoovering I will raise if it happens again.

Also have never heard any more ‘human’ (!) household noises from their bedroom so should probably count myself lucky!

@Movelikewater 😊 thank you! Good luck to you too

I wouldn't worry about alarms or showers. Vacuuming, though - that's not great.

When I lived in a flat, the neighbour next to the bedrooms would vacuum every night at 2am, slamming her Henry into the skirting boards whilst the tumble drier on the balcony 3 foot from my bedroom window was running until 4am. Then she'd turn on her stereo (Justin Timberlake was the only album she owned for about 6 months before the Christmas songs CD kicked in on 10th September) yell at her children from 6am, drop the kids off at school at 8.30am, go to bed and start it all again the following night once her very loud children had stopped shouting, arguing and watching videos at full blast around 11pm.

Unsurprisingly, the family on the other side who got up to pray were like mice in comparison. And even more unsurprisingly, I was very glad to move to a semi.