How to deal with thin walls, broken elevators, and a useless HOA
Uninsulated walls transmit neighbor conversations and outside construction noise directly into living spaces, while failing elevators and unverified HOA repair assessments drive up unexpected costs. These building maintenance and management failures trap residents in deteriorating living conditions with no clear path to accountability.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Using noise-canceling headphones or earbuds2 people mentionedDid this help you?
- 2Switching bedrooms to get some sleep away from shared wallsDid this help you?
- 3Walking up or down four flights of stairs when the elevator breaksDid this help you?
- 4Considering selling the property despite market conditionsDid this help you?
- 5wearing earplugsDid this help you?
- 6increasing TV or music volumeDid this help you?
- 7trying to reroute the system intakeDid this help you?
- 8Contacting the third-party booking platform (like Agoda) to interveneDid this help you?
- 9Switching to a different type of room and paying extra feesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Unfortunately, I quickly found out there’s no insulation in the walls connecting my unit to my neighbors. None.”source ↗
“Also the elevator gets stuck often when people don’t properly close the door then I’m having to walk up or down 4 flights of stairs in a hot stairwell.”source ↗
“Now the HOA wants to get serious about replacing the roof but the quote has gone from $4k to 7k and now sitting at 10k and we haven’t seen any physical documentation or quotes in our HOA portal.”source ↗
“Separately, the building is having issues with water leaks, water damage and mold.”source ↗
“I am currently sitting in my bedroom (1st floor) and can hear verbatim the conversations and extremely loud music of the construction crew nextdoor (quite literally 5 ft from my window).”source ↗
“wanted to ask if anyone has tips for making a rental property outside noise free?”source ↗
“So sorry if this is the wrong sub, but I am desperate!”source ↗
“I want to reroute the intake for the furnace so it intakes from the utility room as it is really loud. Especially when the ac is going all day making the basement almost unbearable.”source ↗
“When they have the AC on this is the exact noise I hear inside my apartment.”source ↗
“Even though it isn’t in damaging dB range, it makes my heart race and my hears start to hurt a little whenever they have it on and they have it on and off almost all day and night because they get hot really easily.”source ↗
“During the day I can take it but it makes it really hard to sleep at night because it sounds especially loud in my room.”source ↗
“Im staying in a hotel in Bangkok booked through Agoda where they are apparently doing maintenance on the AC throughout the hotel, however most of the day yesterday they were working right across from my room and I was disturbed by the noise.”source ↗
“I requested a room change, and they told me all rooms were full and the noise would stop in 30 minutes. In fact it kept going for hours.”source ↗
“They told me to change to another type of room I'd have to pay extra; I requested they simply switch me without extra charge because of the noise. They declined and once again said the workers would leave soon.”source ↗
“Now the AC work crew is back today once again working in rooms near mine and making the same noise.”source ↗
“I'm wondering what I should do this in situation given how unhelpful the hotel staff was yesterday. Would my best option to be to contact Agoda and try to get them to intervene?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 14How to deal with a neighbor playing loud music past quiet hours