Hello

We've been living in Switzerland for about 6 months and I'm finding it some what difficult living in an apartment. We had our own house in the UK so I am not used to all the noises around me I.e. toilet noises, tv noises and elephant foot steps.

Also our neighbours above us like to watch movies really loud which reverberates around the air flow system.

Any tips for a sane and happy apartment life?

Yes, move.

I know from experience it is a very big transition to living in an apartment after a house. Some apartments offer more privacy than others, but the fact is it is nothing like living in a house. In time I think you get used to certain noises, although they may still irritate you.

Detached houses available for rent are in short supply, most are attached. To find a house for rent often means compromising on area and perhaps a longer commute time to work.

I could personally only live in a top floor flat. For the first 3 months here I was in a serviced apartment and some nutter above me kept screeching the chairs around.

There are certainly benefits to flats - all on one floor, no stairs, no garden to maintain and some even have no communal walls.

Don't take the noise personally, they are not doing it on purpose. The guy upstairs makes me cringe for his back, his footfall is so heavy but I just try to tune it out. The kid crying and screaming downstairs in the middle of the night is a bit more difficult, still pondering on what to do there... My flat is built to a fairly high standard and I STILL hear the noises, so I guess you really have to learn to tune out or move out and hope for less noisy neighbours.

A few days ago you were feeling far from home...I hope it is better
But it seems that life is not treating you well in Pfaffikon
We live next to you in Fehraltorf and we move to an apartment in Jan...we hope for quiet neighbors
And yes...move! Or enjoy the lake more often or buy these for your neighbors:
Audimute Sound absorption blankets for sale [Zurich]

Have a quiet week...

Oh yes we looked at detached houses but couldn't find any that weren't under they airport perhaps you're right I may get used to it. It seems to only get to me at night when I want peace and sleep. Maybe ear plugs and those silence ear phone things will work.


I have two dogs so we live on the bottom floor which means garden so perfect for our critters. Issue is I'm not used to having someone above. It seems I can only hear noise from above and not at the side. Maybe the walls are thicker at the sides.




Oh go screaming baby not sure what I'd do there. It's obviously not done on purpose. Perhaps ear plugs.

Our upstairs neighbours like to watch movies with surround sound so gun fire and screaming I have surround sound but always conscious of the noise it creates. Perhaps ill just let the dogs continue to bark at thier noise

I'd only ever move to modern apartments built to car park specs. I'm in my second apartment now. First one was top floor for 6 years. Brand new apartment thick concrete floors. Never had complaints from below and rarely heard much. New apartment now on ground floor and not heard a peep from our neighbors above - again brand new build - built like a car park and as our landlord keeps telling us, earth quake proof

Any old house converted into apartments with thin rickety noisy floors would be hell for me, experienced that in the UK

Hey yes, things have felt a bit better. I guess bad news from home makes you realise how far away home is. Pfaeffikon is lovely, just adapting to lots of change I guess. I know I should be grateful for my 'lot'. Afterall I'm living in a country most people dream of living. Just a case of adapting....

All alright as long as you realize that few people here will have too much understanding for your fate I mean, I have experienced a separate house at grandmum in Schaffhausen and admittedly liked it, and my best schoolfriend lived in a separate house with his grandparents, but the "normal" thing here is that you live in a remted apartment

This. We lived in a new building and never heard a sound from our neighbours.

Not all apartments are like that. I live in a 70s block of flats and you'd think it was deserted! And I know for a fact that many have stay home mums so it's not like everyone is always out working or something.
What I couldn't stand was when I lived closer to the airport and had the airplanes literally taking off over my apartment block....brrrrr

It's also worth noting that a previously quiet, peaceful apartment block can change overnight, too. We've got a new family in the apartment above us who have a toddler who goes to bed later than I do. Last night he was was screaming with laughter, rolling what sounded like a bowling ball around and stomping up and down after 11pm!

The same family decided it was fine to start some home improvements with a hammer drill on Friday evening just as I was putting my son to bed at around 8pm then left the rest of the drilling until Sunday lunchtime. They are also fully paid up members of the loud-talking and door-slamming society.

My nails are bitten to the quick and my teeth are ground down to stumps.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment as they've only been here a few weeks and they are probably getting settled but I'm about a week's worth of noise away from blowing my stack and giving them a piece of my mind.

Similar situation although it is adults making the noise.
1st I time went up at 1am I politely asked them to keep the noise down, it worked that night.
2nd time I went up at 12:30am and told them in no uncertain terms how disrespectful they were being to the other families in the building and if if continued I would be sending a letter of complaint to the owner, haven't heard them after 10pm since.

drilling, moving furniture, shouting, dropping heavy items on the floor are not acceptable late at night here, or for that matter in another country, people in apartments should respect their neighbours and if they don't they should be told.

I just don't like to complain to them directly. I don't want to cause friction. We live in a block of 6 apartments so when there is noise it is clear who it is. Writing notes won't achieve anything.

They might not know they are being loud and disturbing you and I'm sure you won't cause friction by talking to them. Just go up and ask them if they realise how badly sound-proofed the building is (kind of shifting the blame onto the building rather than them) and ask them if they wouldn't mind keeping the noise levels down after 10pm, for example.

Let them know if they can hear you being noisy to come and speak to you at any time.

Most reasonable people would be fine with that. Personally, I would be mortified if I found I had been disturbing someone and would probably be full of apologies so, for every person that would take offence, there are many more that would be accommodating.

Same here.

I ask the neighbours regularly if our children are being too noisy.

I would much rather the neighbours tell us than have them simmer over time until good relations break down.

Apparently it's traditional to work out your pent up frustration/aggression by leaving little notes around the place reminding the neighbours to coordinate their TV schedules with yours (etc) and to practise counter-annoyance strategies such as recycling the wrong sort of cardboard.

See, it's all about fitting in. Or so I'm told.

If you are having big problems with noises late at night (music, construction work, etc) and friendly discussion doesn't work you can always write a letter to the realty company, they can talk to the renters about the noise.

I have the same problem actualy its still going on and it's for 2 1/2 years now.

We have this neighbour above us making noise at night Really loud as in loud to the highest level as if she's Goliat ,slamming windows and doors walking or stomping non-stop in the whole apartment between 11pm to 1pm ,walking with high-heels or hard sandals,cleaning at night ,switching the dining chairs for 30mins. Also at night etc. at first we just ignored it until we realized that she's not stoping and its too much already until my husband talked to her bf and we found that she is doing it INTENTIONALLY because she is mad cuz my husband is smoking in the balcony and the smell is staying in their apartment "permanently" .

We found it so stupid cuz we are so friendly to them and saying grüezi all the time and they are answering back so we thought we are all ok then we gonna find out that they are mad at us ,i mean if i have problems with my neighbour im gonna talk to them straight but what she's doing is making noise at night (as if it can help her)disturbing my sleeping 5-yr old son ,what kind of behaviour does she have? It is so ridiculous and sooo childish! Ok if she talked to us maybe mu husband can avoid or lessen the smoking at night (though we don't have to!) but she never did.

My husband is just smoking until 9 cuz he's going to sleep early but she said ,she is smelling it at 11pm onwards .....duh!

I complained her to the company who's managing the apartment because i found it really absurd ...well she said sorry the first time and in an arrogant way and it never changed she became worst, now i have newborn baby and i cnt take it anymore so i sent an email again and this time she did a counter complaint as a "revenge" ..i dunno yet what is her Complaint until monday, Wincasa will send us a letter and i cnt think of anything that she can complain about us honestly we are a quiet and restpectful family and we always think of the lady living under us.

Fyi My husband smokes not to make her mad but she is making noise to make us mad...so i thought i really need to report her again cuz that kind of attitude is not tolerable! If she's an old lady maybe i'll understand but she is like mid 20s and we found out also that she had a fight with a spanish couple on the same building due to stinky cooking then a german lady about the washing machine so the house keeper thinks she is just a typical swiss racist who doesn't like foreigners (though my husband is swiss).

While detatched houses are in short supply, you can increase your chances by looking at attached houses. I''ve lived in semi-detached/terraced housing in different places for the past 22 years, and noise from the neighbours has never been the kind of problem described by the OP.