I have been working out for a few weeks using the walking pad, usually early afternoon or the evening i have a weird schedule from classes, and my work schedule. Last night I couldn’t use it till 10 pm and my down stairs neighbor slammed on their ceiling for a good thirty seconds. Understandably, I stopped and switched to a low impact work out. Today, I started at 5:30 pm when I got home (I also wanted my bf to be home incase of conflict), I am not going to do it at night anymore but they slammed on their ceiling again. I feel like it shouldn’t be an issue during daylight, although i know it could be annoying. I especially will watch the times i’m doing it since she has kids like early morning/night but I am only usually on it for 20-40 tops minutes at 3.3 mph during the day. I really don’t want to quit I get anxiety walking outside and I cant always get myself to do it. I am going to get a yoga mat to try and reduce the impact. Their kids also are always running through the building slamming doors and leaving things in the hallway that make it hard to open doors sometimes and they always park terribly in spots closest to the building that aren’t even spots that block other real parking spots but it’s frivolous it doesn’t even bother me (the parking does occasionally bother me) but its not a big deal. I just want to work out a solution but before I proceed I want to know if I am being an asshole for using it during the day time.
UPDATE: I bought shock absorption pads 1/2 inch thick and a mat, i will be talking to them to see if i can find a good time of day for them
TLDR; my downstairs neighbor slammed their ceiling telling me to stop using the walking pad around 10pm, super understandable so now I will only do it during the daytime unless that makes me an asshole i’m
My wife has one they are fricken loud when you are below them.
Yeah hot take: treadmills just don’t belong in most apartments
You should really do something about the noise. A certain amount of noise during the daytime is ok but 40 minutes of rhythmic banging is a lot. In some buildings that sound can really carry, especially if you have wooden floors (in which case a mat probably won’t help much).
You’re probably a heavy clomper, especially if you’ve got shoes on. The sound can be shockingly loud downstairs.
With that being said, it’s apartment living. Everyone has to deal with some amount of noise from their neighbors. NTA as long as you limit it to daytime and early evening hours, reasonable times. No more 10pm clomping.
Some amount of noise is reasonable; someone running on a treadmill every day with no noise mitigation starts to go outside of that, depending on how loud it is.
ESH
Banging on the ceiling for someone to be quiet outside of quiet hours is an overreaction.
Having a piece of workout equipment with nothing underneath it to dampen the sound is inconsiderate. It shouldn’t take someone banging on the ceiling for you to realize you need to put a mat underneath it. And a yoga mat might not cut it – look into actual rubber mats that are designed for exercise equipment.
I mean not everyone has lived in an apartment before, so saying people should just KNOW is kinda wrong. I’ve never lived in an apartment, I didn’t realise downstairs neighbours could hear that so I definitely wouldn’t assume someone would hear. Sure, maybe OP HAS, I dunno… just saying that not everyone inherently knows these things
I will say sadly apartments built in the last 10 years aren’t very sound proof and you hear a lot, however they need to deal with normal apartment noise and turn up their TV or music. I have loud kids above me and that’s what I do.
This is apt living. I would never do it after 8pm or before 9am to be respectful, especially they have young kids. But outside of that they will have to deal with it. A yoga mat won’t make a difference but try the thick rubber tiles that fit together like a puzzle, you see them under gym equipment a lot. They were surprisingly cheap & I put them under my treadmill. It reduced the sound & vibration & also protects my wood floor.
Thank you for that I didn’t think of those, which i will most definitely be keeping in that time frame I really don’t want to cause issues I just want to work something out that can work for the both of us.
You can get the dense rubber blocks that they put under things like washing machines. Maybe something like that can help more.
FWIW, normal hours are conventionally 9am to 9pm, though I’d check what your building’s quiet hours are and adhere to that first. Honestly, ignore the people telling you that you’re the problem or should go somewhere else, you’re fine OP.
YTA because you have not done anything to mitigate the sound. I used to use a treadmill on the second floor. I bought a mat specifically for gym equipment, and put shock absorbers between the treadmill and mat. With that setup, it was not a problem for my downstairs neighbor. Before I got those things, they said it was intolerable.
It’s possible it’s making more noise down there than you think. Some apartment buildings ban these and treadmills because of the noise. It’s also possible to damage the ceiling of the unit below you if you’re stepping on it/running hard enough.
YTA.