Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rooster_2006]

I've had a bunch of problems with whining neighbors who don't like the clinking of my chopsticks and spoons, talking in a low voice, etc. In multiple cases, they've complained to the landlord, and in one case, a young Japanese man actually threatened on two occasions to "beat me up" if I talked to a friend late at night again. It's not like I'm throwing huge parties or anything, but a lot of people seem to think it's completely out-of-line noise-wise to be cooking after 9:00 PM, or that kind of thing. Right now the place where I'm living seems to be pretty nice, and my neighbors put up with me, but if my neighbors change, I could be stuck with a noise complainer again.

So here's my question -- has anyone ever tried buying a bunch of soundproofing material on eBay or something and padding their entire room with it? Does it actually work? What are the drawbacks?

I'd love to pad my whole room, or at least create a padded booth where I could talk on the phone and perform noisy tasks.

[the_beaver]

Way back in the day when I had two roommates and all of us had non-steady girlfriends there were a number of sounds flying around from all directions at all times. We picked up sound-absorbing foam from 동대문 market and covered our doors and it helped quite a bit.

Here's an example of the foam.

[khyber]

My cousin sound proofed his music studio with that stuff. He covered his whole room but that place was like a black hole of sound; everything just died.

[PeteJB]

I can't quite figure out the directions of sound in my place. I can sometimes hear water flowing, but I can't tell if it comes from the apartment above or beside. I can hear my neighbor talking or watching TV, but only one of them - the rest I cannot. I think the door loses the most sound, as even beeps from phones can be heard in the hallway. Based on that I imagine *everything* can be heard in the hall. Only time I concern about noise is when with the miss...

[seoulsister]

That foam is available in Korea, I've seen it online on a kind of DIY site (don't have the address anymore) and I've also seen it in shops around the bang-san market in ulijiro (search online for directions). I'm pretty sure its one of things where once you find out where they sell it you will see it everywhere. That said, I used it only on the door of my current place and I conclude that it makes no difference whatsoever. Can't say what effect it would have if you put it all over, but it would be a pretty depressing sight regardless, IMO.

[KOREAN_MAN]

I've heard foreigners speak in public places (i.e. subways) and WOW they are loud. I don't know if it's because they're actually talking louder or the English language uses different sound frequencies or something. One thing though, I've never had such a problem while living in the U.S.

Soundproofing your apartment isn't a bad idea. It probably works both ways (you won't be disturbed by them either).

[Cheonmunka]

Gads, looking at that avatar for at least a minute. Is that from the Olympics? Perhaps taken from the Spazlympics?

[Ukon]

[PeteJB]

Well comparing the Seoul subway with the Beijing subway is like comparing an examination hall to a rock festival, so I'd tend to agree.

[Rob'sdad]

[Rob'sdad]

[mindmetoo]

Yeah it's called two fans running either side of your head.

[DrunkenMaster]

Now you can hide the masturbation noises.

[mindmetoo]

[adeline]

ya, i've done it but I didn't actually use professional stuff to soundproof with, because its not like I really needed complete soundproofing. If you are crafty, or handy, you can do it yourself by just covering wood frames, you can build them yourself or buy them, with a layer of stuffing and then fabric. The ones I did were one foot by three feet and I just lined them up around the room at about torso height. It really does work, also just putting a thick rug down helps a lot too.