Noisy neighbors dog

[Emahaney]

I recently accepted my very first work at home position! I have about a month before I start and I have already set up my home office in our second bedroom. I have been using it since to check my emails pay bills etc and I have now noticed that my neighbors dog barks a whole lot and it is very loud coming into this room.

I have spoken to the neighbor but he was pretty unresponsive didn't seem to care and thinks working from home isn't really working. This will be a real issue, its phone work and they specified barking dogs will not be tolerated and this is LOUD! I never really noticed before because our bedroom is on the other side of the house, and yes we have always been able to hear the dog from our living room but with the TV volume up it was easy enough to ignore.

Moving my office is not an option as this is a small house and there is no other usable room with a door that closes. Re-insulating would be very expensive and down the line if I like this job we may consider this but we need a more affordable temporary solution before investing the $2000 or more it would take to re-insulate the room and replace the single pane window.

Before I get into a long time consuming battle with my neighbor involving cops and potentially loosing my new position due to excessive noise; Has anyone come up with affordable solutions to block out noisy neighbors and dogs in particular?


On a side note I now have no clue how my son sleeps at night its even louder in his room but he has never mentioned it

[danasurvey]

Does your town have any noise ordinances/laws about noise? I realize no one wants to get into a war with a neighbor though.

I've also seem other posts about noise canceling headsets, so maybe that is something to look into as well?

[elph]

Oh, I feel for you. I have a neighbor whose children are so loud they could be in the same room with me. One thing that works great is a really noisy air purifier. The beauty in that is that the cheaper you buy, the noisier it is likely to be. They vibrate too, which can help with low frequency noise. Another thing you might want to look into is acoustic foam. There is a site called foambymail that has some good choices and good service. You hang it on the wall where most of the noise is coming from and it acts as a noise dampener. If appearance is not an issue, you can cheap out with good old egg crate mattress toppers.

[cwoods333]

You can call the Animal Shelter and they will go and talk with your neighbor in fact they prefer that you do call them instead of trying to take to the neighbor yourself.

[DivaDuo]

I agree the noise cancelling headsets do work really well if you buy one of the better quality ones.

[gcompc]

The same happened to me, my neighbor got a yapping dog the same week I got my work at Home gig. the above suggestions combined worked for me. I had experimented, the sound usually penetrates around the window and door area. Step 1. I lused acoustic foam that just hung pressed inside the window sills and on the door. Step 2. As stated get a good noise canceling USB headset , test it by calling someone with Skype or other VOIP phone system preferably while the dog is barking see if that helps. Step 3. As stated a purifier or fan to mask background noise. These three steps should do the trick. The last measure is to purchase a Stop Barker which you can find on Amazon or E-Bay if the dog is in range. It's a little machine that emits a harsh signal only the dog can hear each time it barks he learns to be quiet around the area where the signal is emitted.

[malea]

Get either a cheap air purifier or a box fan and a noise canceling headset . That will really cut the noise down .

[msuggitt]

Originally Posted by elph

Oh, I feel for you. I have a neighbor whose children are so loud they could be in the same room with me. One thing that works great is a really noisy air purifier. The beauty in that is that the cheaper you buy, the noisier it is likely to be. They vibrate too, which can help with low frequency noise. Another thing you might want to look into is acoustic foam. There is a site called foambymail that has some good choices and good service. You hang it on the wall where most of the noise is coming from and it acts as a noise dampener. If appearance is not an issue, you can cheap out with good old egg crate mattress toppers.

I think that insulating foam/curtains wall hanging is good option