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[Petard]

We live in a strata duplex apartment. We have the entire floor at ground level. Our neighbour has the entire top floor, above our apartment. The garages are in the basement, side-by-side, divided more or less equally. Our upstairs neighbour uses a dumbwaiter (a miniature elevator) to help with groceries, washing, rubbish/recycling which takes these items from the basement up three levels to their apartment. Apart from issues of their use of the dumbwaiter before 7am and after 10pm which can wake us up, it is very noisy. It’s noisier than a garbage truck using its press early in the morning. The dumbwaiter consists of a heavy-duty chain, 3-phase motor and a little ‘car’ with hard surfaces on 3 sides.It was built in the 60s when the duplex was built and has not been modified or upgraded till now. It is located in an elevator shaft that goes through our bathroom. The walls and door to our bathroom vibrate horribly whenever the dumbwaiter is going up or down – any use usually involves the dumbwaiter going up and then down again. As a retired engineer, I understand that old equipment will always be noisier than new equipment. And I’d love to try some simple modifications to reduce the noise level and therefore our stress.

I’m wondering what we can do to either alleviate the noise, or insist on the dumbwaiter being used within certain times of the day – those that don’t risk us being woken.

So far, the neighbour has ignored our many complaints. They just say “…that’s apartment living….”

Looking forward to a positive response.

Graham

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