How to deal with construction noise

Noise Comic
Noise Comic
Noise comic

In my new apartment when I moved in construction was going on. So it was always loud. The first few days I had a headache, but slowly I got used to it.

For an HSP getting used to something still means it is stressful. I used the headphones that I had but they didn’t have noise cancelation so the construction noise still came through. I bought a pair of noise-canceling headphones Sennheiser Accentum and those mostly worked. At times I could still hear the construction even with the volume as loud as I could stand it.

I bought noise and light-damping curtains and hung them up. For two rooms they cost about $200 for the poles, curtains, and other equipment. This lowered the sound by about 10 dB. It wasn’t dramatic but it helped. Still, I could hear the construction noise.

Then I got Loop earplugs. These blocked the sound best of all but of course no music. I used these when I had to recharge the headphones. Still, I could hear construction noise.

I turned on the AC to a lower temp so that the noise from the AC would help drown out the noise. That helped but I could still hear it.

I did laundry each day so that the noise from the washer/dryer would help drown out the noise. I did have laundry to do so I wasn’t washing clean clothes. This helped drown out noise as well.

I investigated buying a better noise-canceling headset but what I have is one of the top-of-the-market items. I had used the other two vendors in the past and was unimpressed with them. I thought about buying the more expensive Sennheiser headphones but waited the night to think it over.

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The next day it was quiet. I thought that perhaps because the air quality was bad that day the construction workers had the day off. The day after that there was no noise either. I was curious what was going on. Were they on vacation? I wasn’t complaining I was grateful for a break.

I ran into the super in the hall today and mentioned that it is strange to not hear the construction noise and he said the project was finished. I smiled and said that is great. Now I’m not wearing any headphones and it is so quiet. I can get used to this.

When times are hard you just have to hang in there and things change. Now no matter what kind of noise happens outside, it will always seem like a quiet place to me.