"mm" wrote in message
...
On 24 Feb 2007 14:42:48 -0800, "slakka" wrote:


Dear NG,
Next month in N.Y.C. housing court I will finally have the opportunity
to get a correction in writing regarding a neighbors door that is been
a violation of my warrant of habitability for years. Can any of you
please recommend a course of action that would render a heavy steel
door closing into a heavy steel doorframe complete silent?? Even when
closed in a thoughtful manner its still a problem. This is my big
chance and I don't want to blow it.
Thanks in advance!!

ed

This is the neighbor's door to the hall? Most doors like that have
springs built into the hinges. Required by law, I think.

Do you have the same landlord?

You're only asking how to quiet the existing door, right? Not for a
new door.

I think it is rare that a door is completely silent, and I don't think
you are really asking for that. I think you want it silent from your
pov in your own apartment. That was the case with me, in the four
different apartment buildings I lived in in Brooklyn, and others I
visited. I rarely if ever heard another door in the building shut.

Yet I'm sure if I were in the hall, or right next to the door, I would
have heard the door almost every time.

So don't look like a fool in court by asking for completely silent. If
you come off looking like you are asking for the impossible, they may
take your valid complaint a bit less seriously. Ask that they install
the proper padding, as described in these other posts here, and
perhaps a hydraulic door closer if there is some reason why just the
padding is not enough, and if the neighbor landlord does that to the
door, it will be as silent as you need it to be.

Also go see how other doors are built, especially doors similiar to
the problem one, how they prevent excessive noise.

I'm surprised this couldn't have been worked out without going to
court. Is the tenant or his landlord antagonistic?

Have you talked to any of the volunteer tenants' groups that used to
be in NYC andf probably still are, about what is the best solution and
what you can reasonably expect the court to do. Somewhere I have a
book that discusses landlord-tenant law in NYC, although I was mostly
concerned about other things, and I don't remember what if any it said
about noise. I think it was published by a tenants group in NY
(Manhattan).


He might also want to stop into a hardware store. A real one, not Home
Despot or Lowe's. Many problems can be solved for under $5.00, with
unexpected ideas & materials.

But, never mind. It's better not to try.