On Sun, 3 Feb 2008 17:13:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Hi All,

I live in an apartment and my bedroom wall is shared by my neighbor.
He rightfully plays his music, video games, watches his television.
Unfortunately, all of this audio is right on the other side of my wall
and the wall is so thin I can make out every sound. Now, I have done
some research and know that I can hang up vinyl and then do some dry-
walling, but you are dealing with a 29 year old chick who lives solo
and had a hard enough time installing a new doorknob. So, I really
can't take this on the way Bob Villa would easily do. Does anyone out
there have any suggestions of easy solutions that I can handle on my
own? Or maybe someone knows of some pretty amazing ear plugs?

Thanks for any help! Oh, and just a little note, we're not talking
about a crazy volume here, but bad enough that it interrupts sleep.
Again, thanks for any help you can offer!

i THINK joHN'S answers are among the best, and the others are good.
It's true that you can't make any serious changes without the
landlords permission, but otoh, noise can be an ongoing problem for
the landlord and his tenants and if the improvement is well planned,
he might well give permission and even pay for it, or pay for half. My
landlord paid for new vinyl linoleum and was happy that I did all the
shopping etc.

A friend who was the first occupant of a loft in Soho agreed with his
next door n'bor to make two walls, not touching each other, with a
half inch in between. He never said it was failure, although he was
the kind who would not have. But it probably worked. It would mean
loosing 4 inches from your apartment, although maybe you could do it
with 2x2's instead of 2x4's (Is that code? It would certainly be
strong enough since there already is a wall.)

When I lived in Brooklyn, it was a luxury building built in 1930. I
lived there from 1972 to 83. Six inches of concrete between me and my
neighbor. Never heard a sound from either of the tenants who lived
there. Something to consider if you ever move.

As to earplugs, the best ones are E*A*Rplugs, I think they are called.
They sell them at the newsstands in the subway. They are yellow foam
cylinders. You roll them in your fingers until they are small, stick
them in your ears, and then let them expand, so they fill all the
space. In emergencies I've even slept with them, and I always take
them on long airplane flights. And I use them on long trips with the
car top down, if I'm going over 65.

You can also get the same thing in grey in gun stores or the gun
department of K-mart and Wal-mart.

I think they also come in green in a slightly smaller diameter, but I
don't know where I got those. The important thing is that they are
foam and they don't spring back to full size quickly.