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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Live News Flash” board (なんでも実況G) describes a neighbor whose every fridge-door open-and-close sends a “THUD” shock through the wall. The thread’s original poster even pleaded, “What am I supposed to do if I die of a heart attack from this?” — prompting a flood of similar noise-and-vibration horror stories from other posters.
The discussion split over whether the fridge door itself was the culprit or a plumbing-related “water hammer” effect, and over whether the way vibrations travel depends on the building’s structure (reinforced concrete vs. light-gauge steel). Posters also noted how hard it is to get the problem resolved even after contacting the police or the management company.
What people said
Yeah, guess you can't really know until something actually happens — that's possible too.
Can't say I've ever slammed a fridge door over and over like that.
I open and close mine a lot too, honestly — forget stuff and go back for it. But I always do it quietly.
No sympathy here for some unemployed shut-in guy.
Does your fridge make a "thud" sound when you open it?
It wouldn't happen on opening — it's when you shut it.
He comes roaring home every night and then the banging around starts.
Ugh, that's just as bad. Having my sleep wrecked makes me murderous.
My place makes noise when the door shuts too
so I just do the same thing right back at them.
Get any reaction out of them? Mine either doesn't notice or just doesn't react at all.
Forgive me.
Why do people even live their lives making such loud noises?
Same with my neighbors — they're careless about noise across the board. Wife, husband, the in-laws, all of them make needless racket without a thought for anyone around them.
They should ban even 2nd-floor residents from using it.
Wait, there's actually a stairwell door? If we start counting outside noise too there's no end to it. But noise hitting you as a direct physical shock from next door really wears you down — especially since you never know when it's coming.
Jumping in here, but this kind of noise is vibration, so earplugs won't do anything.
Ear muffs would actually help, but you never know when the sound's coming, which means wearing ear muffs at home all the time. That's just too much to ask.
Yeah. My place was a light-gauge steel apartment and this just started out of nowhere one day. Nothing I could do about it, so I ended up moving out. The sound was loud enough to make me jump — at first I had no idea what was even happening.
Nice. I cleaned up today and since they were in the way, I put 4 jumping spiders (Hasarius adansoni) outside. There was one more but I just left it be.
Doesn't wall thinness tend to track with the thickness of the front door? I always check the front door's thickness — the inside too, of course.
A police officer told me there are others besides me putting up with it too. But there's no absolute proof it's the neighbor, so even the police can't press the issue and are stuck.
Actually, I just heard a faint noise. Looks like it might be starting again soon.
Seriously, even a small sound puts you on edge — I get it, it's really rough. Police won't come down hard on the other side unless it's extreme. I've had the police talk to my neighbor before too, so I know exactly how that goes.
There are cases of a "person with nothing left to lose" (muteki no hito — net slang for someone with nothing to lose who may snap violently) losing it and it turning into murder.
My neighbor is exactly that kind of "nothing-to-lose" guy.
That's exactly why it scares me.
Also just learned that management companies will go directly warn a problem tenant in a rental building, but barely intervene at all in an owned condo unit.
Re: #69
On top of a warning notice, I suggested the management company post articles about cases like this — got shot down, lol. Well, it was a long shot anyway, but it's hard to convey just how "ready to kill" (564 = net slang read as "korosu," meaning "kill") angry this makes you.
Yeah, fair enough, but it's actually Tokyo metropolitan public housing — a renovated unit.
If the building's that old, maybe it's not the fridge door at all — could be water hammer? That's the thing where turning a faucet on or off causes a loud "BANG" in the pipes.
Definitely picked the wrong rental.
So you actually have to watch the clock before running the washing machine…
At a place I used to live, there was a rule: washing machine only until 10pm, baths until midnight.
In my studio the sound and vibration are brutal.
My sister bought a unit in a high-rise tower in Yokohama, and she was furious about washing machine vibration coming from upstairs at 7am. Guess it happens even in luxury tower condos.
Recorded the noise for now, at least.
Just play the same online game as him…
Just team up and play together.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The thread split over whether the cause was the fridge door itself or a “water hammer” effect. Water hammer happens when water flow inside pipes stops abruptly as a faucet is turned on or off, producing a shock noise — something more common in older buildings. It’s easy to overlook that vibration transmission depends not just on wall thickness but on the building’s overall structure (reinforced concrete vs. light-gauge steel, front door thickness, etc.), which left comments like “it’s your own fault for living behind thin walls” sitting uneasily alongside “you shouldn’t be able to hear that in a reinforced-concrete building,” with neither side really engaging the other. Posters also noted that management companies can directly warn problem tenants in rental units but tend not to intervene nearly as much in owned condo units. The references to incidents involving “people with nothing left to lose” are not a specific threat of violence, but a caution based on past cases where noise disputes escalated — not meant to stoke undue alarm.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (“Live News Flash” board) thread “My neighbor’s fridge sends a THUD through my wall every time he opens and closes it.”
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