Application guide
How to Document a Noisy Neighbor
Landlords, housing associations and councils act on a pattern, not on a bad night. This is what a log needs to contain, how to build one on an iPhone, and where a phone measurement stops counting.
Evidence Mode is part of the one time Pro unlock.Step one
Write down the six things that get read
Whoever reads your complaint is looking for repetition and specifics. A single entry proves nothing. Fifteen entries across a month, each with the same six fields, is a document somebody has to answer.
- Date and day of the week. Weeknight noise and Saturday noise are judged differently almost everywhere.
- Start time and end time.Not "late". The actual clock times.
- Duration. Twelve minutes of drilling and three hours of bass are different complaints.
- Type of noise. Music, television, voices, footsteps, a dog, a machine.
- Effect on you. Woke you, stopped you working, could be heard over your own television.
- A measured level, with the position you measured from. The number is worth nothing without the spot it was taken at.
Keep the position identical every time. A reading from your pillow and a reading from the shared wall are two different measurements, and mixing them makes the whole log look careless.
Step two
Let the phone do the timestamping
Writing entries by hand at two in the morning is how logs die. Evidence Mode in dB Decibel keeps the log for you while you go back to sleep.
How an event is decided
- Threshold
- You pick it, anywhere from 40 to 110 dB. Set it above your own room's normal level, not at it.
- Sustain
- The level has to stay above the threshold for 3 seconds before an event opens. A slammed door does not become an incident.
- Cooldown
- 5 seconds between events, so one long disturbance is logged as one entry rather than forty.
- Stored per event
- Start time, peak level in dB, duration in seconds, and a sound label when Live Sound ID is on.
What comes out
A PDF dossier of all events for the session, and a CSV of the same data for a spreadsheet. Both list sound levels and timestamps only. No audio is recorded, which also keeps you clear of the recording consent rules that apply in many places.
Every exported report carries this footer, printed by the app and not editable:
Readings are approximate (±dB), measured with an uncalibrated phone microphone. No audio is recorded, events log sound levels and timestamps only. Environmental information only, not a certified measurement and not for occupational, regulatory, or medical use.
Step three
Make the numbers defensible
- Calibrate before the first entry and never again during the log. A log where the offset changed halfway through compares nothing to nothing.
- Take the phone out of its case. A thick case covers or muffles the bottom microphone.
- Keep your hand off the bottom edge, and do not rest the phone on a resonant surface such as a hollow table.
- Record your own room's background level on a quiet evening first. "Normally 32 dB, that night 68 dB" is a far stronger sentence than "68 dB".
- Note whether windows were open and whether the noise came through a wall, a ceiling or the air. Low frequency noise through a structure reads lower on a phone than it feels, so say what you heard as well as what you measured.
The honest part
What a phone log can and cannot do
A phone log is corroboration. It shows a pattern, it puts times and durations on paper, and it shows that you were systematic. In most tenancy and neighbor disputes that is exactly what is asked for at the first stage.
It is not a legal measurement. Noise limits in local ordinances are written around a measurement taken at a defined position with a certified sound level meter, by someone qualified, often with a field calibrator check before and after. An iPhone microphone is none of those things, and dB Decibel says so on the report it prints. If your case reaches the point where a limit has to be proven, that measurement has to be commissioned. Your log is what gets somebody to commission it.
What this app is not. Readings are approximate (±dB) and come from an uncalibrated phone microphone. dB Decibel is an environmental sound measurement tool. It is not a certified sound level meter, not a dosimeter, not hearing protection and not a medical device, and it is not suitable for occupational, regulatory or legal compliance. That wording is taken from the disclaimers inside the app itself. Do not describe an exported report as a certified measurement, and do not remove the footer from it.
Get the app
Start the log tonight rather than next week
The free version already gives you a live dB(A) reading, the minimum, average and maximum for a session, and the near silence flag that tells you what your own room really sits at. Evidence Mode, the PDF and the CSV are part of the one time Pro unlock.
Free to download. iPhone, iOS 18 or newer. Optional one time Pro unlock, no subscription.Keep reading