Bloody Noise Complaints

[joinerjohn]

My brother was sworn at by a 72 yr old bloke the other day for daring to drill holes in a brick wall at 10:45 in the morning.
He said it woke him up.

 

[Aqua]

Lot of folk these days seem to like to moan for the sake of moaning...always makes me wonder if it where their roof/wall/drive which needs repair, would they leave it unrepaired....because it might make a noise.....would they flip

 

[xdave]

If Adrian (OP) was making a noise that was irritating someone then why the heck didn't that person knock on the door and ask him to make less noise? I can tolerate a lot of things, but have absolutely no time for idiots who run to authority at every turn. At school we called these people tell tales and it guaranteed you would get the respect you deserved - none.

No wonder local government is running out of money for essentials such as social care when they are being forced to spend money chasing up petty non-issues. Don't blame the council officers here - they are doing their jobs. If they did not follow up on the report then they could lose them. The advice given to Adrian was very likely misunderstood in the heat of things.

As for the actual noise - it is a bank holiday weekend for heaven's sake! If you ever watch the telly you'd be mistaken for thinking the entire country goes out and does DIY on such occasions. Some people think it is their god-given right to enjoy complete silence 365 days of the year, and then choose to live in an urban environment with neighbours close by. Well I'm sorry for Adrian's upset neighbour, but it doesn't work like that. Living with neighbours requires compromise. If my neighbour wants to cut his lawn on a Sunday, or take out his glass recycling box and all the accompanying smashes and rattles at 6am before he goes to work then I just have to put up with it. Likewise if his kids play a game in their garden that is particularly loud then so be it. The recycling comes twice a month; his kids will grow up and move away; and he can only cut his lawn on about three days every year because it never stops raining. What possible harm does that temporary noise do to me? I am sure that my neighbours will sometimes sit listening to my noise in return.

This reminds me of one of my neighbours a few doors up who rents his mother's house out while she is in care. One tennant complained about the noise the children in the ajoining school playing field make during their play breaks. Now this is a primary school, and the rear boundary of the garden is a chainlink fence that openly shows the playground with swings, tunnels, etc. It puzzles me what this tennant was expecting to happen. Needless to say they soon moved on.

Unless it is a workshop then construction work will always be temporary. If it is outside then you need to work according to the weather and not based around arbitrary days of the week. When I built my extension I worked 7 days a week for a month. My rules were simple - Monday-Friday start at 9am and finish at 7pm, Saturday start at 9am and finish at 6pm, and on Sunday start at 10am and finish mid-afternoon. I made an effort to select less noisy tasks at weekends or whenever I could see neighbours using their gardens, but you have to work on the tasks at hand and sometimes that means using a powersaw for 20 minutes on a Sunday. It is far more important to ensure your neighbours are informed of what you are doing - if they know it is temporary and are reassured that you are not building a block of flats in your garden then they will usually be accomodate a few noisy weekends.

 

[Adrian80]

The friend who was helping me cut the roof, also works in the week, and was helping me out at the weekend.

Suprisingly it was ****ing down on and off all week, and who knows when the weather is going to be good again.

So Sunday came and the roof went on, it was dry.

I finished a lot off on the monday, bangin a load of clips on, and putting in some noggins.

I work in the week, so when are we supposed to do things?

Monday came, it was raining on and off, so most people were inside watching tele.. However, the ladder was slippy as hell and wood was a bit slippy also, so definitely only a dry weather job..

The bricky, who i employ on a more regular basis came back in the week, to cut up the gables.

Suprisingly the bricky, is a little bit behind a the moment. I here laying face bricks in the rain is not a good idea, unless you like brick work that looks like kate moss in the rain.

Wettest summer in a 100 years.

I never start before 8am in the week, 9 on a sat, and 10 on a sunday.

And i always try and finish noisy stuff befor 5pm, then do quiet ish stuff untill 7 and the sweep up by 8 pm.!!

It being a sunday today, i thought i will try not a **** the neighbour off to much, and decided a bit of cellotex between the rafters would be a good plan.

Anway she came out and moaned at me.

Some people live on a different planet!!

I get people in when i need a bit of help, but can't afford a fully managed job. If the only way i was aloud to building something was monday to friday, i wouldn't be able to do the extension. That would mean 4 grand the bricky wouldnt of earn, a grand less for the chippy, 500 quid for the concrete pumper, and the best part of 20k in materials for builders merchant.

So all in all ~40k less for the economy.

I thought people like me should be encouraged, but what was i thinking, giving people jobs, i hear its not easy for the man on the tools at the moment, and pumping some cash into the economy. What was i thinking......

thanks for the support from most of you..

A

 

[Watshot]

Councils set designated times which allow construction industry noise. These tend to be 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday, and 8am until 1pm on Saturdays.

No noise is allowed on Sundays and bank holidays. Exceptions can be made in special circumstances. Other noise which may be considered just as annoying is obviously not subject to construction industry regulations.

If the op was working in a professional capacity then that would explain why the council have got involved having received a complaint.

The moral debate whether kids, mowers, DIY etc is acceptable at whatever times will, no doubt, rage on. I think I heard somewhere that it is illegal to mow your grass on a Sunday in Germany...

 

[joe-90]

I don't think many people would put up with someone building an entire extension on Sundays. That's what the working week is for. Either take time off to build it (hols) or get someone in during the week. You can't expect the rest of the world to put up with your noise just to save a few bob.

 

[Adrian80]

I saved up two years worth of holidays,

The projected started at the begining of April, and i suspect i have worked 4 sundays in total

1. to set out the bricks of the foundation.
2. Cut main roof in
3. Cut minor roofs
4. Cellotex main roof.

I honestly have dont a lot on sundays, because bricklaying isnt my speciality, and i have had nothing to do until now.

I am not a professional builder, i am statistician who likes to see something built at the end of the day. Its therapy for the day work.

Well over 95% of work is monday to friday. 8 till 5.

 

[joe-90]

Ok sorry, thought you were doing the lot. That's unreasonable on the their part then.

 

[Adrian80]

Thanks Joe,

I agree cutting blocks and bricks on every sunday for a year might be a bit grating.

The strange thing is everyone is retired around where i live, so i can not personally see the difference between any day in the week, its not like they have to go to work!

 

[ABCwarrior]

Buy a few packs of foam ear plugs and lob them over their fence. Our neighbours have the audacity to send texts asking me to turn down my stereo after the pub...which is a random and infrequent occasion(the music not the pub ), and we're in detached houses well apart, yet they have an unloved unwalked Jack Russell that is locked in their porch(and toilets there...) but they leave their window open and the frustrated wee b*****rd barks all day every day....whenever we go out in the garden.
Shouting "shut the f**k up ya yapping wee c**t" sometimes works and they shut the window...so they can happily sit inside with that racket going on!!
Neighbours eh?!