Is it common decency to inform neighbours who wfh about loud noises?

It's completely irrelevant if you WFH, have young children or if you are back from hospital following emergency surgery.

Of course it's common decency to warn the neighbours. No one knows the actual circumstances of neighbours lives, the least you can do is warn them.

Sadly too many people are selfish, rude and antisocial. They'll be the first one to complain when you make noise.

I wfh two days a week and someone is always doing something noisy. There’s nothing you can do. You can’t tell them to stop because there’ll always be something. It is annoying though

It would have been helpful to know beforehand.

Nanny can take little one for a walk in the buggy for nap, it isn't ideal but needs must.

I hope they finish up the tasks today and don't extend into tomorrow.

It's just general work. If it's for fence posts it will be a short blast for each post

How so?

Nah. I work from home. You can’t expect people not to just go about their business to accommodate it. It’s not their problem.

You shouldn't have mentioned 'WFH'

No. Maybe if they are having am extension that will go on for months but not for a few days. Go into the office if you want a working environment. You can't expect folk to go tiptoeing around just because you work from home.

This thread is one of the clearest indicators that there is significant resentment and jealousy from those who can’t work at home towards those who can

For a day of garden works like chopping trees and putting up a fence I wouldn’t no. Just like I wouldn’t and didn’t for the driveway. It’s one day of noise.

An extension, or even just on going days of loud work sure. But one day. Nope. A late night party I would tell but at 4pm kids party I wouldn’t tell either.

Hi OP, the WFH situation has changed the dynamics of working. WFH with young children? I am unsure how that works? Personally, I think that as the neighbour's tasks are within 'the working day, it isn't necessary that they inform you. IMO, it would be different if it was weekends/late evenings

Our next door neighbours arranged for an extension to be built and didn’t ask our permission to put scaffolding all the way down our path outside our door. The scaffolder just turned up and asked to get through our gate. Nothing surprises me anymore….

I agree with you @Pouche

I think this is quite a new thing, but people feel entitled to behave exactly as they wish without considering the impact on others.

Threads on here and on local Facebook are met with: “ if you don’t like it buy a house in the middle of nowhere” type comments.

I think it’s common decency to tell your neighbours. I would! It’s really sad how people just do not care if they upset others when a tiny bit of effort would avoid it

If you have a dc young enough to be needing daytime naps, then I am surprised you can concentrate whilst wfh anyway.

YABU to think that neighbours should plan work they need doing around the fact you chose to work at home on the day that the contractors were able to get to them / do the work when the weather allows. Also, that they should have been able to predict how loud the machinery was going to be, and how much it would bother you.
If your worry is your dc's nap, then that would be the case whenever they had the work done - I can't see them being privy to the fact you have a nanny, but that nanny can work elsewhere if they know in advance there might be some noise. You really are reaching there. If your worry is about work, then anyone who needs to be on calls during their working day, needs to be able to plug in earphones if they choose to work away from their office.

'Noise canceling headphones can do a lot for building noise.'

Not if its drilling it can't! Nor for terrazzo tile cutting or Karshering or strimming either.

It's only lunchtime and they are doing work on the garden...

I let our neighbours know when we had some garden work done recently because I know they work from home in a garden shed thing.

It was a bit awkward though because they recently had loads of noisy work done and didn't inform us. I wasn't being passive aggressive I genuinely wanted to give them a heads up. But she was a bit like... well so it goes there's nothing we can do about it. We didn't tell you when we were having our work done, so...

I wfh and due to a recent severe storm there are heavy repairs in our area. No one has informed anyone of work. It’s just a cacophony of sound.

it never occurred to me to be upset about it. At least I’m not dealing with the stress of being in an office. That would be so much worse from an ASD perspective.

Noise canceling headphones can do a lot for building noise.

I would tell my immediate neighbours whether they were wfh or not if it was more than say 20 minutes, and expect the same. It's just good neighbourlyness.

Anything that’s going to be a week or longer, then yes, but I couldn’t get worked up about a couple of days.

I think I’d get more distracted by my child being in the same house when WFH, even with a childminder.

I get where you are coming from but realistically how many neighbours need to be informed? If my husband was using the chainsaw it would take about an hour to get around all our neighbours to tell them and what about those who are out? Should I print out some leaflets? It's all very subjective but in this instance I wouldn't consider a neighbour to be rude or inconsiderate if they didn't warn me beforehand. Noise at night or long term; different matter entirely!

One or other of my neighbours are always doing something noisy, including tree removal. I let the other half of our semi know, as do they us. Anyone else, no.
I WFH, have doors and windows open most of the time. You have to accept it.
Up until recently very few people WFH, now every man, woman and their dog do, they want their neighbours to revolve around them. Nope, it's a residential area first and foremost, and getting people in to do noisy jobs during the working day is normal.

Yep - it’s common decency whether they’re home or not. It’s an extension of good manners.

I am in a link-detached home. My neighbour was drilling through brick garage walls recently and the noise was horrific. Had to leave the house due to excessive vibrations and screeching sounds. It was inconvenient but I’d been forewarned so knew at 5pm it would stop.

I’ve always done this with my neighbours and vice versa. We try to live in harmony with each other. It’s useful getting along as no issues with parking, no objections to planning etc…