We've had a noise pollution letter from the council!!!

[Stillmonday]

We aren't big DIYers but February my husband fitted us a new kitchen, it took a whole month inbetween work and he always stopped any noise at 6pm.
Now we are doing some decking in the garden whilst on lockdown. Some sawing, sanding & banging again stops at 6pm.
A letter has just arrived warning us of noise pollution and excessive hammering, banging & use of power tools.

Our neighbour was really annoyed when we had our kitchen, they even recorded the noise it made one day but I tried to explain it was a one off and that's what happens when a new kitchen is being fitted.

Now we are quite shocked to receive the letter but don't know where we stand. Are we allowed to finish the decking or shall we not bother?!

@StormBaby
I imagine it is jealousy.

That's it.
When my neighbors are making loads of noise, it's not the noise which is the irritant, but my jealousy....FFS

Not reading the whole thread, but you are doing this when people can’t get out. They are stuck in their houses/gardens. Can’t you see how selfish that is?

When you say until 6pm... you mean week day, you stopped the work at 12 on Saturday and didn't do any noisy building work on Sunday? Or ... did you?

I feel so sorry for your neighbours, decking means rat, not only they have to put up with the noise now, they know they'll have to put up with vermine nuisance too...

That's it.
When my neighbors are making loads of noise, it's not the noise which is the irritant, but my jealousy....FFS

I'd say well done for installing a kitchen yourself and installing your own decking! There's a lot of people on here who clearly never attempt large projects themselves or clearly would expect work to be done in an extremely tight timeframe. You've warned them work would be happening, you stop at a very reasonable hour, crack on and get it done otherwise it will drag on and p*ss them off even more.

Our decking needs doing, it's a bit noisy. I don't need to crochet but that's for the suggestion 🙄

We aren't the only ones to decide that lockdown is a good chance to do home improvements. A lot of our other neighbours are doing the same thing.

The timber yards around us are inundated with delivery orders. Who'd have thought it.

agree re rats

OP, you just didn't get the answers you wanted.

do you know your neighbours? Did you ask them anything at all about what times they would prefer to be battered by noise etc?

You must have made all your neighbours' lives hell. Your noise must have been excessive if the council are taking it seriously. Good for them standing up to you.

Disgustingly selfish to start more banging and sawing on lockdown whilst people are trying to get through the day. Can't you understand that? I do wonder at the mentality of people who noise pollute.

You sound utterly self centred with no empathy for your poor neighbours
How would you feel to listen to weeks of banging and drilling at one of the most stressful times in history ? Poor things can’t escape
take then a box of wine and some flowers apologise profusely for your I considerate behaviour and give the poor buggers a break from noise !

Some of you on here are so darn rude . OP has asked for advise regarding a letter not advise on what hobbies she should take up when her decking needs doing. Why is this site suddenly full of nasty women ? What’s wrong with helping someone instead of shooting them down?

You sound deeply selfish and rather unpleasant. It is also clear you are not going to take on board any type of suggestion and that you lack the capacity for any sort of self reflection. I feel very sorry for your neighbours.

Your poor neighbours. Your work is not essential, or attractive. Does anyone do decking any more?

Not only are your neighbours being deafened on lockdown, when they surface they'll have to look at the garden style forgot.

@GaaaaarlicBread Thanks! It's a bit weird isn't it

@supersimkin2 we had our decking done last May and it’s beautiful. What’s wrong with decking ?

@Supersimkin2 Please show me your landscapes garden then and what do you have instead
If decking is so disgraceful? 🤣

You do seem very lacking in empathy as to how annoying you are being. Your kitchen took forever to fit and after saying it was a one off you’ve started another pretty noisy job that you’re doing painfully slowly again. And yes a fair bit of the job is measuring, but each measured piece then needs to be nailed on in at least three places. So it’s hardly a quiet job!

Could you just do two or three hours a day in the cooler parts of the day (morning) so they at least get a peaceful afternoon in the sun. Stopping for the baby’s bedtime doesn’t give them much relaxation in the sun!

As for all the remarks about them spending on cars and not their house. So what??

stops by 6? What time does it start?

decking a very silly idea if in the UK. It will be slippery soon and is a great rat haven.

as for the idea that it is 'jealousy' - must be school holidays again...

Your neighbours sound horrible and petty and maybe jealous.

Ah, the cry of the CF 'there they're probably jealous!'

If you are not making any noise after 6 I don't see what the problem is. People are taking the opportunity to get jobs done when we are in lockdown and good for them.

I'm actually quite jealous, we were flooded during storm Dennis and by the time everything dried out and we could start work we were on lockdown. It's no fun living in our houses at the moment but once lockdown is over we'll get there.

Carry on as normal, I think the council have bigger problems at the moment and once they realise you are not hammering all hours there's not a lot they can do.

Your poor neighbours. They don't send letters out for the sake of it - there is an issue with your noise.

So a month's noise on a kitchen - quite a long time tbh. And now a deck - in lockdown. I would not like to live next to you. I've banned all diy and the husband loves to build stuff right now because of care for my neighbours.

Your home, do what you want to it.

These current one off circumstances mean you have time to sort the garden too.

Neighbour will get over it and move on to another issue next week!

I am surprised the council have sent a letter to be honest! Much much worse noise pollution happens from people building extensions, barking dogs, parties all night! Construction noise is allowed between certain times. Usually 8am - 6pm weekdays, 8am - 2pm Saturday and none on Sunday. However, this doesn't really apply to DIY, more contractors and firms.

This is coming from someone who suffered 3 years of excessive noise from our selfish adjoined neighbour who was self building an extension (extremely slowly). Weekends and evenings were not sacred. We didn't complain to the council as you have to declare official complaints when you sell.

Your building work sounds quite reasonable for "normal times". I think during lockdown it might be best to give it a rest for a bit.

Alternatively, I would suggest keeping the neighbour informed of the timescale and try to avoid weekends altogether. Our neighbour didn't keep us informed and merely shrugged when we asked for a timescale. It made it so much worse as it was "never ending". We now don't speak to the neighbour and it is all very awkward/tense if we have to see them.

There is no ban on power tools that I’m aware of in lockdown. There have been appeals against using them due to potential injuries.

A couple of weeks of work is not ideal in the nice weather because we cannot escape the noise. It’s not as though this is a full on build or renovation job. As for the comments about op using the tools all day, I don’t believe this to be true at all. More time will have been spent measuring up. Sawing is incredibly fast they are doing this at the bottom of the garden. Drilling - ie screwing in nails isn’t that noisy.

We can't afford to pay someone to do these jobs

That is not your neighbours problem.

They have brand new fancy cars so clearly could afford the upkeep of their house if they wanted. They are retired but don't even clean their windows & never have in the 8 years we've lived here

Some of us even if we have the money are just not that bothered about cleaning windows and constantly doing up the house. Stop judging others by your standards.

My neighbour has been using a chain saw recently! Lots of cutting up wood. Next door have been drilling and sawing. I don't really care at all. I live amongst about 5 houses where you can hear the noise and it's normal for them to DIY, yes, even over prolonged periods. One is doubling the size of the house two doors down, so we have builders shouting out too (though they have stopped in lockdown). I can also hear a road, occasionally a plane will go overhead. It's hardly like it's super-quiet anyway.

To me, this is normal every day noise. We also had someone complain when we fitted our own kitchen years ago, but DIY has to be done and I bet if you phone the council they will say that to you. You can't live in a 1970's timewarp house just in case the neighbours get upset. In that case, the person was afraid to go outside so was stuck in writing notes to the neighbours, but we couldn't just pay out £1000 s more for a company to come in and do it. They lived in a block of flats in a city, what did they expect?!