Non stop drumming

[carabos]

Next door neighbours (NDN) have two DSs, 8 and 6.
The 8 year old seems to like musical instruments and is often to be seen sitting in the alleyway behind our terrace houses strumming on a guitar. I say strumming as he can't actually play a tune.

Now he has acquired a drum kit. He has been "playing" the drums non-stop all half term, starting at about 7.30 in the morning and stopping only for meals (it seems) until he goes to bed. He can't drum, he just bashes them randomly and then crashes the cymbal.

I work from home and its driving me demented, but I can't go round there because both parents respond to any reasonable request with threats of violence.

Is this something for the council? The noise isn't going on into the night, but it is going on all day. AIBU to want them to limit his practice (if that's what it is)? When DS2 was studying for his music A level and music grades they would bang on the wall when he practised the saxophone for less than an hour after school.

It can be hard when children are learning instruments, hopefully one day when he a famous rock star you will be able to say you lived next door to him,

A quick fix which might help a little bit is if they put down a couple of layers of installation such as thick rugs, carpet off cuts, make an installation sandwich, under the kit, it does help the sound traveling through the joists.

Play opera to drown him out. Or anything classical. All nine hundred and two hours of the Ring Cycle should fettle them. phone the council and ask if there rules about daytime noise and see what they say. Or get a solicitors or fake one, will they know the difference? letter saying you are considering taking them to the small claims court for the loss of business you have suffered as you can't work for the noise.

You can call the council, if they are like our council they will have a noise control team who visit locations and measure the noise/ intervene if appropriate. Search the website or you can try calling your police station and they will advise you as ours did as to the number to call about it. Our noise issue was a karaoke that had ridiculously loud bass for some reason. I called at 8.30pm so not even that late. Not sure what happens next though as they were to call back, and did at 9 but the noise was off. They did say though if it goes back on then just to call back and they would visit.

Maybe ask them also about the anonymity to be sure as if your neighbours are likely to get irate would be good to know you weren't getting outed.

This is why I bought my daughter an electronic drum set - she puts her headphones on, it's full size, changes to all different settings, and she bang away as hard as she likes while learning and you can hardly hear her.

Why anyone would buy a child an acoustic kit is beyond me!

I've checked on the council website. A noise is a nuisance if you believe its a nuisance. They will come out and experience it for themselves if you ask them (and its noisy during working hours). However, if they agree with you that the noise is excessive they will take action but they won't protect your anonymity, so that's a non-starter.

That's crap :( Try calling the police station and asking advice about the anonymity, explain that you are worried that being named will result in even more problems than just the drums. When I called the police they told me to call them back if the council didn't sort the noise and they would visit and I doubt the police would have named. Worth a shot.

Thanks ham. The DS came home from school at lunchtime earlier this week and played the drums then . They don't normally come home for lunch (do any kids do that these days?) even though the school is at the end of our road. Hope he's not going to make a habit of it .

Wrt anonymity, I guess they would assume it was either us or their neighbours on their other side who have toddler twins, so in practical terms I don't think we could get away with it.