Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4

AIBU?

Is our neighbour being unreasonable?

82 replies

busyboysmum · 01/04/2016 14:57

Dh is a landscape gardener and yesterday came home with a load of trees for our log burner.

He needs to chainsaw them up. He did some yesterday between 4pm - 6pm and came home early today to try to get the rest done so started around 2pm.

Our neighbour has just been round to tell him to stop as the noise is driving her and her son who is 17 mad. So he said no problem and stopped.

But now we are unsure how to chop them up so there's a massive pile of trees on our front drive.

I think she's being unreasonable. If there was any time she was out he could do it then but she doesn't seem to work and only leaves the house to take their dog out for a wee in the back garden.

Thing is the noise didn't bother me and dh was sawing it right next to the kitchen down the side of our house. She is on the other side so I can't see how she's got so wound up about it.

Is she being unreasonable or are we? And how can we chop up the rest of the wood? Are electric saws quieter as we could buy one of those if so?

OP posts:

Report

ivykaty44 · 01/04/2016 15:51

Just pop round and arrange a time to cut the logs when she happy for thuer to be noise, either over the weekend or one evening next week. Ask when she will be out?

AliceThrewTheFookingGlass · 01/04/2016 15:51

I would continue using the chainsaw too. It's 2pm FFS. If you can't make garden noise at 2pm when can you? If she still had a problem and came out again I would be inclined to mow the lawn, front and back immediately after I had finished with the chainsaw.

But I'm petty like that.

Meemolly · 01/04/2016 15:51

Gosh I wish you were my neighbours.

SoupDragon · 01/04/2016 15:53

Chainsaws are annoyingly loud though.

I think it would be fair to go and apologise ("sorry you we're annoyed at the noise" so not actually an apology for doing the sawing!) and say that, as they have to be done, you'll do them for just an hour at a time. Compromise.

Queenie73 · 01/04/2016 16:08

MrQ has an attachment for his tractor which chops up logs, would you like me to send it round? It's the noisiest thing I've ever heard, so she might be grateful for a return to the chainsaw! I don't know why he has a log chopping thingummy, since we live in a place with no trees, but there you are!
On a more reasonable note, does your neighbour have a log burning stove too? Or an open fireplace or summat? Could she be placated with the offer of a few free logs?

IceRoadDucker · 01/04/2016 16:28

Chainsawing for two hours straight? She is NBU.

PhoenixReisling · 01/04/2016 16:32

My neighbour regularly uses a chain saw to cut up wood for their wood burner. Yes, it's noisy but it hasn't bothered me in the slightest .

IMO, by going around and asking what time is best, it would be like you are asking their permission. I would carry on, as the times that they have been cut are reasonable.

If she complains, you may want gently say it's better to do it now, than during the summer when Windows, doors are open. Or when they are entertaining in their garden

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 01/04/2016 16:56

Bloody Hell, she's a one

Saw them , it's hardly a huge imposition .

Get your DH to put on his gloves, ear protectors, googles and get his chainsaw. If she creeps up and taps his shoulder he can jump "Whoaaa" it'll be like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

If she gets every single whingey complaint pandered to, you're setting yourself up for future trouble.

Wait till her 17yo gets a car and he's revving at 2am.............

CosyNook · 01/04/2016 17:00

YNBU Our neighbours are retired and NEVER go out. They complain when we do any noisy DIY which is probably very few years. If they went out we would time any noise around that.

fatherpeeweestairmaster · 01/04/2016 17:04

The sound of a chainsaw buzzing for hours and hours and hours when you have no idea when/if it will end = dementing.

The sound of a chainsaw buzzing between a designated period, after which you know it will stop = just about bearable.

Tell her the logs will be sawn 2pm-4pm on Saturday (or whenever) and she's welcome to a small pile for her own fire, Good King Wenceslas stylee.

BeALert · 01/04/2016 17:04

Next time they start pushing their noisy lawnmower around, go over and tell her to stop because it's giving you a headache...?

fatherpeeweestairmaster · 01/04/2016 17:06

Also, at the risk of sounding like one of the PO, just because she spends all day indoors doesn't necessarily mean 'she's got nothing better to think about'. You don't know what limitations she might have if she can't work or walk her dog.

Birdsgottafly · 01/04/2016 17:11

I agree that you should have said that he needs to use it and when would be best,

I'm not working or going out because of illness, I have a sort of routine, which includes unearthed episodes of things I missed because I used to work, Tipping Point and naps. Luckily I have a recordable box.

If I thought that using a chainsaw was going to be a regular occurrence, I'd ask if certain times could be avoided.

You sound as though you think you've got her summed up, which would put her off explaining.

SoupDragon · 01/04/2016 17:13

Next time they start pushing their noisy lawnmower around...

Depends if it takes in excess of two hours each day really.

HermioneJeanGranger · 01/04/2016 17:19

I don't know, I think it would have been polite to tell her first.

We live above a business who recently converted a garage into an office. There was hammering, drilling and chainsawing at random times for weeks and it was so frustrating. We both work all day (which they know) but they still decided to it at 6/7pm, and didn't even have the decency to let us know.

She can't tell you not to do DIY in your own home, but it's only polite to let people know if it's going to be ongoing for longer than an hour or so, so they can go out if they want to escape the noise.

Lighteningirll · 01/04/2016 17:24

yanbu it's for a limited amount of time I would drop a note in saying sorry these logs need to be done will be as quick as possible. I wouldn't be gifting her logs or using an axe it's not 5 in the morning ffs

ptumbi · 01/04/2016 17:28

Jeez - of course she is being bonkers! 2pm is a perfect time to do noisy work - builders are allowed to do their noisy work from 8am to 5pm. That's drills, saws, hammers, nailguns, all of the above...

We once got the NFH come over to complain that we were doing DIY at 3pm on a saturday. We pointed out that it was not unreasonable, unlike his drunken screaming and shouting which took place every night until 2-3AM.

biddy53 · 01/04/2016 17:29

The sound of a chainsaw buzzing for hours and hours and hours when you have no idea when/if it will end = dementing.

I can't see the problem - a chainsaw has been going all day in my neighbour's garden. Unless he is planning to take up some sort of weird chainsaw related hobby, I presume the noise will stop after a day or two. As long as the noise starts and finishes at a reasonable hour YANBU

angielou123 · 01/04/2016 17:29

Totally agree with yaktriangle.

DanyellasDonkey · 01/04/2016 17:29

Carry on cutting them up. It's not like he's doing it early in the morning or late at night.

When our neighbours complained unreasonably about us, we got the Community Warden round and he said it was everyday life, so I'd put log sawing in the same category.

BeALert · 01/04/2016 17:30

Depends if it takes in excess of two hours each day really.

I'm sure it adds up to two hours pretty quickly and will need doing regularly all summer, whereas the chainsawing is a one off...

GeorgeTheThird · 01/04/2016 17:34

As long as you do it between 9-5 on a weekday (as he was!) I don't think she has any right to complain. If at a weekend it's courteous to wait until 10 I think, but my neighbour mows his lawn at 8 😥

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

busyboysmum · 01/04/2016 17:41

Oh well all part of the rich tapestry.

Next time they're having a screaming row as they regularly do maybe I should knock on? Or maybe not as it's their house and I respect their right to scream abuse at each other....

Ho hum.

Anyway I'm sure she's as wound up by the large log pile eyesore as she was by the noisy sawing of same. Some people just seem to get themselves all het up over trivia.

OP posts:

chillycurtains · 01/04/2016 17:41

I would only chain saw for an hour a day. Two hours is a long time to inflict a noise like that on neighbours. I also go round and explain this too her now that you have conversed with her about it.

bakeoffcake · 01/04/2016 17:54

Go and tell her you have to do it or the huge bits of tree will have to stay on the drive for ever more. She'll HATE that

Flip

1 2 3 4

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.