About my neighbour's DIY/rennovation

[Sallygoroundthemoon]

The house next door to me is empty and the lady who owns it lives on the same road. She is doing it up slowly as she has very little money and it needs a lot of work. Her son is doing what he can but this means he is working largely evenings and weekends and it's doing my head in. He was working until around 9pm last night and has been at it all day today - using a drill, hammering etc. All I wanted to do was sit and watch a movie today but I haven't been able to because of the noise.
It is not enough that it is keeping me awake or anything but am I being unreasonable about him working evenings or weekends, or because it is really one man doing DIY rather than a team of builders, is that OK?

There's not much you can do about weekend DIY - lots of people work during the week so it's normal to have DIY time at the weekend.

9pm is rather late though. It may be worth going round and having a chat. Position it along the lines of you don't want to fall out but the noise is very loud - try and come to an agreement about loud work stopping after a certain time.

It won't be forever, although it is annoying I know.

You're right. Thanks. I will have a chat and he has stopped now. At the time though earlier when I posted I was really annoyed!

Drilling and hammering does go right through you. But try and get on the right footing with neighbours. If you can be friendly then perhaps he can give you a heads up when there's anything really noisy planned (FYI if he is planning on doing any tiling then be prepared for the noise of the tile cutter, as they are awful!). You might be able to come to an arrangement where you plan to be out for the really crash and bang stuff.

Worth trying to stay on good terms though; you never know when you might need to do some DIY in the future.