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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that starting work on your house on a bank holiday is anti-social

266 replies

polarpig · 19/04/2019 11:27

Our neighbour is very elderly and has advanced dementia so he's moving into a care home. Recently they have had gardeners in clearing the over grown garden and so on to prepare the house for sale. Today they have had workmen in since 8am who are taking out all of the rotten windows and doors and replacing them with new windows and bifold doors and have some others in cutting down trees in the front and back garden so it's very noisy with chainsaws, drills and hammering going on.

AIBU to be annoyed at all the noise on a day when we're trying to relax and enjoy our garden?

OP posts:
cushioncovers · 19/04/2019 16:09

I'm reading this thread with the neighbours hammering and digging gravel in the garden next door. I gave up trying to sit in the garden and came back indoors. 🤷🏻‍♀️

WillGymForPizza · 19/04/2019 16:10

The council were carrying out repairs on the OAP bungalows here first thing this morning, although they seem to have to have finished for the day now. So a normal working day for many.

Might come as a shock to discover that the world doesn't revolve around you Op.

Pinkblanket · 19/04/2019 16:13

I couldn't give a shit. There's plenty of noise here from lawn mowers, jet washers, kids, dogs, etc etc. It's just life.

Piglet89 · 19/04/2019 16:21

OP: YANBU. It was for this very reason that we expressly forbad our builders from working this BH this time last year, although they wanted to and would have got heaps done during the time. Our neighbours were still complete pains in the arse about our extension, but that is a whole other thread.

People who let builders work and make excessive noise on an Easter BH weekend when they live close to others are selfish, inconsiderate arseholes.

Original poster
polarpig · 19/04/2019 16:21

Surely long bank holiday weekends are the main traditional time to do DIY?

FFS. It is not DIY. Let me spell it out.

  1. The neighbour has not been there all day.
  2. The neighbours adult children have not been there all day.
  3. At 8am one van of workmen arrived.
  4. At 8am another van arrived with tree surgeons.
  5. There has been work going on continuously since with chainsaws cutting down trees.
  6. The doors and windows have been replaced so there has been drilling, hammering and general noise.
  7. They have not stopped for lunch and are still working now.

So it's not DIY! I wouldn't mind so much if it was.

I am pissed off about the fact that the builders are working from so early in the morning and that tree surgeons were simultaneously at the trees with chainsaws at an anti-social hour.

OP posts:
Halloumimuffin · 19/04/2019 16:23

Honestly OP, you sound like a right cow. Your replies to people suggesting you might be unreasonable make you sound like a petulant child.

They have a right to do work on their house whenever they like within working hours, so tough. They likely booked this way in advance and had no way of knowing today would be a nice day and you would want to sit outside. Building work doesn't revolve around your neighbours preferred relaxation days.

Innernutshell · 19/04/2019 16:24

Maybe now the neighbour has gone into a care home the neighbours DC will become your neighbours in their newly renovated home.

It sounds like they are doing the lot all in one go though so perhaps thats a bonus. Grin

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 19/04/2019 16:25

8am is hardly an "anti-social hour". It's a perfectly normal time to start work and for the workmen in question today is obviously a normal working day.

StoorieHoose · 19/04/2019 16:29

How big is his garden if the tree surgeons have been at it from 9am til now???

Self employed trades very rarely take bank holidays

Floralnomad · 19/04/2019 16:31

8am is not anti social on any day .

BillyGoatGruff007 · 19/04/2019 16:32

polarpig - check your local council website; most in the UK have restricions on building noise over weekends and bank holidays.
For example L.B. of Greenwich here:
www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200205/pollution_and_noise/654/noise_from_building_works
There will be a number to call if you care to report the builders.

TheFairyCaravan · 19/04/2019 16:34

DH has been outside banging and drilling most of the day. He's putting a new gate up. Tough shit if the neighbours don't like it, I haven't particularly enjoyed listening to their kids hollering on the trampoline all week but it's a case of live and let live.

YABU

Passthecherrycoke · 19/04/2019 16:34

What difference does it make if it’s DIY or not? The noise is still the same Confused

Topseyt · 19/04/2019 16:38

I honestly cannot say that any of what you describe would bother me in the slightest.

I have no objections to people getting work done on their homes, provided that they do it during the day. 8am is during the day. Slightly early (9 would perhaps have been my preference) but not ridiculously so.

It just wouldn't even occur to me to make an issue out of it.

Original poster
polarpig · 19/04/2019 16:41

DIY is putting up shelves, that kind of thing not replacing doors and windows.
They have cut down 8 trees and have been chopping them up.

OP posts:
SecretWitch · 19/04/2019 16:43

I would not be thrilled but hope this I shall extenuating circumstance. My children revise with music so this would not be an issue for them. Perhaps have them do their revision after 5 when the workmen will surely pack up.

BeansandRice · 19/04/2019 16:44

YABU. It may be the only day they can do the work. Starting at 8am is reasonable.

Passthecherrycoke · 19/04/2019 16:44

No DIY is doing building work yourself. DO IT YOURSELF

englishdictionary · 19/04/2019 16:46

Start of thread...

OP - 'they are working next door on a bank holiday'

Mid thread..

OP - 'some people work on bank holidays'

Further down thread....

OP - 'I am pissed off about them working'

Honestly OP Confused

Dottierichardson · 19/04/2019 16:46

I get where you're coming from OP, think part of the problem is it being sprung on you. Like one of the other posters we and our neighbours give each other advance warning about building work. It doesn't make it less noisy but it does mean that everyone's prepared, can choose to go away, plan to go out, have ear plugs ready and so on...Work has to be decided on in advance it's not much of an inconvenience to text neighbours or put a note through the door when it's arranged.

I'm glad I don't live next door to most of the people on this thread, being good neighbours is about communication, not treating people with utter contempt. One of the reasons I put off moving elsewhere is not wanting to end up next door to people who don't care about their neighbours. Not to mention the pettiness of some of the disputes between neighbours that come up on MN almost daily most of which could be avoided by a bit of common sense and common decency. I don't think OP they shouldn't be working today but think they should have warned you and apologised for disturbing you, a lot of people work long hours and get little down time, holidays are precious and revision time is going on too, at least you would have been prepared. No wonder communities are so fractured when people are so dismissive of each other.

Still18atheart · 19/04/2019 16:47

Have you never seen any of those refurbish your home shows on tv because an hour of watching people put up a shelf would be riveting viewing. Or even homes under the hammer the amount of work the owners do themselves is amazing quite often just getting pros in to electrical or gas work for legal reasons only.

Have you never been to Homebase? Because they have more than the equipment / materials to put up a shelf in there.

cpjoli · 19/04/2019 16:47

We are having our kitchen done. Builder has been here since 8am, and will be here tomorrow and Monday too. Not my choice as he should have been here last Monday but got held up on a job so started Wednesday.
When next door did theirs, they were often out working till 10.30pm during the week which made life very difficult, but they were doing it themselves so we put up with it. At least purs finish by 4pm, so its quiet.

englishdictionary · 19/04/2019 16:47

Poor guys not stopping for lunch, and on a bank holiday too. You should take them round a plate of sandwiches and a cuppie Grin

BeansandRice · 19/04/2019 16:48

if they had started at a reasonable time I wouldn't have been as annoyed but I finished work at 4am and then got woken up just before 8am by their noise

Finishing work at 4am is far more unusual than starting work at 8am. Perhaps use earplugs?

Babuchak · 19/04/2019 17:07

Halloumimuffin
no need to be so rude against the OP. It's a perfectly reasonable complaint because no, it's not normal to have to put up with non-emergency work weekends or bank holidays.

Are you one of the builder?

Yes, there are rules about building work and the acceptable time. Today is not a normal working day in England, it is a bank holiday! If you chose to work, that's your problem, but the law doesn't have to fit around your tiny world, it's the same for everybody.