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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be irritated/annoyed with NDN

49 replies

Ilovemypantry · 01/06/2019 11:57

I’m really not sure if it’s just me being over sensitive to noise but my next door neighbours irritate the hell out of me.
So a bit of background...we live in a small close of seven detached houses, but they are still quite close together.
NDN work all week although husband gets home around 3.30pm.
So weekdays are not too bad except for when he gets home. But EVERY weekend there is non stop noise. He is a diy fanatic and every weekend and he is out on the front drive with his power tools and music blaring out. He is sawing, drilling banging non stop. My car is always covered in sawdust as are my windowsills and front door.
He starts about 8am which normally wakes me up (my bedroom is at the front).
Other neighbours have also mentioned how irritating it is.
I appreciate that diy jobs need to be done but this is literally non stop all weekend, every weekend, especially now the weather is getting better.
It is getting on my nerves so much that I am seriously thinking about moving (to somewhere with no neighbours) as it is affecting my nerves.
AIBU and over sensitive or does anyone agree this is just too much?

OP posts:
SeaToSki · 01/06/2019 12:52

If he doesnt start until 8 and stops at 5 ish, I would say its annoying but not unreasonable. Its better than tinkering on his car and having revving noise or playing the drums etc. It should stop eventually as he finishes the projects

LolaSmiles · 01/06/2019 12:57

Sounds fairly reasonable to me, but I'd personally start at 9am.

I think the fact you're saying your nerves are affected and are considering moving because someone does DIY on a weekend suggests you're probably being oversensitive. It does also make me wonder how much of it is music blaring or that's hyperbole from someone who understandably is finding it annoying a bit (I only say that because I had a relative who would talk non stop about their awful noise from the neighbour and when I was there and they were getting het up MN style about peaceful enjoyment of gardens, it was nothing more than standard noise).

tinkerbellla · 01/06/2019 13:00

This would irritate me too. It's fine every now and again but every weekend is annoying. Xx

Looneytune253 · 01/06/2019 13:03

Sounds quite dramatic!! Car sills etc always covered in sawdust? Come on! Slight bit of dust I would imagine. Which will blow away with the wind. Stop making it worse than it is and just chill. It's not unsociable hours and he's not doing anything wrong.

LolaSmiles · 01/06/2019 13:06

tinkerbellla
It may be annoying, but it's still reasonable. Friends of ours have just bought a fixer upper house. They work on it most weekends. It wouldn't be for any neighbour to decide that they should only work on their home every now and then.

I don't really understand how many people on MN (in general here) seem to be so wound up by standard neighbour noise within standard times e.g. children playing at a normal volume with no excessive screaming, young adults having a dinner party in the garden, someone doing DIY, someone using a portable radio whilst they do the wedding. It must be exhausting.

palahvah · 01/06/2019 13:14

I would also be annoyed if it were every Saturday and Sunday. Do you know if they are doing up the house specifically, ie there might be an end at some point? Can you have a chat with them and find out - also if they're likely to be away on holiday at any point, you can make the most of your garden in peace.

Maybe you could get a cover for your car, and ask him if he wouldn't mind starting a bit later at the weekend if you're looking for a lie-in?
If you're polite and reasonable then he has no reason not to be.

blue25 · 01/06/2019 13:14

It would drive me mad. TBH the drilling not so much, but the blaring music! As if he isn't making enough noise already without adding music into the mix.

Some people are just oblivious to others. It doesn't cross their mind how annoying their noise is. I'd say something personally, but if he's selfish enough to make that much noise, he probably won't care.

Omzlas · 01/06/2019 13:16

Are you on good enough terms to ask if he can start at 9am instead?

You sound a bit sensitive but if it genuinely IS every weekend, I think it could get a bit much

Make some noise yourself, find some incredibly loud DIY job that needs doing at 8am and crack on. Make as much noise as humanly possible. See if he likes it.

user1493413286 · 01/06/2019 13:17

It sounds annoying to me; I’d say 9am is a reasonable time

redredrobins · 01/06/2019 13:21

With regard to the sawdust everywhere, most decent woodworking tools can have a bag attached to collect sawdust as it is produced. So ask him to fit this to his tools or, tell him he needs to clean up his own mess!

Dottierichardson · 01/06/2019 13:22

OP this would drive me mad too, it means you can’t do things in your home at weekends because of the constant noise. I imagine many of the hostile replies are from people as inconsiderate as your neighbour. I recognise too that DIY is sometimes needed but at the very least your neighbour could acknowledge the issue, and let people know when the ordeal is likely to end. Of course there are probably also posters who like to get their husbands out of the house and DIY is useful…So you are not being unreasonable, you could talk anonymously to your local environmental health department about the possibility of pursuing a case against them if it’s as regular as you say…as that amount of noise is now recognised as dangerous for people’s health and well-being.

PantsyMcPantsface · 01/06/2019 13:24

It gets wearing - we used to have a backing-onto-us neighbour who was DIY mad and forever fiddling with his house and he would be out in the garden drilling and sawing and hammering from dawn to dusk every single day the weather was not raining... and it doesn't half wear you down. In our case he was a bullying thug so we had minimal hope of getting any joy and just rejoiced when he moved out.

If he's a decent bloke - asking if he'll leave it till 9 on a weekend might be the way to go.

bluebeck · 01/06/2019 13:25

Sorry but I think YABU.

The music is the only thing that might bother me a bit but not enough to move house. Are you housebound OP? Not being goady, just wondered why it was affecting you so badly?

Surely you will be out and about during summer months whilst he continues to do whatever it is he is doing to his house and you won't notice?

Dippypippy1980 · 01/06/2019 13:26

This would really annoy me. Constant noise every weekend means you can’t relax in your home or sit out in your garden.

My neighbour has just built a shed in which he is constantly issuing power tools - can’t have my windows open because i can’t hear the tv over it.

People have a right to the quiet enjoyment of their home - therefore while neighbours of course can have noisy hobbies, why not irritate the life out of everybody every other weekend😁 give people a break from the constant noise.

OKBobble · 01/06/2019 13:36

I think I might just ask whether he could possibly hold off the noisy jobs until after 9. Has anyone actually done that? You might be surprised.
There is another woman on a thread complaining that her own friend asked her kids to keep the noise down at 7am in shared holiday accommodation! Perhaps this man might be more considerate than her.

FurForksSake · 01/06/2019 13:36

My neighbour's garage is 6ft from my patio door, about 15ft from where I sit. He's retired and uses power tools in his garage for hours every day. Never anti-social hours, but fairly continuous. We're moving and the next house we have a triple drive between us and one house and on the other side the garage is the other side of the house.

You can't really stop them, but it drives me batty and I've tried to ensure we won't have the issue again. I really cannot understand what he is doing!

viques · 01/06/2019 13:41

I am curious about your statement "weekdays are not too bad except when he gets home" if he's doing the diy at the weekend what the flip is the poor man doing on weekdays that annoys you, apart from getting home at 3.00 ..........

megrichardson · 01/06/2019 13:42

I couldn't stand this either. Now and then is ok but on a regular basis I'd want to shove his drill somewhere about his person!
I think that some people do this DIY stuff because they're bored or don't want to sit in the same room as their partner.
The worst of all is DIY which is done badly. When I was a kid there was a daft man who lived a few doors down and he'd basically wrecked his perfectly good house. It looked like crap.

sheshootssheimplores · 01/06/2019 13:43

My NDN is the same. Can’t leave anything alone for 5 mins without wielding a noisy power tool at it. I can’t stand him and he knows it. However there’s nowt I can do, so I seethe inwardly and get on with my (quiet) life.

PregnantSea · 01/06/2019 14:06

This would annoy the feck out of me. He isn't BU though as long as it's sociable hours so I don't think there's much you can do Wine

crimsonlake · 01/06/2019 14:08

I sympathise.
I used to live in a townhouse and no space at the front at all between us. Every weekend he was out tinkering with the car or drilling with music playing almost under my windows. Why he could never do some of these jobs in his own back garden out of the way used to bug me.

Drum2018 · 01/06/2019 14:09

That would do my head in. 8am at weekends is inconsiderate. I don't let my Ds out kicking a ball until after 10 in case he annoys the neighbours. It's not unreasonable to want some peace and quiet. Have a word and see if he can hold off for an hour at weekends.

glasshalf · 01/06/2019 14:13

Yabu if you don't want neighbourly noise then move somewhere without any neighbours. Noise from various things comes with living close to other people . I don't like hearing a car running at 7am every morning with a loud exhaust collecting a neighbour but it's tough because I chose to live where other people will go about their daily business .

sheshootssheimplores · 01/06/2019 14:18

Oh that’s the attitude glasshalf. Everyone who thinks constant noise from power tools needs to move to a desert island as opposed to the fool wielding the tool, thinking about other people once in a while.

Hecateh · 01/06/2019 14:25

When you are building a new house part of planning permission is that noisy work is not done at weekends except between 9 and 2 on Saturdays.

I know this is different but suspect you may get support from environmental health if you ask for their support