Building noise - AIBU?

[Pheasantplucker2]

I know I probably am, and even if I'm not I can't do anything about it. But I need a rant!

Our next door neighbours (attached semi) have moved out whilst they're having their house completely refurbished. Neighbours are lovely, we discussed and agreed building plans with them in advance, we have let them put scaffolding on our drive, let the builders use any of our parking on our drive when we're not using it, am trying to be as understanding as possible that they need to make noise, even though I work mainly from home and it is driving me INSANE! (Sorry for shouting)

But today, which is the first day of the school holidays for us, and obviously the hottest day of the year, they started making noise at 7.30am this morning, have been using hammer drills and hammering steel all day incessantly, a lot of it on the party wall in the kitchen, where we were entertaining friends/retreating from the heat. They are still going now at gone 7pm. They swear loudly and constantly - "ah farking 'ell you arsehole not 'ere, over there", which my 7 year old gleefully copies. Their drilling dust means our clean paddling pool this morning now resembles a mud bath. We're only away for one week, so have 5 weeks of this madness. We couldn't concentrate to talk to our friends, I have constant headaches from the banging and I have to work through the holidays - was hoping the kids would entertain themselves for a couple of hours each day so I could get my work done, but I can't see it working, and I don't want to have to go out every single day just to avoid building noise.

What's reasonable to say to our neighbours? The builders started hammer drilling on Saturday so we spoke to them and asked them to stop, which they did. I don't want to keep complaining, but we can't live like this all summer, I don't know whether they realise quite how awful it is.

Most of the work is knocking through to add an extension and make one massive kitchen diner, so they are breaking up the concrete floor at the moment with a hammer drill, which makes our whole house vibrate.

Our neighbours are reasonable people and won't want to cause us undue stress, so I'm sure would try and agree some parameters. My question is what would be reasonable to ask for?

My thinking is very clouded because at the moment I just want to shout " make it stop" at them!

So AIBU to ask, and if not, what would be reasonable to ask for?

It sounds awful.

Do you have/need a party wall agreement?

Does your local authority has permitted time for builders noise, many do?

Ask them to stick to the council times for noisy work. 8am to 6pm Monday-Friday and 8am -1pm Saturday in my area. Your council website should have them posted. It seems as if you have a good relationship with your neighbours so you probably wouldn't want to report them but you can if it gets too much. Also, ask them to use dust protection to lower the impact on your property, dust sheets, wetting the area down etc.

We do have a party wall agreement, which is the standard print off the internet job. Basically that they will be responsible for any issues/defects caused in the course of the works and provide a surveyor or pay for us to have one to check any building works that could impact on our house.

I didn't know about council regulations, will look into that. I just assumed it was reasonable hours. Thanks!

We have two sets of builders wither side at the moment. The really noisy stuff tends to only be for the first little while but if they are working during approved times then you will have to put up with it. I have a pair of Noise cancelling headphones for the days I work from home.

I'm having the exact same issues with a neighbour - the drilling starts around 07:30 and yesterday they were still drilling at almost 9pm. I'm not sure if they're drilling through concrete flooring or drilling for oil but this has been going on for days.

I'm getting close to printing off council noisy works hours and posting through the letterbox when I'm sure the gaggle of builders has gone home as I don't like the confrontation thing and I've not met the new owners yet.

I

Well, if they are working all hours it will get it finished quicker in the long run.
And where did your neighbours manage to find these superb builders who do not leave at 'beer o'clock'? (4pm)

I think if you talk to them and ask them to keep the noisy stuff no earlier than 9am & make it clear that you can hear EVERYTHING so if the builders could be more mindful of that.

I had similar work done to my own house a year ago. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of being able to move out so were living in the chaos and I work from home. The noisy stuff won't last long, certainly not throughout the holidays I'm sure.
To set your mind at ease why not ask them how long they foresee the bad drilling and hammering etc to go on for. The worst could be over by the end of the week.

I feel your pain. Next door but one are having a huge extension built - currently we're in week 3 and the noise is awful. More annoying though is the various work vans of the builders parked outside our house 5 days a week so we can't get anywhere near to park outside our own house. I know it's perfectly legal to park wherever you want etc but it's bloody annoying for weeks on end!

Thanks for the replies. I checked the local council noise regs and they are only supposed to work between 7.30-6.30pm, so I popped round at 7.45pm and asked how long they were carrying on working. They said the back of the house was completely open and they needed to secure it, so only another 20 minutes, and then carried on banging until 9.30pm. I'm going to call the neighbours in the morning and say they have to stick to council hours, as it's impossible. The builder said that they needed to get the work done, and I said I understood but that we have to live with it and it's hellish at the moment.

They didn't offer any helpful insights about timing and noise, so I'm going to have to speak to them and ask them.

I'm surprised no one else went round to complain, as it's a very quiet residential neighborhood with lots of babies and young kids, so I'm sure there were lots of pissed off people tonight.

Arrgh!