To not let neighbours put skip on my grass?

[Sexnotgender]

Neighbours who are lovely, are having their roof replaced and want to put a skip on our grass for 2 weeks!

I’ve said yes to them putting the scaffolding on our property as long as any damage is rectified but I feel a skip in my front garden for 2 weeks is a little bit much!

Am I being a bad neighbour?

Absolutely not, I left a couple of bricks on my grass after a BBQ last year and when i took them off the grass was dead underneath, took months for it to grow back.

The bricks were only there for a week

2 years on my mum still has obvious 1ft square marks from scaffold supports. No way would I have it on my grass for someone else's benefit.

They can put the skip on their drive and park elsewhere.

I'm not sure how a drive that can fit a car (otherwise it's hardly a drive) won't fit a skip.

No. Trouble is skip companies tend to be bad at picking them up. Seems to me that they leave them were they are until they a actually need them again. You could be stuck with it for weeks

NO! NO! NO! It doesn’t matter if it’s on rollers, it won’t just ruin your grass, it will leave huge indents in your garden. They’re not described in their Ton weights for nothing you know! I had a Two thirds filled skip on my drive for a few months (work delayed due to injury). It has left a slight indent on the tarmac. Can you imagine what it would do to your lawn? Plus the Bulider walking through your garden in mucky weather and leave muddy tracks. Not to mention the invariable bits and pieces that will end up in your grass, which you won’t notice unti the lawnmower hits.

They can put it in the road but have to pay a licence fee to the council for that.

@Sexnotgender we have just had a skip on our front garden due to a new roof. Not only is the grass ruined but there are bits of rubbish all over the place as some is lightweight and blown out. The workmen have also repeatedly walked over the garden and the whole place looks like a building site.

After six months of neighbours' renovations. (Supposedly, taking a few weeks.)

Broken tiles lobbed into lawn.
Hedge wrecked by scaffolding.

I'm glad I didn't agree to a skip.

Am I the only one getting a mental image of people having a lovely morning skip (shaking bells, waving hankies and all) on their front gardens to greet the sunrise?

Diagram

No, and I wouldn’t let them use the drive either. They can pay for a permit for it to go on the road if it wont fit on their drive

No. It'll destroy your grass - probably sink into it so it'll need more than just re-turfing and you'll end up with odds and ends, nails, felt and debris all over your garden. We had our roof replaced 2 years ago and still keep finding bits and pieces in our gravel and flower beds.

Don’t forget, the new turf, if they ever get round to fixing the garden and don’t ‘run out of money’ thing about my dickhead neighbours, in order to fix it, will look completely different and you’ll be the one that’s expected to tend to it, in order for it to ‘take’. What happens if they get sub par turf and it dies? They could say it was your fault for not looking after it properly.

As for those saying ‘good neighbourly relations’, they already sound like cheeky gits. Only moved in and immediately asking the neighbours for favours. Too soon, in my books.

What's wrong with them putting the skip on the road?!

I'd also second the suggestion of using builder's bags. You can get something from B&Q or Homebase called a Skip Bag or Hippo Bag which is effectively a branded builder's bag that you pay a fee to buy and then another when you arrange for them to collect and take it away full.

I would just say no we had enough issues with people dumping stuff when ours was on the road...
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I'd say no. Your neighbours have alternatives & it's a lot to ask - & you're already helping.

All building work seems to overrun, or be postponed. That skip could be there for much longer than they say, or be there just when you don't want it there.

We had one of our own in our front garden & it didn't do any damage - though that was probably because our clay soil was rock hard at the time & our grass is always shabby.

Why does my diagram not work 🙁

Trying again with the diagram

It's a wee patch of grass.
They're good neighbours.

I cannot believe the answers on this thread.

It's a big fat no from me.

It will always take longer than they say and your front will be ruined. you will probably resent/fall out with the neighbours.

They can used builders bags or put the skip in the road with a permit. Not your problem to solve.

And to be honest they are CF's to ask!

Have they asked their neighbours on the other side? 😉

I think you've got enough reasons to say no here already, but just remember that scaffolding, skips, noise, mess and inconvenience are all worth it in the end - but only for the people having the work done!

You just know that randoms will be coming into your garden to stealth dump their stuff or to root through what's there, and that the skip firm will be late collecting and leave mess all over the place. Don't do it!

Tell them you've been neighbourly about the scaffolding but have heard too may horror stories about skips, so they will need to make other arrangements. As your DP prizes the lawn, he could tell them.

Good neighbour relationships are worth a lot. If they really are lovely, they should put right any problems with your lawn afterwards.

It needs to go on the road!