Neighbours who work from home

[Confusednewmum1]

So we have moved to a house that requires total renovation, it has not been touched for over 50 years. We have spoken to the NDN about plans ie rip house apart and start again/extension ect. However every time we do work they complain about the noise as they work from home.

I get that this can be frustrating but at the moment we can’t give a schedule of work just due to the nature of old house. Example last week new front door on Friday to be fitted told 1 hour job no real noise ect. It then turned into needing a lintel, brickwork repair....... but this all spiralled in the moment.

My neighbours seem to think my builders should work around their calls ect. But I have really just advised there will be building work most days Mon-Friday 8:30-5 until at least the end of the year, it’s the only honest timeline. Council are happy as they have said noise not excessive ie generators or nematic drilling. But my neighbours have said this is not acceptable and there 2 1/2 year old naps during the day???

I also have a young child who happened to still be asleep this morning when they complained at 10am as door frame was going in and they where on a call.

AIBU to think that if they work from home then noise is their issue to mitigate not mine?

FlamingoAndJohn, my soul is Scottish I’m sure of it. It sounds like it

We work from home and had extensive work done, so can see both sides.
You need to agree a time with your neighbours that suits them, whilst still optimising your time for the work.
Our neighbour is great and will tell us so we can move into another room.
Is the neighbours office/ workspace on a party wall, and could they move it?

Some of the replies on this thread are bonkers! OP how very dare you do something as outrageous as build an extension - you're so selfish!

Seriously, we've just had extensive work done (but we live in a detached house, so I think that's allowed). I WFH all the way through it, so I understand how disruptive it is. You can't control what work is done when, you can't dictate when the contractors take breaks and more often than not you don't even know who's turning up to do what when. That's the reality of a big renovation/building project. You can't not renovate your house because it upsets your neighbours, that's ridiculous!

OP it sounds like your neighbours will never be happy. That's up to them. You don't have to get on with them, you don't have to placate them. Yes, be civil, keep them informed when you know about noisy work going on. But essentially there's nothing you can do to make them happy so don't put yourself out too much trying.

Some of the replies on this thread are bonkers! OP how very dare you do something as outrageous as build an extension - you're so selfish!
I don't think renovating is selfish and I don't think doing an extension is selfish.
I also think from the sounds of their neighbours the neighbours may be the complaining types.

However, I do think that going room by room starting with the master bedroom in order to live on site and organising the work in such a way that it needlessly prolongs the disruption to neighbours is selfish and inconsiderate (and also a more costly way to do things than to do a whole house rewire, whole house plastering).
It means instead of having 10-12 weeks of major structural work, which is noisy but reasonable, followed by the internal work, the neighbours have to put up with intermittent loud work for a year, with some quiet weeks or days and then it's back again. It seems relentless and exactly the sort of thing that would create bad feeling with even the most tolerant of neighbours.

It's exactly why friends of ours took a loan for their structural work. It was cheaper and quicker to do the work that way. They get on well with their neighbours unsurprisingly.

there will be building work most days Mon-Friday 8:30-5 until at least the end of the year

I guess a year's quite a long time for it to go on (though I realise you can't be exact) but the situation is what it is; if you live near others' homes there's always the risk of this kind of thing happening

The good news from your point of view is that the Council are okay with it, so at least you shouldn't get grief from them too. Personally I'd keep it down where possible but otherwise crack on ... and maybe take round an occasional bunch of flowers if things have been especially busy

So today’s update is a builders van has pulled up next door and I can hear drilling. So they must be doing some work in their own home ahead of their own 3 month building works for an extension due to start in May.

Do I go round and complain as no notice given or do I crack on removing skirting and architrave in what will be the nursery??? Technically I also work from home as the renovation and DIY is my full time job!!

OP
You had my support on the whiny neighbour, even if I think your approach to renovating is inconsiderate.
But your attitude towards your neighbour throughout this thread makes you come across as especially petty and someone who almost gets a kick out of mulling over ways to score points.

I'd bet your neighbour has probably decided that if there's going to be a bloody racket for a year then they might as well crack on.

@LolaSmiles your right I’m in a particularly petty mood but they have just been so entitled in their attitude.

I’ve tried really hard to be diplomatic and went through loads of options but they flat out object to noise, except on their terms.

I’ve even reached out to mumsnet in hope that someone had a pearl of wisdom.

I think you have to accept they are the types to complain over anything (such as the neighbours with the workshop), and then seriously look at your proposed schedule to see if the work can be completed in a way that's less disruptive or bundles the loudest work together.

For example even if you can't get all rooms decorated, it would probably save time and money and noise to have all upstairs required in one go and then plastered in one go than to have them in and out.
When it comes to upstairs carpets, could they be from one company and you pay one fitting charge and it's one job?
Plumbing, whole house in one go so that you've got the facilities.

If the bedrooms are in a habitable state after that then you can go into there and then do all the big structure work downstairs in one go.

Cosmetic work comes last and is quieter.

That way you're only creating substantial (though reasonable for renovating) noise for specific windows and you can keep your neighbour in the loop.

Just smile sweetly each time you see them. Do not send them a single gift.

When they next complain say

“Someone once said to me that everyone has work done on their houses, it just happens to be our time and I am sure you will have had and will be doing work in the future. So I apologise for the inconvenience and where we can we will mitigate any nuisance, but we are working within the Council’s requirements and do feel we are doing all we can to keep noise to a minimum.”

Then smile sweetly again and “say must dash things to do” and close the door

I work from home. My neighbours - who I don't get on with anyway - took two and a half years to renovate their house because they only hired one man to do the whole thing (large extension and complete refurb including moving the staircase). Sometimes it was seven days a week, sometimes up to ten o'clock at night. As my job solely involves speaking to people on the phone it cost me a few thousand in loss of earnings (I'm self employed). I completely understand it's necessary, the best thing to do is hire as big a team as you can so it doesn't drag on endlessly. At least you've been polite about it - I never got a please, thank you or kiss my a* from that lot, even when they dumped a skip eighteen inches from my car.

Crack on and finish it. A house not touched for 50 years would get refitted eventually by someone - just happens to be you. Just keep the work in the hours permitted by law. If they are about to launch their own house extension is it going to be silent? No - aye right, so it is.
Sometimes working from home and expecting an office environment just isn’t practical - especially if you live next to a property due for renovation.

They ABVU!

We had our operating theatres refitted and had surgeons managing to transplant organs and fix poly traumas while there was banging and drilling going on

I live in an old apartment block and work from home. We've had three sets of massive, noisy, dusty renovations in three years, plus big, noisy, dusty renovations in the common areas. It's bloody annoying and makes it difficult to work, but I could always go down to the library/coffee shop/museum and work there instead if I were that bothered, or even hire an office or desk space and claim it back on taxes if I needed a more 'work orientated' location. They're being precious.

So what with their dogs and builders they frequently make more noise than average/expected and out of hours - and also are so important they need you to take in all their parcels. But you need permission to make noise from them. They really do sound like the type that will complain about anything. Crack on and throw wine at them occasionally. I bet they aren't worried how their extension will be affecting you.

Building work happens. Can't they move to another room in the house to work as surely not all of their rooms back onto yours? be nice to them by there isn't much u can do if they're working and their kid is sleeping, that covers most of the builders day! Do they stop their calls when their kid is asleep? I think not.

There's some right batshit oddities on this thread.

Someone who thinks semi detached houses aren't proper houses - and that any house left for more than 6 months without work should be demolished not repaired

Someone (more than one) who thinks that you're only allowed to renovate a place if you can afford to do the whole thing in one while living elsewhere

Someone else who thinks that anyone working from home must be conning their employer

Batshit. Absolutely batshit.

YANBU. You have informed them about potential noise and that you’ll be having work done until the end of the year; that’s courteous of you. You don’t even have to tell them.

We had a new leisure complex built opposite my office, there was noise all day every day and during the summer, the office gets too hot as there is no air con so ALL windows and doors into the building are wide open. We just had to get on with our jobs despite the noise and disturbance. And so can your neighbours!

Or if you want to be petty, print out local office space to rent and put it through their letterbox.

Totally unrealistic of them to think that you having work done would not come without short term noise issues. I work from home and would completely understand this issue. You are not being unreasonable. I would be thankful to have neighbours that are being considerate and not doing work all hours. What would they do in your shoes?

I’m field based and work from home.

I can understand it’s frustrating when you’re trying to make calls and you have drilling, but people have to get DIY done and I’d rather it was done during the day rather than later on after work when I’m trying to relax.

I live in a flat and my neighbour upstairs had some work done to her kitchen. But before it started she popped a note through everyones door advising what she was having done, the specific hours the builders would be working, reassuring us nothing before 9am and nothing after 6pm and apologised in advance for any inconvenience and noise.

Because she was so thoughtful to her neighbours, not one of us moaned or bitched about it, despite the noise. She’d warned us, apologised and tried to keep the impact to the minimum that she could. Couldn’t ask any more of her than that.

These people sound like they aren’t prepared to compromise at all. You’ve obviously tried to discuss this with them and they don’t want to listen. Leave them to it.

You're doing everything that you reasonably can.
Your neighbours ABU. Remind them how once you hous is done up it will increase the value of theirs, especially as it was previously a wreck.

And smile and wave like the queen.. it's not forever.

I had it both sides over about 6 years. Luckily my garden office was well insulated but renovations are a fact of life. It won’t last forever. They should just take it on the chin. But just be prepared for them to have no sympathy for how when they do a renovation. Revenge is sweet, as they say.

Agree with your entire post DameFanny

I laughed at 'bulldoze your house'. What an overreaction

I haven't read the full thread, just skimmed it but to those exclaiming about noisy building work going on for a year all the work is not going to be noisy is it? There will be days when all the neighbours will be able to hear is the scraping and slapping of the plasterer, maybe some nails being banged into wood, other days it might be full on demolition of old walls and so on.
We've been through both situations, we moved out over the summer into a rental because we were having work done. Thankfully our neighbour was away for the first three months but the place we rented, the neighbours worked through the summer holidays, they started at 7 am sometimes going on till 11 at night. The only we brought it up with them was when they started drilling one night past 12 o clock. Alot of the times we knew they were working but the noise was minimal so didn't disturb us too badly.

OP, you’ve been given some good advice on this thread!

Don’t be petty even though you’re wound up because they’re irritating. It won’t help things to get any better.

I WFH. If you text me or gave me a heads up that for example, this afternoon there was going to be some heavy duty drilling etc along the adjoining wall, I would say cheers for letting me know. Then I would either relocate my laptop to another part of the house or apologise to my client on the phone.

Ultimately, you letting them know isn’t asking them for permission to work on your house. But it is the best and only thing you can do. I really think you need to concentrate on controlling your own behaviour - communicating in a positive way and giving the affected party the information they need to make a decision on how they will mitigate the noise from your work.

Getting into a squabble with them won’t help you. You obviously have enough to be getting on with already!