What to do about next door’s building work

[FortunesFavour]

Hi Mumsnet

I have a dilemma and would welcome your thoughts on what you would do.

Last year a new neighbour moved in next door and gave us notice of extensive building works to remodel his house. We are in a 3 story Victorian terrace and share a party wall. He has bought whole house next door, our house is divided into 3 flats with me and partner in middle flat.

Fair enough - new homeowner want to do work on their house, we understand and will tolerate any disruption under normal circs. We signed party wall agreement etc. All amicable.

Now here’s the problem - the timing! Partner and I are both wfh full time til Sept. no choice - both of our offices closed til then due to Covid/non essential travel. Lots of TEAMS meetings and teleconferences. DP is working from bedroom, I’m in lounge in our 1 bed flat. Not ideal but we’ve been managing. (No kids, I have no idea how parents wfh have been able to cope, I am lost in admiration for them!).

Anyway, NDN’s builders started work yesterday. Scaffolding up, 6 builders, angle grinders, cement mixers, internal wall demolition, the lot. The noise is unbearable. I had to drop 2 calls yesterday where there were 15+ attendees because the drilling noise was drowning me out and so loud it was unpleasant for other down the phone line. This will go on for around 4 months.

Sigh. WWYD? On the one hand I like new neighbour, don’t want to fall out and don’t want to be unnecessarily obstructive. I understand he wants to do up new house, I’d feel the same. Plus the noisy builders are all nice, friendly etc and just doing their job - impossible to be quiet really. I’m pleased they’re back at work, needs to happen, I support that.

But but but, the bloody noise!! Aargh!! It’s only been 2 days, but since they’re right next door with shared party wall and the flat is shaking with each hammer blow and ringing with drilling, radio and chirpy builders banter (quite like that last part).

Wouldn’t matter if we were at work of course, but we can’t go to office (both companies confirmed offices closed til 1 Sept earliest). We have to work and just can’t with this level of noise.

Don’t know what to do. I don’t think we’re unreasonable to want to be able to continue our jobs - bottom line is full time wfh or no job. But he’s not unreasonable either in his building either really, aargh.

How would you approach this wise mumsnetters?

Thanks

Have you got a friend nearby who will let you use a room to work from?

I've had the same issue during lockdown! Thankfully, the loud work didn't last too long! Only about a week of the smashing, hammer drills and constant banging.

You're not being unreasonable to ask for some quiet time. Perhaps ask for a timetable of the work? Or for a dedicated 'quiet time' during the day when you can schedule your calls?

You aren't able to work from home so you are able to return to the office. You can try speaking to NDN but likely most of the builders are self employed so might mean they have no work. Vicious circle I'm afraid.

Building work is usually limited to between 8 and 5pm Monday to Friday by local councils so if they are working those hours there’s probably not much you can do.
Is there anywhere else you can work e.g take calls in your car ?

That's a tough one, but builders etc are usually booked months in advance and your new neighbour wouldn't have known this would coincide with people wfh for a prolonged period. I think you either go back to your office if you can as you can't reasonably work from home or see if you can form a 'bubble' with a friend who has extra room.

The radio isn't essential to them getting on with their work, so you could ask them to turn that off for a start. Actual building noise, tools etc., are a different matter, of course. Just ask.

As long as they are sticking to the hours allowed by your council then the work is allowed to take place. You do, however, have a bit of leeway around radios and music, though, as that is not essential to the work. You can try to reach an agreement with your neighbours whereby the builders don't play music at certain times.

Thanks for the responses. Yep, it’s a tough dilemma because it’s completely unworkable since it will go on for 4 months, but nobody is in the wrong. Both neighbour and builders really nice godammit!!

Have considered the following:

• Ask a friend if I can work from theirs and DP do same? Don’t want to dismiss decent solutions but that’s tricky. We’re in E London. My single friend in S London lives alone with a spare room. Could ask her, and DP do same with one of his mates. But that means daily tube for us both which I’d prefer to avoid. Plus I’d feel bad even asking - she’s already got her bubble which I’m not in (quite right, she’s a mate not a bestie) so I’d mess that up for her. Plus who am I to colonise her spare room for 4 months, she’s probably got her own plans for it! I worry if I asked her she’d feel obliged cos she’s lovely, but I’d be a total CF to have asked in first place. Similar for DP and his mates. So we pretty much dismissed this idea.

• Could up sticks to my mum’s for the duration in a different city. But she’s 84 and shielded. She’s bang up for this of course bless her, but she’s been sooo good alone in lockdown and it’s been soooo hard for us all. I really don’t want to put her at increased risk just to help us out work wise. And I think having me and DP there for so long would increase her risk no matter how careful we all were. She has weak lungs and heart, if she caught the virus...don’t want to think about that. I would be responsible.

Maybe I’m being overly paranoid here, not sure. But I know I could not live with myself.

• Go back to our offices. Sadly this also won’t work. They are fully closed. We’re in IT and all our workforce has been fully tooled up to WFH since lockdown began. They’ve provided extra equipment etc and we like everyone else have continued “Business As Usual” although transition has been tough. So our offices are fully closed and facilities are working on safe ways to reopen in Sept - lifts, corridors, loos etc. I don’t think they could open even if we asked. Plus I’m a contractor so even harder for me to ask - it’s my responsibility to ensure I have a suitable place to work (in non Covid times I split

60/40 between home and client office).

• Try to rent an alternative office space to work on for a few months. WeWork? A tiny studio somewhere? Can’t really afford this, but it’s looking like might be the best option. Perhaps we just suck it up. We’re lucky to both still be in jobs after all, so we could tighten belts and find rental money somewhere like so many other have to. (Haven’t looked into costs yet, might go with this option if we can afford it).

Have you talked to the builders about how long the noisy works to the party wall will last. This is the stage of the works which will generate most noise and vibration, and the rest of the works could be more bearable.

If it is only 2-3 weeks then you could find alternative working spaces for that period rather than the full 4 months.

Good luck!

Speak to builders first.
Ask for a schedule of work or known noisy jobs. It'll likely be much quieter in a week or two if you can hang in there

Noise cancelling head phones??

Sympathies OP i've been there and the noise gave me huge anxiety -but I'm not sure what you can do? I think it's just one of those things. He's allowed to undertake works during 8-6 on a weekday and certain hours on a Saturday as I'm sure you know and unfortunately they are just very noisy.

You could ask when the worst of the noise will be over works wise and see if they know. I doubt it will be like thos the whole stretch.

Can you perhaps take important or scheduled calls in the car? Appraise your employer of situation and do emails or instant messaging in lieu of calls (no idea what you do so no idea what is feasible)

There’s absolutely nothing you can do in terms of getting them to stop - they’re working during reasonable hours and they’re not doing anything wrong.

All you can do is find somewhere else or take measures to deal with it yourselves. You can’t involve them.

Speak to your bosses. Find out if they would meet the cost of a small shared space for you to work in. You might be surprised at the answer.

I sympathise. We had this twice in about three years after the two elderly widows on each side of our London terrace died and new neighbours did the usual gutting and stripping out of virtually everything. I work from home but have an office at the bottom of our garden so was relatively insulated against the noise apart from when the builders were arguing (almost fighting) outside in the garden. My wife on the other hand, though not WFM, was stuck in the house with the racket. Not much one can do really. We did kick off at some drilling of a concrete plinth on a Saturday that ran over the legal limit of midday though. My wife's email complaint to the builder was met with a dismissive comment from the company boss and no apology. I really laid into them for that copying in the owners and their parents (who were funding it) in a shitty email so they all knew we were seriously unhappy. I think that particular neighbour got the impression we were difficult bastards but we aren't. Gone now so water under the bridge. If you can work elsewhere that may be the only solution.

Just an idea, seen it on here before - you can negotiate with the owner so that he pays for your office space, room rental if you like, elsewhere. You would have had a lot more leeway for this before you signed the PW agreement, but still you can only ask and he can only say no. Tell him its not tenable and that you need to rent a room elsewhere to work in, get a quote first.

Before everyone starts saying oh no poor man is entitled to work on his house, yes, that's obvious, but OP can also ask for this concession.

It is exceptional circumstances and as you have said usually you would be at work.

Could you maybe speak to the builders and see if a compromise could be met as in if you have a meeting at say 1-2pm ask if it would be possible to not do the very noisy jobs during that time? Or if possible for you to schedule your meetings to coincide with their lunch break?

I had the same. Their building work started the day I gave birth and carried on for months! Their builder would walk around my garden (obviously for the work being done on their side). It was scary when I would see men walking around my garden. I had to keep reminding myself who they were. They would block my drive way too so when I went for medical appointment I had to wait till their van was moved. It was bloody annoying so you have my sympathies

Maybe have a look at technology to resolve it I remember seeing a tech show at the beginning of this where headphones and speakers are noise cancelling so only your voice is heard from people on call and yet he majority of background noise is removed for you too which should help. I suspect good quality not cheap but certainly cheaper than months of commute and renting somewhere in London.

Post seems to have been lost so apologies if this is a duplicate. I was suggesting to look at some technology. I saw on a review show headphones and mic that excludes external noise so only your voice is picked up so people on call can hear you and noise cancelling headphones excludes the building noise. Hope you find something

Noise cancelling head phones??

Won't help when on a conference call, the other attendees will still hear it.

Get an idea of how long the loud persistent noise will last before you decide to uproot yourselves. The demolition bits are usually the noisy parts at the start. We had works next door in our previous house and the really bad noise was in the first week then intermittent short periods of noise during the 8 weeks the builders were there.

@PhilCornwall1

Noise cancelling head phones??

Won't help when on a conference call, the other attendees will still hear it.

Good headphones with a mic do cancel out a lot of noise. Sympathies though, it's hellish.

Good headphones with a mic cut out a lot of background noise. Sympathies though, it's hellish.

No, haven’t spoken to builders or neighbour yet....weighing up options before I do, hence looking for suggestions, and there are a few good’uns above! Thanks to those suggesting the heavy noise might not be for the whole 4 months and to ask for schedule - I will do just that and plan around with them as far as I can.

I want to keep it all amicable and find a solution that works for everyone. I’m going to give NDN a call over weekend for a friendly chat hopefully rather than saying anything to builders. Maybe I can negotiate quiet hours with the builders after I’ve had the first chat with NDN.

Thanks for suggestions. Yes I’ve got noise cancelling headphones firmly in, but it’s the calls that are the biggest problem. The drilling etc drowns out the whole call if we come off mute!

Don’t mind radio and banter - doesn’t intrude on calls and can use earplugs. It’s quite nice to have a bit of life around after months of dread lockdown. It’s the drills and the demolition that’s the problem because it prevents us participating on all the calls. And they can’t be done outside of work hours.

But you are wise AshGirl! Maybe it’ll only be acute for a few weeks which would make renting other space more affordable. And yes you’re right Intelinside - can’t hurt to ask bosses about contributing if we do have to rent space - don’t ask don’t get.

Thanks all. I’ll go for a friendly call to neighbour asking for schedule and explaining we’re trying to work around the really intrusive noise but want to work it all out as co-operatively as we can. Not going to talk about alternative office space yet, maybe we won’t need it if this is just early noisy set up work (dear god, the sound of metal scaffolding poles being powersawed or whatever 4m from my desk today was a cruel and unnecessary torture!)