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

Ps thanks also to those suggesting tech that might cut background noise when we’re on calls. Going to look into that too.

You’re good here, thanks!

Could you email your colleagues and see if you could share a workspace for a bit?

Not an ideal solution, but if your main issue is background noise on calls when you come off mute, could you type into the chatbox (if Skype/Teams etc) during calls rather than speak?

Reiterating what had already been said. It is likely that the noisy works won't last for too long. At least that was the case with next door.

Reading with interest as we are having the exact same issue.

They moved in literally the first week of April and have been going at it ever since. Obviously we’ve been home 24/7 and are trying to WFH but are now into our 14th week of renovation hell.

We’ve both had to leave calls early due to the noise meaning we miss information or have to catch up on things later, colleagues have had to call us back in their own time at the end of the day to explain what we missed. It’s... not good.

Sorry no advice from this side as we weren’t even given the courtesy of being told the work was starting or what they’re even doing. They moved in, didn’t say hello, and started pulling the entire house to bits.

Anyway, from one WFH renovation nightmare to another, just know you have my sympathy!

OP share your pain (and we're in a 5 bed semi!) feels like everyone is having work done around us. How I have solutioned is that when the noise is particularly loud and I need to be on a call I explain the situation at the beginning of the call and confirm that I will communicate via messaging within the team call messaging board (available on both Skype and Teams). Annoying but has worked well. Hope this helps - good luck !

This is a really difficult situation but the problem is that ultimately the work has to happen some time.

I am on the other side of this. My house desperately needs stuff done to it (think dangerous electric wiring etc) and i had been planning a major renovation for a couple of years. It was about to start and then Covid happened... so now it looks like it might finally start in August or September. I feel terrible about it as I have neighbours wfh but I can’t delay the work any longer. I am going to ask the builders to not create unnecessary noise (like radio) etc.

Could you use the noise cancelling headphones, and turn off your mic so you can hear your colleagues but not vice versa. Then use the chat facility if you need to say anything? (or just turn on the mic quickly, say your bit then go mute again)?

I sympathise op as we are going through this at the moment, only they are our builders! We had an extension planned to start in March which was delayed and started last week instead. The noise is horrific. They are currently drilling on top of the kitchen ceiling and it sounds like they are coming through it. Thankfully I work outside the home and am just at home with my toddler for the day today but my poor husband is trying to teach remotely from home and can’t hear himself think half the time. Luckily we are in a detached house and our neighbours are retired although it must still be awful for them being stuck at home with the noise. I don’t think it can be anywhere near as bad for them through. At least I hope not as they are being very tolerant.
I’m afraid I don’t have a solution for you although there are a few good ideas above. I hope for your sake and ours that people are right about the noise being worst at the start!!

Libraries are opening from next week

I think working with the builders and new owner is the best option.

I would suggest you aim to have a 5 minute chat every morning with the builders about what noisy work they have to do that day. Tell them when your calls are, and see if they can work around those times. If they are nice, they will do so as far as possible.

Or if noisy work at a certain time is unavoidable, at least you will know and you can see if the call could be rescheduled or warn people you will need to mute for most of it.

We have a full house renovation happening next door and has been going throughout lockdown. DH is wfh and I am homeschooling. It’s not been ideal. You have my sympathies.

From our experience, I agree that the demolition phase (first week or two) is particularly noisy, so it’s not going to be this bad forever. There are other very bad phases (eg if they build a new roof, cutting the timbers is awfully noisy, as is digging up any concrete) but they are fairly intermittent. Of course it’s still noisy in between but not quite as bad as it is now.

I’m sorry to say but if it’s a full house refurb it’s going to take longer than 4 months. So best to get a friendly working relationship going with the builders now, rather than grit your teeth and hope it’s over soon... it won’t be!

Can you not speak to the new neighbour perhaps together with the building foreman, and say that due to unforeseen covid restrictions you are both working from home till September, and the noise is making it impossible. Then work out a compromise as far as possible to do with when the noise willhapen - perhaps it could all be done before 11am. eg. in week one, followed depending on what they need to do, with a different time another week. It should be possible with goodwill on both sides to work out blocks of the day which are relatively quiet from machinery. Communication is key.

out there idea! bribery - coffee breaks with chewy biscuits for the builders! (which you provide?? ) when do they have lunch etc?

My next door neighbour is having huge building works going on, been going on for a about a year now but it's only been over the lockdown the real noise has started. It has been hell because we're working from home and our kids have been having online lesson - it seems that every time they have a lesson the drilling and banging starts! There is nothing we can do about the noise but we did have to speak to them about the music they were blasting from the scaffolding, the scaffolding overhangs one of my kids bedroom windows. We can't even use our own garden because of the bricks and dust landing in our garden.

@LaurieFairyCake

Libraries are opening from next week

The library I work in is reopening but we’re not allowing people to work as they used to, for the time being. We will just be open for returning books and collecting preordered books. Even browsing the shelves isn’t allowed.

All the tables and chairs have been removed.

This may be different in other areas though (I hope so).

How confidential is the stuff you discuss at meetings?

Using headphones in a cafe might be feasible, or sitting in the park on nice days.

If your going to ring your neighbour donit while its noisy. If hes not oj site he may not be aware just how bad it it and may dismiss it if he can clearly hear how bad it is for you on a normal call explain its worse on a 15 person call.

You might be pleasantly surprised by noise cancelling headphones with a noise cancelling microphone. I've had these and they were surprisingly good - a few times even when I could still hear noise the people I was talking to said it was okay. here. They were out of stock for a while and the price has gone up significantly - I think I paid £23 when I bought them the first time.

I need new ones glares at ds who broke my old ones and am either going to buy these again or might invest in a slightly more hardcore version from same company as our neighbours have just started building work too. It's not as bad as what you're experiencing but suspect I'll be grateful for them.

Also, depending on who you work for, you might be able to get some like this or similar purchased by the company....

Sounds awful. Do you have a car, if you need somewhere private and quiet for calls could you use that in emergency?

Thanks for another crop of great practical suggestions. I’m going to take notes from this thread in preparation for phone call (which I am now NOT going to do over weekend, but on Monday with the drills going full throttle in background - great point by Pretenditsaplan...good username also, that’s what I do for a living )

Thanks also for the sympathy and sending it right back to those who’re experiencing similar - especially with homeschooling too - extra for earthyfire.

Your best bet is to ask for a couple of hours quiet time in the day so you can arrange important calls for then. It’s much easier for this to be first thing as it’s almost impossible for builders to commit to quiet work only for chunks in the middle of the day without it becoming hugely inefficient (which would only mean the work goes on for longer).

You could also ask them to let you know each week which days will be particularly noisy, but do bare in mind that building work by its nature can be unpredictable, especially with a Victoria terrace as every task seems to uncover something else.

I'm sharing an office and we all have headphones with microphone as otherwise it's impossible to work when you are all on calls. That should help, your company should reimburse you for them or supply them if you ask.

It’s been a ducking nightmare with our neighbours. Not helped by the builders spitting everyone and blocking our driveway (which their friends did before and during lockdown too)

It’s been a ducking nightmare with our neighbours. Not helped by the builders spitting everywhere and blocking our driveway (which their friends did before and during lockdown too)