Neighbour wants no drilling this afternoon

[Daisydrum]

We are having work done on our house. The workers are only here M-F within normal hours. Our neighbour has asked for no drilling this afternoon because of important calls. Not sure if they are being unreasonable?
We did warn them months ago work was coming and when work was starting.
They have had about 2 years worth of work on and off, often during my important calls (and they’ve had it on evenings and weekends).
I’m not sure if the builders will need to use the drill or not but there will certainly be some banging as we can’t expect them to do no work for the whole afternoon.
Not sure what to say back.

They’ve not said office work just important calls could be anything and probably don’t want to tell neighbour. Court hearing, medical appointment they’ve waited months for, consultation with solicitor, giving presentation for a key position, being interviewed on bbc news. If it’s first time they have asked i’d take it as important.

Address, TBF, we don't know about the OP's neighbour's access to office space, what computer they have or where they live. Maybe they COULD go to an office space or elsewhere. No need to bite people's heads off when we don't know the situation.

If employers want their staff to provide free office space ongoing then they also need to provide the supporting equipment and accept that they don't control the environment as they can in the office. At the moment they are still riding the wave of WFH being seen as a "perk" when for many people it simply isn't. I completely agree with this. IMO employers are getting away with a lot. The onus should be on them to make clear to clients/customers that things like noise levels may be different or worse at the moment but that this is unavoidable to to WFH. They need to protect their staff.

It's certainly not unreasonable of the neighbour to ask.
And it would be reasonable of you to ask your builders to avoid particularly noisy jobs if possible.

When DD was home doing her university finals - proctoring setup, all videoed etc - DH asked immediate neighbours if they would mind avoiding mowing their lawns etc during the relevant times. Obviously that's different to paid tradespeople going about their business. But when a house-shaking noise started from the house to the back of us - we thought pneumatic drill, actually a wood chipper - DH ran round and asked if they could leave it for an hour and a half - they were very understanding fortunately. The people at the side somewhere who had someone using a stone cutter couldn't defer but did what they could to minimise during that specific time, and didn't mind being asked.

Do we have a class issue here? Office work being seen as more important than building works?

Yes, I think it’s exactly that. It’s also because it’s residential building work. If you were working in your normal office and there was building work going on next door you wouldn’t be able to request quiet periods, as I know to my cost.

Your neighbour KNOWS they have had building work.
They have asked, as far as we know, ONCE for it to be stopped. Asked, not demanded, not come round screaming and cutting the power off, because they have an important call. It could be anything, but important enough for them to ask.

You live next to these people. What happened to a little understanding.

Did you ever ask during your important calls? They can't be expected to know if you didn't.

Do we have a class issue here? Office work being seen as more important than building works?

Not really. Surely it's whether the neighbour's office work is more important than the OP getting her extension done? The OP isn't doing the building work herself and surely she will have to pay the builders, even if she tells them they need to down tools and have a couple of hours' break. It's presumably no skin off the builders' nose because they will get paid regardless.

@GCandproud

Do we have a class issue here? Office work being seen as more important than building works?

Not really. Surely it's whether the neighbour's office work is more important than the OP getting her extension done? The OP isn't doing the building work herself and surely she will have to pay the builders, even if she tells them they need to down tools and have a couple of hours' break. It's presumably no skin off the builders' nose because they will get paid regardless.

The builders will have a time frame to complete the work because they will have other jobs lines up, which they may lose if they delay. Why do you assume builders are work-shy slackers with unimportant deadlines?

As a one-off, I’d say it’s reasonable.
My friend had a job interview on Friday, and came to mine to do it (via Teams), as BT are digging up her road at present. She could t risk the noise/her internet being cut off, and when she went out to ask them about the work (explaining her job interview), they said they couldn’t pause for an hour. Luckily I’m only a 10 min walk away, and quieter here at the moment.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a couple of hours as a one-off, in your situation, OP. Is there other work which can be done in that time with no drilling?

I'm pretty sure the road outside my place gets dug up for some reason every year. It's quite annoying but thankfully we dont have meetings or the need for quiet.

That should say workplace

The builders will have a time frame to complete the work because they will have other jobs lines up, which they may lose if they delay.
Why do you assume builders are work-shy slackers with unimportant deadlines?

Bit of a leap there. I never said that. I just said that this is unlikely to affect the builders as much as the OP (she will be the one out of pocket) and is therefore less of a ‘class issue’ than some people suggest. I would expect that if not drilling for an hour or two will affect upcoming scheduled work that they will say that to the OP and she has the choice then of not getting the work finished in time. When people moan about building work, their anger tends to be directed at those employing the builders rather than the builders themselves. After all, the builders are usually only there because some middle class person wants to build an extension.

@LivingLaVidaCovid

As a one off to be a nice neighbour I'd try and comply if i could.

Following that I'd be going for the "yes yes we understand we will ensure it's essntial drilling only"

As opposed to drilling that's just for fun?

If the calls are so important they shouldn't be being done in someone's house.

@ThinWomansBrain

Is neighbour prepared to pay for a half day lay off?

My thoughts exactly!

And compensate the customer at their next job for the fact that their job will overrun by at least half a day.

My BIL is a builder. He's booked solid for several months, often has trades working at 2 or even 3 jobs at a time. Losing half a day's work on one job would mean delaying others.

If the builders can’t delay by half a day because of other jobs (they would charge OP in any event), OP just has to say no won’t she? Unless she wants a half finished kitchen or something. It’s up to her to decide. It’s not about seeing builders as ‘less important’. I see any building work as being the work of the person who instructs them. So if my neighbour wants to build a great big fuck-off extension to make their already adequate house bigger and it causes loads of noise, I aim my annoyance at the neighbour not the builder and I do think that my quiet enjoyment of the property is more important than my neighbour’s extension (although I know I can’t do anything about it). It’s got nothing to do with respect for builders. They’re only there because someone has asked them to be and whether their work is objectively ‘important’ entirely depends on what they are doing (fixing a collapsed roof vs building the dream extension). At the same time, I know that my teaching work isn’t particularly important to my neighbour so it’s all swings and roundabouts. Noise cancelling headphones are the way forward.

I see any building work as being the work of the person who instructs them.
And therein lies the problem.

@Snoozer11

If the calls are so important they shouldn't be being done in someone's house.

Are you living in 2021?

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken

I see any building work as being the work of the person who instructs them. And therein lies the problem.

Well excuse me for not having the utmost respect for the fact that my neighbour has spent months having building work done to improve the value of his house. Should I ignore the noise and inconvenience out of respect for the builders? Weird argument.

As opposed to drilling that's just for fun?

As opposed to drilling which could equally well be done tomorrow if they can reasonably do something quieter today. Obviously.

I am on the other side of this atm. We had 3 solid weeks of pneumatic drilling from 8.30 am to 5 pm - it was absolutely unbearable. If you have a lot of drilling going on then I think you do need to be a bit more flexible. The impact of the drilling on the neighbours was really grim - one of my neighbours DDs was sitting her finals online through it, others were struggling with work zooms - barristers zooming in to court, GPs zooming patients etc etc.

Therefore I think that you are being really selfish in not at least trying to meet your neighbour half way.

@londonmummy1966

I am on the other side of this atm. We had 3 solid weeks of pneumatic drilling from 8.30 am to 5 pm - it was absolutely unbearable. If you have a lot of drilling going on then I think you do need to be a bit more flexible. The impact of the drilling on the neighbours was really grim - one of my neighbours DDs was sitting her finals online through it, others were struggling with work zooms - barristers zooming in to court, GPs zooming patients etc etc.

Therefore I think that you are being really selfish in not at least trying to meet your neighbour half way.

Yep. It’s impossible for me to record teaching materials if there is drilling going on for example. It’s horrendous. It’s not the fault of the builders, it’s the fault of those who instruct them. Also if we’re talking about being classist, what about people who do night shifts (more likely to be WC) who are completely prevented from getting any rest due to incessant drilling? My neighbours who are having work done pack up their kids every day and go to parents’. They never have to listen to the noise but everyone else on the street does. To suggest it’s classist for someone to ask for an hour’s peace is ludicrous when building a big extension and giving no shits about your neighbours is about the most middle-class thing imaginable. At the same time, in the OP’s case, the neighbours sound just as bad or worse so my sympathy is quite limited.

It’s not the fault of the builders, it’s the fault of those who instruct them.

What are you talking about?

Building work makes noise.

“Those who instruct them” you’re talking like people who hire builders are overlords who can dictate what the builders do on any given day.

Builders are highly skilled tradespeople. They aren’t “instructed” by their customers.

Builders are highly skilled tradespeople. They aren’t “instructed” by their customers.

Of course they are instructed. They wouldn’t be there if someone hadn’t paid them to be there because they want an extension or whatever. I know they are skilled ffs. It’s still not going to stop me being annoyed with my neighbour for having lots of drilling work done that impacts on my own ability to work. My beef is with the neighbour.

“Those who instruct them” you’re talking like people who hire builders are overlords who can dictate what the builders do on any given day.

Well it might not be possible if the builders are on a very tight schedule. Sometimes though it’s a case of those hiring the builders not wanting to pay more money.
Living on a street where lots of people are having noisy work done can be really horrible, especially when trying to work from home. One option could be to restrict planning laws so that it’s harder to get approval extensions to residential property. So many would be up in arms about that though.

@GCandproud

Builders are highly skilled tradespeople. They aren’t “instructed” by their customers.

Of course they are instructed. They wouldn’t be there if someone hadn’t paid them to be there because they want an extension or whatever. I know they are skilled ffs. It’s still not going to stop me being annoyed with my neighbour for having lots of drilling work done that impacts on my own ability to work. My beef is with the neighbour.

No, they’re hired by their customer. The customer doesn’t dictate what tools are used for what job and when. You’re talking as if builders are lazy idiots who want to sit and drink tea all day and don’t have any autonomy or deadlines to work to.