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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

what time can i complain about my neighbours noisy diy?

48 replies

chamaeleon · 31/03/2008 19:44

we have complained when they have been drilling into joint wall and demolishing stuff at gone 10pm, but we have very small children and they are really really annoying us. have already complained tonight, but what time do you think is reasonable to ask them to stop?

OP posts:
cornsilk · 31/03/2008 19:45

aNT DIY PAST 6 IS TOO LATE imo.

avenanap · 31/03/2008 19:45

6pm. Anything past this time is unreasonble, you are entitled to peace and quiet.

Nicecupofwine · 31/03/2008 19:46

10 pm is quite late enough if they are considerate people. Do they have children? If they persist in making a noise then get your own back at 8 am and do DIY/strimming under their bedroom window

WowOoo · 31/03/2008 19:51

Afraid legally they are allowed to make noise from 7am to 11pm. We had property developers next to us and had 6 months of it. Drove me mental, quite literally!

nickytwotimes · 31/03/2008 19:52

My neighbour's got his chainsaw out tonight. Fortunately ds is a heavy sleeper.

WowOoo · 31/03/2008 19:53

Our council says that anyway.

Wisteria · 31/03/2008 19:55

We have always agreed 9pm with neighbours, six is too early as most people only have the evenings and weekends.

avenanap · 31/03/2008 19:56

I'm sure it's supposto stop at 7pm but 6pm would be reasonable. I don't think 7-11pm is correct Wowoo, having studied noise pollution for my MSc. I'll check though and report back later.

squimlet · 31/03/2008 22:16

sadly I know the feeling. the inconserate tools next door thought it was a good idea to do theirs till....wait for it.......2 am!!!

Yes they are being unreasonable and inconsiderate

cory · 01/04/2008 09:41

I would think 9 pm reasonable. 6 pm totally unreasonable, loads of people work that late and would never get anything done. And children small enough to go to bed at 6 can usually be trained to sleep through a lot of racket.
Besides, in years to come, these same neighbours who are told to put the drill away at 6 will not doubt take great delight in coming round to tell our teenagers that their parties must stop at 6 too . What goes around comes around.

Ledodgy · 01/04/2008 09:43

I can understand how annoying it is but I think legally they are allowed to do it until 11.30 pm.

FioFio · 01/04/2008 09:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Psychomum5 · 01/04/2008 09:50

......we go on until 8.30pm some nights....but when DH doesn;t get home until 7pm also some(most) nights, and works all weekends too, when else could we do it???

that said tho, we have no neighbours one side and on the otherside is a lovely oldish lady who is very understanding.

we don;t have very small kiddies near us anymore, and when OURS were tiny, we had no such consideration from anyone else, so my feeling is "what goes around comes around" for all those wankers other people here that didn;t care about us!!

elliott · 01/04/2008 09:52

I would say up to 10pm. Depends on HOW loud really - if it is all pervasive then maybe 8pm would be reasonable. Agree with others that they may not be available in the daytime.

FranSanDisco · 01/04/2008 09:59

I would put up with it until about 11.00 pm. I had to knock at new neighbours and ask them to stop at 11.30 one night. They did but haven't acknowledged me since. I don't care really as they are selfish twats!

tensmum · 01/04/2008 10:02

When next door neighbours were renovating, you could guarantee that as soon as we sat down to eat they would start drilling and if it wasn't then, it would be as we put ds down to sleep. And its not as if we always eat at the same time every night either.

madmuggle · 01/04/2008 13:09

We had a period of time one summer where our next-door neighbours were DIY-ing at all hours. I had a chat with them and it turned out they were going at it all hours so they could be done quicker and could enjoy the summer and let others do the same. I thought it was, in a roundabout way, quite well thought out, so didn't complain for the two weeks he was stripping plaster and re-arranging brickwork until ten at night

fledtoscotland · 01/04/2008 13:12

off the top of my head noise pollution officers will only consider it an offence after 10pm and before 6am unless its over a certain level.

i think 6pm is a bit early but certainly 9pm is acceptable for both sides ie they can get DIY done after work and you do get some peace.

quint · 01/04/2008 13:14

We have a noisy neighbour - more music than DIY though. I am happy for him to play it until 10pm, then I'm pissed off. Twice now I've called the council and they;ve sent someone round. The 1st time, the music went off anout 5 mins before they got here, the 2nd time it was still going so they went and had a word with him, been quiet for ages now!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 01/04/2008 13:19

Drilling its really really not fair after 8pm for young school aged children. When our neighbours drill everything in our house vibrates. But its give and take really. When neighbours didnt have kids and did diy I used to get really upset (and sometimes unreasonable) They always seemed to time it for naps or just when we had put dd down for bed at night. Drove me bananas. However if they'd started at 7am or so would have been really happy cos we were all up then.

Communication is the key on both sides

doggiesayswoof · 01/04/2008 13:19

After 9 I would be a bit irritated and after 10 I would ask them to give it a rest.

Our next door neighbour does DIY at quite random odd times but we're lucky because he's always willing to stop if we go round and ask.

Thing is, I can see both sides - he usually comes home after 7pm and he has to do it sometime. It's just a different perspective for those without young dc.

burstingbug · 01/04/2008 13:28

Banging, drilling, sanding, sawing, using sickening strong glue, strimming and lawn mowing, smoking dope, snorting other drugs, people coming and going doors slamming, music etc etc I could go on. That was just the downstairs neighbour. From the moment he got home to the moment he left his house literally there was some kind of constant noise or waft
Upstairs had laminate flooring where you could hear every move and loud parties and fireworks most weekends.
The neighbour across from us was always banging doors, screaming at her DD's and sometimes you could hear them getting a smack !

Soooo glad we moved, now we are in between 2 empty houses

burstingbug · 01/04/2008 13:31

Are they approachable Chamaeleon? Could you try talking to them during the day?
Our nutter just didn't talk to us, always hiding behind his front door til we'd gone or hiding in the shed .

avenanap · 01/04/2008 13:42

Where are you? What is the name of your local council?

Original poster
chamaeleon · 01/04/2008 13:47

thanks for all the replies, they woke the baby up last night and i couldnt get him back to sleep so couldnt get on here. i guess we are a bit sensitive to it now cos its been going on a while. we do put up with it at reasonable times and dont moan to them a lot, but they have been demolishing walls at nearly 11pm and drilling into shared wall at 9.30 in the past. they are quite approachable, we have been round a couple of times but last time they said they would stop and then carried on thing is ds is saying he doesnt want to go to bed because of the scary noises. they have small kids aswell, i dont know how they feel about it!

psycho i kind of understand where you are coming from with what goes around comes around but why cant it be respect that goes around instead of annoying each other?

i do understand about having no other time but the guy is home for a fair bit of the day (i know because i hear him doing diy!) and we have also done up a house but always stopped the noisy stuff by 6.30 at the latest, even tho there were no kids on either side of us.

it makes me really mad that councils say you can make noise til 11 - i assume this is because grown ups go to bed then but why are my kids of so little importance that its ok to keep them awake?

OP posts: