To be sick and tired of building noise?

[LakieLady]

I live in a road of semi-detached houses built on quite wide plots. In the 30 years I've lived here, the majority of them have had side extensions built. It seems as though as soon as one house completes the work, another starts.

In the last 6 years, a house opposite but a couple of doors down has not only built a side extension, but added a "garden building" and a loft conversion. In the intervals between, my NDN built a side extension, then the house opposite her did the same. When they'd both finished, the first house spent weeks paving their front garden with loads of noisy digging and angle grinding. The work was finally finished early last week and it has been blissfully, wonderfully quiet.

I had a Zoom meeting at 9.30, and five minutes in I heard a loud lorry, followed by the clattering of scaffolding poles. It appears the house round the corner is having their garage extended and converted into an office. The garage is at the bottom of their garden, so next door but one to my house.

I'd go to the office to work, but there are no meeting rooms free and I have to do a PIP application over the phone with a client in a minute, and it's not appropriate to discuss details of someone's health conditions in an open-plan office.

I'm just so sick and tired of having to keep all the doors and windows shut and struggling to hear over the racket of scaffolding being put up and noisy building going on. I'm over retirement age, and seriously considering jacking my job in because I'm absolutely at the end of my tether with it.

Rant over, but my nerves are absolutely shredded with the racket.

You need to move somewhere peaceful.

I think there is increased unhappiness about building noises because more people are working from home.

People are allowed to have extensions and alterations.

People complain about new houses being built. People complain about extension, loft conversions, garden rooms, landscaping and anything to do with maintaining and improving properties.

Most local authorities are charged with building a prescribed number of houses of all types in their district. Plenty don’t like it, but then people want houses and those houses need to be for for purpose. If you don’t want to move, but you need more space, the only alternative is to extend, which you do when you can afford it.

Could you build a garden room of your own OP and sound proof it. I understand you can’t discuss sensitive topics in an open plan office, but you could go into the office when there aren’t sensitive issues. Or book meeting rooms regularly and schedule your clients then.

YANBU. I have it here, alongside hours of leaf blowing every week. There's nothing to blow, they're contracted gardeners who wander around with them aimlessly for hours at a time, causing unnecessary noise and air pollution. I've just had to shut the door because I can hear a leaf blower, some sort of noisy power tool, hammering, two separate radios and people shouting in the car park.

It's mostly ok in winter but in summer with the windows open it drives me crazy and makes me feel so on edge. I get that this is just life to an extent but it's a genuine struggle for me, probably exacerbated by a combination of PTSD and ADHD.

I'm not in a position to move right now, but my mid-term plan is to move somewhere fairly rural. I know that even then there's no guarantee it won't be the same again though.

I really sympathise. I find it very difficult to live in such a noisy world.

Apart from so many more people working from home what has changed to make all these extensions necessary.

When I was young families just lived in normal sized houses, often with three children. Now when people are having smaller families everybody seems to need to massively extend their houses.

Yes I agree. People don't ever seem happy with what they have nowadays.

I have the joy of a classic car enthusiast next door. Fumes, engine revving, constant moving them around the drive, angle grinding and car chat right next to the fence. I just wear earbuds for most of the day.

Have you tried a noise cancelling headset?

DH and use these because we sometimes have a lot of noise around us. They're very effective to the extent that the noise is almost silent for us and our colleagues at the other end don't even hear our very loud dog barking at the postie. Without the headsets we'd have to keep the dog in a different room.

DH spends a lot of time on the phone so he alternates between different 2 styles of headsets to avoid them becoming uncomfortable on his ears.

I have thought the exact same thing, people just like to keep themselves busy it seems. Even rurally there is someone constantly doing something. Dont remember it being like this years ago. Don’t think you can escape it though unfortunately. Unless you live somewhere completely remote with no neighbours.

I don't blame you, would drive me mad too

Agree with others that it’s working from home and wages lower than cost of living in an area accessible to workplaces that causes a) the need for space and b) the hearing of the noises made by the need for space.

Work from the office and take it up with your employer for safeguarding your clients right to privacy.

It is what it is. Very often these days it's easier and cheaper to extend your current home, than buy something bigger.

YANBU. Same on my road, when one house finishes up another seems to start. It’s so jarring and really gets me down, I can very rarely have my downstairs porch door open without hearing drills and banging and whirring. No advice but lots of sympathy as I find it really upsetting!

I feel your pain OP, it’s the relentlessness of it all. Can you use headphones and a mic in the office? Other than that I have no solutions but I’m so tired of noise too.

I can't remember the last time there was no work going on somewhere in our road. At the moment there must be at least half a dozen houses with either scaffolding or a skip or a van parked outside making it clear that there is work going on inside.

I sympathise. I live in a road of terraced housing and it seems as soon as one extension or loft conversion stops another one starts. Some builders are more respectful than others and words were had with at least one group over unconventional working hours. And it’s not just the noise but the mess and the anti-social parking of vans and lorries during the works. Sadly there’s not much to do but I second the suggestion of noise cancelling headphones - they’re the only thing that saved my sanity!