Neighbours complained about Reno noise

[outlanderish]

Another post! We’re having carpentry and a bathroom reno done, so the tradies are using our shared driveway to work from. There’s some noise and dust, but they’re working within legal hours (8am–6pm, Mon–Fri). We’ve offered to pay for our immediate neighbours’ cars to be cleaned because of the dust.

Just now, a neighbour from 2 doors down on the opposite side of the road came to complain about the noise. He’s a shift worker and said they’re having to sleep at his mum’s because it’s too loud during the day.

I was polite, apologised, explained it’s out of my control, and told him he’s welcome to come chat anytime if he has questions.

I work from home, so I do hear the noise, and I get that it’s annoying but our direct neighbours, who are much closer, haven’t complained at all.

AIBU to think this is just part and parcel of living in a neighbourhood, and we’re doing all we reasonably can?

Unfortunately it’s the price the neighbour pays for working shifts. Renovations are a fact of life. Do they expect you to stop renovation until he’s working day shift? What would the do if there were road works?

best suggestion is that they use ear plugs!

It’s frustrating for neighbours, but it’s also finite and I’m afraid they just need to suck it up. Perhaps reassure them about timelines if you know when they noisy works will be done.

We let them know it will all be done in about two weeks. It's gone on for longer than expected (6 weeks on and off) so I understand it but they've decided to work night shifts, knowing that in the day life continues as normal.

That's tough. I'm sure he's had renovations or maybe will do in the future, that's just the price you pay for living near people. His work pattern is nothing to do with you.

Smile nicely and reassure that it will be over in a few weeks.

We've got three neighbours having massive extensions at the moment and it's very noisy and dusty but I wouldn't dream of complaining about it ... what on earth would that achieve. We did the same extension a decade ago for our growing family, these young families are doing the same.

How much noise can there really be- wh had a bathroom reno about a year ago and I managed to work at home just fine when they were doing all the work and neighbours didn't hear much. Unless you have excessively loud tradies- which would be disrespectful. I just explained to ours we were working at home but they still had their little music player on etc and all was ok

That’s life when you work shifts and sleep during the day 🤷‍♀️ of course it’s a man who complained expecting you to what 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ stop all renovations just so diddums can get some sleep? Has he not heard of headphones or earplugs etc? Don’t apologise just point out that it’s during the day and that’s normal noise. If he chooses to work nights then that’s his problem

You just have to sympathise and say it will be over soon. Some noises are incredibly annoying. Circular saws and angle grinders being prime culprits. Goes right through me!

I think some form of gift is probably in order - voucher or wine. Just a token to acknowledge that your choices are having an impact on him. It'll make you feel better too, surely. Noise is a fact of living in a neighbourhood, but so living around people who work at night. But only one of those things is actually irritating for others.

I imagine the fact it’s taken/taking eight weeks is starting to drag for everyone. I can imagine he’s gone to sleep at his mums, sees they’ve all finished and weren’t there that day, so the next day attempts to stay at home and like dastardly gnats they’ve magically appeared again!

Also, if they’re working on your driveway, and you have great double glazing but your neighbours is older, they could be getting more noise than you.

I’d recommend better communication, let them know how much longer it’s going to be causing a disruption for, any days when you already know they’re not working, etc.

That’s ridiculous! I work shifts and I don’t expect the world to stop because I’m asleep at 11am on a Wednesday.

Madness!

What work are they doing on the shared drive? Could it be done in your back garden?
Are the workmen playing music or is the radio in - that drives me mad.
Our neighbour had some of the noisiest workers I've ever come across - shouting and swearing at full volume, throwing materials and equipment around etc. Luckily they were only there for a couple of days.

The thing to always remember is that at the end of all this disruption, you end up with a lovely new kitchen/bathroom/whatever so it was all worth it. (That’s if you’re resident during the works - if you’re not, as two lots of our neighbours weren’t, you don’t have any disruption at all.)

Your neighbours end up with jack shit after weeks of hellish noise and disruption.

Just something to bear in mind.

I would apologise the noise is effecting him, but I wouldn't buy him a gift. He doesn't live directly next door and surely he must realise the downside to shift working is that the world carry's on during the day.
However, I do get why he would ask how much longer the work is going on (you said yourself it has gone on longer than expected) and I imagine noise during the day is annoying after a while, even if you know it won't be forever. So whilst he chooses shift work, anyone at home during the day will find noise annoying after several weeks. Some may just not moan directly at you, but I bet all will be glad when it's done.

Why can’t they do the work in your back garden assuming you have one?

seems a bit off to me to do it outside the house where it affects more people

What does he expect here? No one within a certain radius to ever have work done? Everyone needs something done at some point, and one day it will be him, and his neighbours will have to deal with it. It’s just life.

Our garden is small and we also have a dog. It wouldn't work having work done in the garden. Plus dust would go over all our neighbours washing! That would be even more troublesome

Why can't they do the work inside your house?

As a former night shift worker, he's just going to have to suck it up and he knows it. The world doesn't stop because he's working nights. Your workers are working during legal hours.

White noise like a fan and earplugs are a night shift worker's best friends. If your workers are playing loud music, ask them to lower the volume.

It was really nice of you to offer to clean the neighbors' cars. One of mine did that after some work and my car was covered and I really appreciated it.

Yeah it’s annoying to live next to, but if it’s within working hours I think it’s fine.

TBH the renovations sound fairly straightforward and like they won’t be going on that long anyway.

Flowers, a card, a bottle of wine, pack of beer?

Our house renovation will continue until June 27th. Sorry for the inconvenience that this causes you. Your neighbours ar number 9.

We recently had renovations on a derelict property. I sympathise on both sides, because I used to do shift work and whilst the renovations happened, I was WFH.

Are they cutting/grinding tiles with an electric grinder on the front drive- hence to loud noise?

We had multiple trades and 1 day, there were 5 radios blaring from all around and inside the house. I made a blanket ban on radios after that. IF they have a radio in addition to the renovation noise- stop that.

If its just the renovation noise, all you can do is apologise and hope they finish ASAP.

That's not bad at all! I thought you were going to say it's been an ongoing project for the last year!

He needs to wind his neck in!

Our immediate neighbours complained one time during our loft conversion. She was a midwife and I completely forgot she was on nights on one particular day every week. The following morning, our builders did a very noisy job (which could have waited). Her husband came round and complained and was pretty pissed off. We obviously apologised a lot at the time - i also sent her a WhatsApp directly to apologise. Then we bought them some wine / beer and something little for their DC. It is a part of life but its also horrible when you are the one experiencing the noise and not benefiting from the work, so we really did want to try and smooth it over with them. Maybe depends on how much you care about neighbourly relations! We are in London but our street is very friendly and everyone stops for a chat / kids play out etc so it was worth it for us.

Taking their washing in 😂

I have to say I’d be very annoyed if there was constant construction noise in nearby neighbours front garden for 6 weeks…surely the stuff should be built off site and not so on and off