AIBU to feel overwhelmed by neighbours' building work all summer?

[marshallzumarubble]

We live in a semi-detached bungalow and the adjoining bungalow is having a huge extension, they are literally stripping everything back and redoing the entire inside. No problem. There is currently no-one living in the property and they have a company overseeing the work. They started this work a few weeks ago and the noise is insane. They start at 8am every morning with drilling, banging, including on the shared wall which happens to be the wall of both my kids' bedrooms. This wasn't a problem when we all up for school etc... but now it is the holidays and they are being woken every morning, Monday - Saturday.

On top of this, they have scaffolding up around the back of the house and are often on the roof, shouting, swearing, playing music loudly. It feels like our garden isn't our own. When they are on the roof they are literally overlooking us. They are friendly and sometimes say hello but it just feels a bit awkward and intrusive when you are trying to enjoy a coffee in the sunshine. We have had brick dust over the clean washing on the line. Straw blowing all over the garden from some sort of insulation that are removing from the roof.

Today, DD (age 11) was in the garden, practicing cartwheels and gymnastics, and one of them shouted 'Keep going love, you'll get there'. It was an entirely innocent comment and meant to be encouraging but it has made her feel embarrassed and upset as she now thinks they were watching her practice, especially as she was in a leotard.

I don't think I am being unreasonable but realistically, is there anything I can do?

I don't want to be that neighbour and, I get it, building work is noisy and that is unavoidable, it needs to be done.

Is it just a suck it up situation and accept that this summer isn't going to be one we get to enjoy in our garden?

I'm thinking a barrel organ? But yes. Music is ok, but not at such a volume you have to shout to be heard. Building work is noisy enough, it doesn't need exacerbating.

You do not NEED music.

You can ask them to turn off their radio, but not much more you can say. It's grim, you have my sympathies.

Any CF who impact everybody else but safely lives away while being such a nuisance will be the neighbour from hell. Sadly it's often developers who don't care, they are just flipping the house and will sell as soon as it's finished.

Your ONLY option is to move out if you can, otherwise it's just hell.

You know the new neighbours will be shit neighbours anyway, and will be noisy and have no respect for anyone else. At least you know you don't have to be quiet and considerate yourself, but that's sad to have to put up with people like that.

Apart from what others have said about speaking to them about swearing, music etc I do like what a PP suggested about getting your kids to set up a lemonade stall or similar. Making lemonade and baking will give them something to do and they can make some serious pocket money by selling to the builders

It sucks but there isn't a lot you can do. I don't think what the builder said to your daughter is unpleasant, it's obviously just not nice feeling like your garden isn't private. I think it's OK to ask for them to potentially start later - especially on a Saturday and maybe you could ask them to not play music (sometimes some light radio is better than hearing all the chat though!). Council noise restrictions might mean they have to finish early on Saturday and defo shouldn't be working Sunday or BH (doubt they are though).
"Under the Control of Pollution Act 1974, standard local authority guidelines for trade/construction noise are:Monday to Friday: 8:00 AM to 6:00 PMSaturdays: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM (Work continuing until 5:00 PM is a violation)Sundays & Bank Holidays: Strictly no noisy work"
Are you going away at all? If you can afford it I'd look at just a cheap air bnb somewhere peaceful and rural to get a break!

are you serious?

If you are too bored in your job, do something else.

They are doing something wrong if they're shouting and swearing. It's not reasonable for them to work on Saturday, either. Builders hardly ever do that.

Can you have a word with whoever is overseeing this work? Try to negotiate the noisy hours at least, like no drilling until 9am.

I would pop round and be friendly ask them about timelines, noisiest work etc and ask them if they wouldn’t mind turning the radio down a little bit. We had builders and I had to go and ask them to turn their music down, they were absolutely fine, bribed them with bacon sandwiches and brownies!

You’re not unreasonable to find it disruptive and annoying. And I’d maybe speak to them about any loud music early in the day etc.

But I think this is generally just one of those things that no one likes, but you just have to put up with sometimes.

Are you being serious?

Of course she can’t send the kids round to a building site to be taught by the builders.

Agree with this

Yes, building work is noisy and messy, but builders make things worse by the loud music, swearing, shouting etc that's completely unnecessary.

I totally read that wrong at first and thought a lemonade stand was some sort of gymnastic move. Clearly I need more caffeine.

Of course it's not needed. Loads of builders etc manage perfectly fine without loud music. Anyway, if a person "needs" music for some strange reason, they can wear earphones to listen to it without blighting everyone around them!

WTF 😂
Builders are there to make their living not serve as unpaid summer camp instructors.

Email your neighbours and say you want them paying for a monthly coworking space for you for as long as this goes on, plus activity camp for kids for august

YANBU, this is something I dread!

@Nofeckingway
What do you want them to do ? Halt work for the summer so you can lie in your garden ? Unrealistic. But you can ask to lower music . Sorry to say this but your daughter needs to realise the difference between a well intended remark and something she can be worried about .
How are people so delicate this days ?

I cant quote this for some reason… and know it’s popular on here to to be a bit incredulous about how others navigate life’s inescapable annoyances much less capably than us as individuals, but can you truly not afford a bit of grace to the nearly adolescent girl who doesnt usually have grown men suspended on scaffolding with a birds eye view into the garden she’s known for privacy all her life? madonna mia.

A house across the road had a loft conversion and side extension done last summer.

The banging, drilling etc is part and parcel of building works, so I could live with that, and the shouting and swearing didn't bother me (I'm a pottymouth, so it would have been very hypocritical of me to find that unacceptable), but the constant bloody shite music blaring across the street damn near drove me mad. It was so loud, I couldn't hear my own radio or tv.

After a few days, I asked them to if they'd mind it turning it down and, fair play to them, they did.

I live in an apartment and there are three new builds of apartment blocks surrounding us. One has been rock breaking for 18 months…it starts at 6am and is a constant ‘dung dung dung dung’ through the day until tools down at 6pm. Sometimes the cups and glasses in our cupboards vibrate from the drilling. The only day they don’t work is Sunday and they usually do a half day on Saturday but can work longer. We can hear music coming from one of the sites, as well as really bad singing…complaints have been made but it hasn’t stopped. The streets around us are constantly being blocked off due to large trucks and we often have to wait up to 10 minutes to get through because some large machinery is blocking the way. What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. I’m kind of used to the background noise now, and if I hear anything that sounds similar to rock breaking it makes me feel like I’m at home.
Hope your neighbours renovations don’t take as long as our neighbours new builds.

Don’t be ridiculous. There’s hard hats if it’s dangerous and you ask and agree safely up front. Most builders love it when kids take an interest .

If they're doing a good job, make friends with them. You never know when you'll need a good, reliable builder. So get the lemon drizzle cake out!

Yes but in the real world people communicate and groups of people co exist like this

Wow, with neighbours like you . . .

No, it's neighbours like theirs - the ones who didn't get a party wall agreement sorted in advance!