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've had this all my life. Mostly when I was living in the family home and was a teenager. No, there's nothing you can do. It's just part of life.

My neighbour had her entire front and back gardens ripped out and redone earlier this year, including getting decking fitted. She's always moaning she's skint so God knows how she afforded it.

The noise was incredible. She's such a noisy person in general, always blasting music etc so my tolerance now she was getting work done was very low. The builders were horrific. Yelling along to the radio at the tops of the voices, swearing, and every time we let the dogs into the garden the builders would whoop and scream at them, which upset my older dog. I work from home and I do not expect the world outside to stop for me, but they were absolutely ridiculous.

I looked at the name on their work van, found their social media page, and sent a complaint in. Got a message back "yeah my lads are noisy, but they're hard workers" (?)

One of them knocked round that evening, but I was on a work call so didn't know what he wanted.

Right now, a detached house down the road in our small estate is having a conservatory put in, and they've moved out while the work is being done. They've taken over every layby with skips and lorries, and the noise is terrible. I'm so glad I'm down the road, and that's bad enough. Can't have windows open and it's so hot.

If that's your view of builders, why do you consider them suitable for teaching children? 🤔

OP, you definitely need to be more assertive.
I wouldn't tolerate the cursing, load music and as for the commenting on my daughter in the privacy of our back garden?
I would be very upset, and they would absolutely know it.

A large construction company was working nearby a few years ago and their workers were throwing tea bags on the ground and cigarettes.

I emailed them footage of it, told them I was contacting the local litter warden and the local radio station.

Within an hour of it being sent in I saw a few lads collecting their litter.

Take photos of their vans and tell them you will put it up on your local FB page.

I feel your pain OP, our neighbours did this (detached housing, all proper permissions in place, reputable local building firm, etc) and it was still almost unbearable. Apart from the relentless banging and grinding is the builders blasting music, yelling to each other all the livelong day, and parking blocking the street, in/on/across my driveway (“it’s only for a minute, love”), and the fact they had every square inch of the interior tiled or panelled so the obnoxious sound continued right up to the end of the project, which is a good 3 months after we were told the “building” phase would end. But end it has, our new neighbours are more shellshocked by the experience than we are (despite living offsite throughout) and we all get along fine.
Tell them to turn their music down (I turned it down for them more than once) and not to shout to your kids in the garden though, that’s not on.

Our “nextdoor but two” neighbours are building something that is likely to become an Airbnb apartment at the end of the garden. They didn’t bother to tell anybody about the work and they also work weekends. One of the neighbours (also Airbnb -possibly owners, probably ££ guests) absolutely lost it with them this morning. Readers, it was glorious!

As others have said there isn't much you can do about this.
Maybe when they've finished the outside of the building and the roof, the indoor work should be less intrusive.
In the meantime ask then to turn down the radio and be more careful with comments especially when the children are about.

Ask the council what is allowed in terms of timing of work and start time at weekends etc. There will be guidelines on this.

It’s not. I’m describing these ones. Op needs to get them onside to tone it down.

No one said that - is it make up what poster’s said day ? You win.

My brother had new neighbours about 18 months ago. After a few months they began to extend the house and build upwards. It was a huge undertaking. A year into the building work my brother was diagnosed with a terminal illness and his last few weeks of being nursed at home were accompanied by loud building work, which made it difficult for him to rest during the day and intruded on his care. His final hours with his family, which came unexpectedly, were accompanied by the noise of drilling and sawing outside. There was nothing either party could do about the circumstances, but I am sad he didn't have peace and quiet in his final days.

And tasking them with childcare is the way to do that?

You must get a party wall agreement

It really is annoying and intrusive, same here. A new neighbour moved in and it's been months of constant noise and yes why do they need radio at full volume?! They also work at the weekend, it's their own building firm, so no break at all. Xx

You have to have neighbours agreement here through the planning Department

👏👏😅

God forbid man speaks to child encouragingly and builders have music on. Oh, and people improve their home. Woman thinks that complaining about it on MN will make it all go away, as if by magic! Try a bit of positivity for a change.

Because they're men.
End of.

the only thing is calling out to your kids. ask them to not to that. the rest suck up I'm afraid

If the music is getting on your nerves just ask them if they've got a music license. Most builders don't even know they need one.

You have my sympathy I'm in a terrace and the 2 doors down had been under renovation since dec 24 only they don't respect working hours. Sometime the banging is going on until 10.30 pm and all say Sunday. They even had it sandblasted without the sheeting. It's so annoying.

A group of Irish Travellers in ten motorhomes moved onto the car park of a local authority park four weeks ago near me.

The communal garden of our block of flats which was a quiet area to sit in. It s separated by a wooden fence from this Park car park.

The local council who shall be nameless, is letting these people stay on the car park for up to 8 weeks on the Human Rights Welfare Rights card.

Believe me we lots of loud noise and unsupervised out of control screaming kids, banging about day and night.
Plus the 24 hours of day listening to the noise of generator from their site.

Not heard of this sort thing happening of Public Authority Car Parks before . Whatever next? They may start
using School and NHS car parks?

Do you have a 3rd party wall agreement? We are about to be subjected to this hell soon. We have had one done but builders can do Monday to Friday from 8am-6 pm and Saturday 8-1 as that is what they allowed to do! In our case the snot rag next door can add in to these hours with DIY!
re dust etc they should be able to put up protective screens etc

Getting them to show a child ( at the builder’s convenience and with parent agreement and supervision while they have a lemonade break from the newly formed lunchtime lemonade stand) how electric conduits go through a wall or how a waste pipe looks or what goes into concrete mix is not childcare. It is however sparking curiosity and teaching children the incredible skills that go into creating a home.

I think some people are being obtuse now. And I’m in danger of derailing the thread so I’ll leave the thread there.

Yes, I think some people are being obtuse too!

'At the builder’s convenience'? I suspect for the majority of builders that would be never...

I can see it would be annoying. But absolutely nothing you can do about it. They could actually legally start earlier than 8.

You could have a word about using bad language but that's about it.

When our neighbour built his extension, the party wall surveyor we chose was excellent. They told us what was allowed by the local authority and then what the neighbour wanted in terms of working hours etc. We then gave our suggestions eg; we were happy for work to go on a bit later on Saturday in exchange for a later start/earlier finish on weekdays. There was one Saturday when they wanted to work all day which we agreed to but said that we wanted the following Monday with no work at all. There was some toing and froing whilst the negotiations went on, but we did come to an agreement which was better than the standard times. The surveyor also told us that the neighbour could not do extra DIY in the evening or Sundays if it was connected to the extension. We also had it on the agreement that any damage to our garden when they needed access to build or render their extension wall, would be made good at their expense.