What to do when neighbours have building works going on...

[Anonsad]

In about three months our neighbours are going to start building an extension which will be very close (2m) from my son's bedroom. He will be roughly 15mo when this starts, what do I do for naps? I asked them to try and arrange with the builders a quiet time around lunch but they said it was up to me to organise with them so am not super confident that we will get a quiet hour each day.

What should I do for his naps? Take him out in the car everyday?

not ideal but can he nap elsewhere? your room? siblings? front room in a travel cot?

The best thing is to get your DS used to sleeping in lots of different types of environments.

We have just finished major building works whilst living in the house with a (then) 1 and 2 year old and a newborn. They slept through the noise

I would say there is little point in speaking to the builders - most take a 15 minute lunch break if that. They are not going to down tools for an hour a day to let your DS nap. Plus the builders merchants are not going to delay a delivery between 12 - 1 for example.

I think it's better to focus on just dealing with the noise - which won't be that bad through windows etc. Plus brick laying etc isn't that noisy. Once that's done, they're instead again. They won't be using Jack hammers for 10 hours a day every day

Ive been on both sides and agree with your neighbors.
When DSs'where small we had a whole house refurb and several extensions, ( kitchen, dining room, extra bedroom, cons errors) which meant constant drilling, people in and out all do long, staggered lunch brealks for the builders and crew.
I just moved DSs'to the quietest part and made sure the room was dark.

The neighbours did something similar so we had about 2.5 years of noise!

Our neighbours had an extension built, and they warned us and were really god about the whole thing. We talked to the very friendly builders on the first day and explained to them that we both work from home so we might be a bit more "demanding". When they turned up with a radio one day we politely asked them to not use it, and they agreed. We made a point of chatting to them often so that we were on friendly terms.

Just talk to the builders politely and explain it. I'm sure they'll understand.

Honestly it won't be as bad as you think. My downstairs neighbour ripped the whole flat out and started over. It took nearly 3 months and I was pulling my hair out. Dd barely noticed though! She was around the same age and got used to the noise very quickly and it didn't affect her settling to sleep at all.

I think it's a lot to ask builders not to use their radio... What if your neighbour wanted to listen to music in the garden? Would you ask them not to?

I have been in this situation and there's really very little that you can do in this situation. i would, however, suggest that your more prudent battle group should be the starting time and any Weekend building...

Thanks for the replies! I'll pop round once the builders arrive and perhaps just ask them to keep the radio off down our side of the house during nap time while he gets used to the noise.

flanjabelle - what did you during the work? I'm thinking we will do a LOT of day trips to get away from the noise...

MaryPoppins - hmm, I'm not sure if asking them not to use the radio is a lot to ask to be honest! Obviously wouldn't want to put a blanket ban on them using the radio, but perhaps to have it off during the day. I'm really friendly with my neighbours (haven't really met the new ones extending) and I know that they would be really fine if I asked them not to have the radio on in the garden over lunch.

Thinking I could ask them to text me if they are having a noisy day?

Flop - how did you cope with it? Get out of the house lots?

What you have to remember is that your neighbours also have to have a relationship with the builders.

Ours was very good and very busy. He turned down a big job for a friend of ours as their neighbours were a piece of work and it was clearly just going to be a gigantic pan in the arse. That did not do a lot fur neighbourly relations. But I can see the builder's point - building work is noisy. If you complain about the radio, what's next? Drills to be off? Then he's got 5 subcontractors in a day rate sitting about with nothing to do and he's now running late for the next job. Is your head going to be permanently popping over the fence to complain that the skip man clanked the new skip down too loudly on the pavement? The roofer dropped a tile? Someone banged the scaffolding?

I do think that asking workmen not have a radio on in the garden is ridiculous. Thinking about it, the house next to us was bought by a property developer and gutted - work started when DS was 4 weeks old. Property developer then decided to live in it. He and his wife were brilliant when we had our work done. I'm sure if we had been difficult, we'd have got that right back.

I just carried on my normal life and prayed that it would end soon. Perhaps I did spend a tad more time away from home than usual, but not massively so. You do get used to the noise and kind of block it out really.

On month 8 of a loft and side extension dd turned two last week. There have been a couple of occasions when she refused a nap otherwise she has slept through everything! Just carry on as normal and he won't think anything of it.

My office window was right next to where the extentsion was built. Personally I can deal with buidling noise much better than radio talk/music noise if I am working.