Building work - how to NOT annoy the neighbours?

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Starting extension soon and don't want to pee off the neighbours...
Good thing is that we have a decent size drive so Skip and several builder's vans can use it but DH and I will have to park on the road, in front of other people's houses.

The only neighbour will could be really bothered by the actual building work actually lives in a different road but his garden runs alongside mine, with our houses at opposite ends.
He is a very keen gardener so is often outside.
Would I be unreasonable to ask builders not to have radio on if they see neighbour in his garden?

I thought about -
Putting a note thru door of all neighbours in our road, apologising for parking and adding my phone number . Also ask if anyone goes away, can I use their drive for my car? (too cheeky?)
Note for adjoining neighbour re start date and apologising in advance for any disruption. Include elevation plans of extension (Permitted development so he won't have been notified by council) plus maybe a bottle of wine?

Or should I just think Stuff It?

Ensure that the builders do not block anyone's drive ever. Even if it's 'only 5 minutes love whilst the delivery happens' - because it's never only 5 minutes

Try and ensure that the builders stick to reasonable hours - 8-5, Saturday mornings if they have to.

Make sure the builders clear up any rubbish at the end of each day, and don't let bits of plastic sheeting etc blow all over the neighbours' gardens.

I think asking to use peoples' drives is a bit much unless you know them really well. And yes - as it is approaching Summer when people will have windows open and be in their gardens, watch the use of radios very carefully.

Don't send a note asking to use their drives that's beyond cheeky and makes it look like it's the only reason for the note. If you know them well enough and know they are going away then ask personally.

Yy to not letting anyone block neighbours drives/cars. Our next door neighbour had an extension built last year and it was horrendous. Vans constantly parked over my drive, their portaloo practically outside my front window, their scaffolding blocked my tv signal for over 4 weeks and the noise and mess was fucking horrendous.

Our neighbours asked for a one-off window cleaning doing at the end, in addition to expecting any rubble ending up in their garden being cleaned on that day, no blocked driveway, no scaffolding on their land, no radio on the scaffolding/roof. She'd lived through a long extension in a previous house so knew what to expect - and when the builders did try to take the piss she sorted it - she's somewhat scary

Bits and pieces will end up in neighbouring gardens/driveways - make sure the builders clear up all
of this and don’t just do their immediate area.

A note is a good idea but asking to use others’ drives tips it into CF territory.

Oh . Right.
No CF drive use requests!

Layout of road means that rubbish is very unlikely to end up in other people's gardens but will be asking builders to clean up and check at end of each day.

Ground rules I thought I would lay out to builder-
No drive blocking. EVER.
Avoid driving over NDN grass - delivery men do this a lot when reversing. (IF his grass ends up getting damaged , I will offer to repair it when build is done)
Radio at reasonable level, and OFF when adjoining neighbour in garden

Definitely a no to asking to use their drive, that's a bit of a p*ss take!! A big yes to making sure the contractors don't park over their drive.
I would just pop round to each of the neighbours and explain what you're doing and and expected timeframe and leave your mobile number if there are any problems or concerns.
We also ensured our builders didn't start before 8am - they're often keen to on lighter mornings as they can knock off earlier!
I don't think you can ask the builders to not have a radio, but ask that the noise is kept to a reasonable level due to neighbours using their gardens. The radio is the least of your worries once the digging, drilling and sawing starts!

In terms of your neighbours grass, if it gets damaged it should be your builders responsibility to 'make good', not yours, make sure you agree this with them in advance.
Our builders had to remove some fencing on our neighbours boundary and in the process it was damaged as it was quite old - all panels were replaced by them and installed properly.

I'm amazed that asking to use their drive *when they are away" is such a pisstake! Surely it means one less car on the road and their house looks occupied in their absence.
But I definitely won't ask now, thanks for the heads up

Do you know if any of your neighbours work from home? I previously had my life made a living hell when working from home because of noisy neighbourhood building works. It went on for months, and affected my ability to earn a living.

If not, ensure there's no dust drifting into gardens (I would take a VERY dim view of someone covering my strawberry or lettuce crops in building dust), that they're given accurate start and end dates, with updates if need be, no noise before 8am / after 6pm / on weekends and bank holidays. No radios - headphones have been invented for a good reason.

No driveway blocking. No asking to park on their driveways. Years ago we allowed neighbours' builders to have access across our driveway (weird layout, end of terrace) and parked on the road to accommodate this. The car was stolen and found burnt out on an industrial estate a week later. The insurance payout barely made a dent in the cost of replacing it as it was an older car that ran well but had little value on paper. The neighbours sent a small pot plant by way of apology. We weren't impressed.

Pretty sure no-one within 4 houses works from home, not sure about further down the road.
Good point about garden produce, I think one neighbour grows veges but what do i suggest? Protective fleece over vulnerable plants?

We had a major extension built 2 years ago, a year after my neighbours had theirs done. Their builders blocked my drive almost every day, drove me nuts. I gave my builders instructions not to block anyone's drives. I also put a note through the door of everyone nearby explaining what was happening, apologising for any disruption and asking them to contact me in the event of any problems. I think lots of people have building work done these days and it's just one of those things. I don;t think it's reasonable to ask the builders not to have the radio on though to be honest.

Thanks for all your input.
The houses are less than 25 years old and a decent size, so no-one has yet done any major work beyond the occasional bathroom upgrade and a couple of conservatories.
I went to see builder's current job on a road of terraced houses and limited parking and I'm sure neighbours will be glad to see the back of a skip and at least 2 vans a day taking up precious space!

I'm a novice gardener but I don't think you can put agricultural fleece over plants in the summer - they'd overheat and die, plus they'd get less sunlight and less rainwater, meaning your neighbour would have to spend extra time (and money, if metered) watering them.

The solution is to keep your dust on your land; it's not up to your neighbour to solve that problem.

I don’t agree about not being able to say NO radio.
It’s the thing that drove me most crackers with both of our neighbour s extensions.
Haven’t they heard of headphones !
I felt the building noise was unavoidable but the radio was a deliberate annoyance iyswim

How do you avoid dust drift?

I don’t think you can be expected to keep all the dust on your land beyond the usual measures 😂

I don't think you can expect your neighbours to be happy that their lovingly tended crops will be covered by building dust - why should they? 🤷‍♀️

At weekends not starting until 9am and finishing by 6pm.
Not blocking driveways. If they are professionals they will not leave/make too much mess to annoy your neighbours.

If its permitted dev and they haven't seen any plans I would let your adjoining neighbour know plans/timescales NOW so its not a horrible surprise one day.

Other nearby properties, let them know week it starts what is happening/planned timescales/your contact mobile if they have any problems with builders/parking/noise.

No radios blaring.
No random burning of rubbish all day.
No blocking drives.
No blocking footpaths.
No working on Sundays.

Got two major rebuilds going on for past two months in my street at the moment

Yy to most of these suggestions. Radio can be turned down but I imagine headphones are actually dangerous for builders.
The rubbish is key - make the builders sign that they'll make good. Highlight that in the note to you neighbours and ask them to contact you. There is ALWAYS rubbish spread around and there's nothing more annoying than the builders only tidying up their little bit and not the rest.

My main one is noise. People who allow their builders to start really early or finish really late or work all weekend are the worst. Everyone needs some downtime rom the craziness and it's incredibly frustrating trying to put children to bed/watch a little TV or whatever with someone drilling away....

RE Permitted development- we spoke to adjoining neighbour before we submitted plans and outlined what we wanted to do, and they were ok with it (as long as it wasn't 2 storey- it's not) so it won't be a big surprise, but I have printed off elevation plans to give to them (along with the wine).
We will be living here during the build so things that could annoy my neighbours will also annoy me so I will be keeping a close eye on builders .
I offered use of our skip to neighbours when we had bathroom done which a couple of them used.
I won't be asking to use empty drives !

I agree with what everyone has said.
Good idea about speaking to all neighbors. We had a neighbor have an extension built last year during the heatwave.
It was a nightmare, parking over our driveway or so close that we couldn’t get in or out and the dust were the worst things.
God know what crap we were being forced to breath in, judging by the balls of sand/cement coating my car and windows something not good.

It would have been good if he had the decency to speak to neighbors to warn them and apologise about all the disruption he was going to cause in our small cul de sac but none of us even knew it was going to happen until the day.

Weekend work rules will be on your council's website so it's easy to find out what your builders are allowed (and if you piss if your neighbours they will look it up - we did....).

Giving everyone a heads up is the least I'd do.

If you're extending under permitted development and if you have an adjoining neighbour then my understanding is you need to do a formal neighbour consultation and get it in writing. You can find templates on the gov website. Ours objected and we had to get a party wall agreement drawn up and it could've delayed the start date, luckily it didn't.