If your neighbours did a big house renovation...

[emeraldcity2000]

What little things did they do that made it easier on you?
We've just started and the dust and noise is making everyone a bit grouchy...
we've tried he be as considerate as possible in that we've delayed the work significantly so as not to do it when people we're working at home / homeschooling (not easy as it's a house in need of a lot of work and we have 2 small people ourselves plus it will cost us a lot more now). We've been through all the proper processes re party wall and shared all designs etc before submitting for planning to make sure no one was adversely impacted... and we specifically briefed the architect to make sure noones light was impacted by the side return design...
It was always going to be a large project for whoever took it on... but I still feel bad for the disturbance (today is drilling out concrete floors) .. is there anything your neighbours did so you didn't hate them forever?! We plan to live here long term and would love to get on!

How practical would it be to provide your neighbours with a weekly project list? So they know what’s going to be a really messy, noisy day and which won’t be so bad.

Some people are so entitled but you’ve been really reasonable up to now, I don’t think anything else is necessary. People are allowed to do work on their houses. Many of our neighbours have, we just live with the noise for a while. It’s not forever and it’s their home.

Good luck with your Reno!

I've renovated house for resale. I've always given the neighbours a big bunch of flowers at the start to apologise in advance for any disturbance. But work is noisy, and it seems you have been as considerate as possible.
I think it would be more annoying if you did work on the weekends, especially on summer days when people want to be enjoying their gardens.
Warning them a couple days in advance if something particularly noisy would be good too.

My neighbours are builders so hoping to get around this when we renovate by offering them the work... Though that could be risky if there are issues I suppose.

The neighbours on our other side did a massive reno right at the start of lockdown, it was really shit but it's just one of those things. They did bring us chocolates and wine though, which was appreciated.

Not having the builders radios on really loud from morning -night. Or eff and jeff in the garden all day long. Agree on saturdays nd bank hols as well.

if you know something you are going to be doing will be really loud, let the neighbours know how long it will last.

In reality noone does any of these things. We are going to move because of our neighbours renovations.

You could offer to pay for a cleaner and/or window cleaner as there's likely to be a lot of additional dust. And generally be considerate to noise - e.g. drilling /builders' radios outside of agreed hours.

We live in an area of SW London that is almost notorious for its perpetual renovations and additions.

The best thing seems to be to dissociate yourself from your building work. A young couple usually with a cute baby strapped to the man’s chest comes to your door with flowers and champagne and the name and number of their project manager and builder. That way any problems that arise are blamed on the professionals rather than the nice new neighbours.

In the past we have received cases of wine and memorably a pair of noise cancellation headphones from savvy neighbours. Our area seems to be quite tolerant as everyone accepts you’ll be in the same boat one day. We have heard horror stories from friends in gentrifying areas where there’s a lot of hostility probably resulting from short-term annoyance and long-term jealousy and there they have just had to avoid each other afterwards. A colleague of mine even sold up before moving in because she couldn’t face her new neighbours after dealing with the cowboy builders.

My area of London has recently had a lot of this, I don’t expect anything except don’t do stuff on the weekends.

I was as reasonable as possible and one of my neighbours still decided to file a noise complaint. The council wasn’t impressed he went down that route rather than speak to us as there wasn’t actually anything he can do - as a pp said it’s not illegal to work on your house. So he just said he has to call us but he won’t be taking further complaints about our house for six months unless things change materially.

In your position, as you already have been so reasonable, that is where I would direct other complaints.

Not having the builders radios on really loud from morning -night. Or eff and jeff in the garden all day long. Agree on saturdays and bank hols as well

This. We've been on both ends of this - have done our own extension and now next door but one are having a big renovation. Their builders, complete with really loud radio, start at 7am. Its woken us up every week day for about 2 months. We're just putting up with it because I know our builders made noise (albeit not that early and it was well before lockdown) but its frustrating. So is the language on occasion.

I also think you need to tell the builders to be considerate in terms of parking, and if they're having materials delivered, then need to tell delivery drivers too (i.e. don't block the road or pavement). Also, some builders seem to think its a free for all - taking out joint fence panels or going onto neighbours land as its easier access - just get all that straight before you start.

If you get on with your neighbours, have a conversation with them. I know its really difficult to accommodate particular schedules or limit noise at particular times, but if you can discuss it with them, if they have any times of the day when they might be on important calls / baby might be napping etc etc, you might be able to at least appear to be taking that into consideration.

And then remember what you've put them through when they're making noise. Our neighbour has had a couple of really late parties (think 4am with music blaring). Don't complain, least we can put up with when they've put up with months of building works.

And wine / beer / flowers / chocolates always help!

Ours went very hostile and stopped talking to us when we ( politely, honestly) asked if they could give us a rough timescale for the works.
I wish they were as thoughtful as you, OP.

@HouseyHouse21

You could offer to pay for a cleaner and/or window cleaner as there's likely to be a lot of additional dust. And generally be considerate to noise - e.g. drilling /builders' radios outside of agreed hours.

Would YOU pay for a cleaner / window cleaner for your neighbours during building work? Honestly some of this advice is batshit

Our neighbours have been very patient. One is getting work done himself, our next door neighbour is being amazing. We will be taking wine round.

The neighbour at the back has been trying to whip everyone up into a frenzy to oppose it as not meeting planning (it is), too dusty, (it is), noisy at wrong times (they are working normal hours nothing early or late or weekends).... everyone else is ignoring him.

Our builder is liaising with him very patiently - he's never come to us face to face.

Thanks for all of your replies! We'll definitely get some wine and chocolates ordered and have asked the builders if they can give us a weekly schedule to keep the neighbours informed...

One member mentioned builders removing fencing panels and using neighbours land for access. I would warn them NOT to do this as the neighbours would be within their rights to present you with a bill for use of their land if they wanted to be awkward.

Our neighbours are planning a big extension- 2 storey side and tear and the loft. It would have been nice to have a heads up before they submitted for planning. And it would be nice to have an idea of honest timeframes of when they are starting/ noisy work. We both work from home and have 1 year old twins at home with a nanny. We are seriously considering trying to sell our house because we think the noise will be unbearable and go on for 6m +.

So....updates on timeframes and heads up on noisy work happening for prolonged periods. Agree with the comments above re asking builders to be considerate re parking and not taking down fences! Maybe some flowers/ chocolates?! I took our neighbours chocolates when we did a few nights of sleep training...

Our neighbours were selfish and thoughtless - skip on their drive (which we have right of way over to access our drive and I had mm space between skip and wall to negotiate every time I got home for 3 months and windows were covered in dust. Discovered the builder was using our drive for the cement mixer so cement splattered up windows and wall. I would have appreciated them offering a window cleaner at the end but no, nothing. My reverse parking skills are now superb though

When my neighbours built an extension, the builders were actually very considerate which I appreciated. It was summer so the boss would occasionally stick his head over the fence to say they were about to do something noisy or dusty, so did I want to take the kids inside or shut windows etc. We also had a shared drive and they were very good about not blocking us in, tidying up etc. It's those small things that help

I should add, if they’d asked to use our drive while we were out I actually would have said yes.

I would just speak to them and apologise for the inconvenience.
My next door neighbour just had a new roof. There was bricks and loads of dust falling onto my decking daily. No word from her or apology. They moved onto the front and covered my car (which had just been valeted that day) in muck and dust. I asked them to let me know when they were working on my side after that so I could move my car off the drive. I was worried they’d damage it.

I’m furious that she never said a word to us about any of it. It was so rude to have us cleaning up after her builders everyday and not even offer an apology. I wouldn’t have minded the noise if she had her builders clean the mess they made and at least given me a heads up.

I’m moving in a couple of weeks and been fantasising about spraying weed killer all over her lovely lawn

I’ll agree with keeping the radio off. It’s just as annoying that building noise itself.

I've done a 4 months renovation and all my neighbours thought that it's a good thing overall because it made the street look better / more looked after in the end. Of course it was noisy and disruptive. Builders worked some weekends (only a few) but apologised in advance to neighbours every time it had to be done, and it was fine. I talked to neighbours on both sides before the renovation and swapped numbers so that they'd be able to raise any issues as and when required. I brought cake too. Sharing the plan of works and timescales is probably counterproductive because no one knows it to the degree of detail that it'd be useful to neighbours, and giving wrong information is kind of worse than not giving any at all.

The main concerns are usually mess on neighbours land and problems with parking, and neighbours also will care that the job is done to a reasonable standard and won't affect house prices negatively if you build something really strange (but you don't, so no issue there).

We also had an issue with burglars alarm going off so I had to apologise profusely but it was only one mega annoying evening until it got sorted. I was glad I had phone numbers because I could update neighbours straight away to tell them that I'm actively sorting it as fast as is humanly possible.

My neighbours relayed the roof and I had leaks in the loft when they left it unfinished in the middle of their 2 weeks job, for what proved to be an incredibly rainy weekend, then I also had my door covered completely in mud due to there being no guttering for some time. I also have concerns about bond guttering between us after that work. So that's really annoying but I am annoyed with the builders not the neighbours.

Builder's noise is just life, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I agree that giving a schedule of works if probably counterproductive. But we gave our neighbours the builder's estimated end date and have a chat with them now and then about the noisy stuff.

We are lucky that the foreman is an old hand at dealing with domestic builds and neighbours etc and has a really good way with him. It was one of the reason we chose the builders - they were nice.

There is also a lot of building going on round us so some competition for parking of big vans, concrete wagons etc - but they all seem to be co-existing fairly happily.

In theory you don't have to do anything but a hostile relationship with neighbours can be draining and counter-productive. You might need some leeway from then some time and they're more likely to be unreasonable/spiteful if you fall out over the building noise.

Some good suggestions above - giving them the builders number can make the neighbours feel they have some say, some control. Even if in reality it has little impact.
It also flushes out if the builders are lying to you about what they're doing (eg neighbours builders were sleeping overnight in the house (owners had moved out) without neighbours consent, staying up late drinking etc).

Radio noise/foul language - perfectly reasonable to ask builders to keep it down. We don't all work all day with loud music on and swearing at each other. (And I've heard some revolting, derogatory remarks about women from builders I wouldn't want my daughter to hear...)

Keeping weekend works to quiet indoor work (eg plastering when it comes to that).
Window cleaning - £30 is well spent if it buys some goodwill.

Personally I don't buy into the flowers/wine camp - how do flowers help help someone work from home and not be subjected to deafening music/foul language or not be woken at 7am on a Saturday?

Our neighbours have just started an extension. They kept us up to date with the planning process and told us when it was going to start and likely probably very unrealistic timescale. They are also telling us week by week what's happening next.

The only thing we have stipulated is no radios and no swearing by the builders, but as the householders are an elderly couple I think that would have also been their requirements. (However today I'm in my garden listening to a builder who is obviously wearing headphones bellowing out Layla. At least he can hold a tune )

We've made sure to say hello to the builders when we see them so we'll feel less awkward if we have to bring up any problems in future. And they've been really good about moving delivery/skip lorries if necessary to allow us to get out of our drive.

All in all so far so good, but ask me again in November