Dust from neighbours' construction

[NutellaCrumpet1]

Next door are having huge renovations and an extention. The dust today from it was mental... the whole garden was covered in a cloud of dust for ages, it was as thick as smoke. As a result, all my windows and patio and the children's toys that were out are covered in very thick dust. We had no warning about the dust and my washing was out, but I guess that isn't the end of the world. We approached our neighbours to ask what the clean up plan was and they said it isn't their responsibility to clean up our garden and dust and mess is to be expected living next door to a building site. Is this correct? I would have thought it would have been polite to clean up the mess they have made.

Check out the local council regulations regarding noise and nuisance and make sure they keep to the rules or report them.
One of our neighbours started building work one Easter Sunday at 8 am. My PA shutting the bedroom window had them down tools..

Just asked my builder husband and he says report to the council as unsafe practice. It sounds like they were using a grinder to cut a wall, brickwork. These have a water attachment that keeps the dust down. They have failed to notify you of the risk of excessive dust and failed to minimze the damage. I'd go round again tell them you are reporting their builders for unsafe practice and want work stopped until there is a resolution.

These builders were here all bank holiday weekend. They don't seem to care. My council said keep a log and they might investigate but they said they won't act on one-off rule breaks like the bank holiday. I just want the kids to be able to play out not in next doors concrete dust.

Yes @Tontostitis they were using a grinder to cut concrete blocks to size.

They probably won't stop work but it will hopefully make them clean up and behave better. Our building Co has done many extensions and never caused damage like this.

The builders should be using water to stop dust rising into the air - it is a health hazard for all involved. Concrete/ similar particulate is a pollutant. You should report to environmental health.

Thanks for the advice. I have emailed environmental health and my husband is going to call the

... whoops pressed too soon... the owner. He doesn't live at the property so doesn't really like to get involved with any of it.

oh, I must admit I am surprised to hear you have a contact number.

as the owner, he'll have to buck up.

Our neighbours did this to us. No warning & no clean up plan. We saw it as an extension of their hostile and vindictive personalities. We didn’t complain at the time due to previous discussions about other stuff not going well.

@NutellaCrumpet1 I hope you manage to sort it amicably!

Yes, he has our number as he asked for it back when he came to pressure us to sign the party wall thingy without having a surveyor and to sign to say they could start work without the usual 4 week notice. He likes to text ocasscionally asking us to do favours for him with the builders (i.e. ask them to secure the site before the weekend, take photos of the new party wall etc) as he is never here. He said on the phone it isn't responsibility and he is going to have to take a step back from the project and us as the stress is affecting his blood pressure and he is going to block us now and we need to talk to the builders going forward. I despair.

Please tell me you didn't do these favours.

of course it's his responsibility. Do you have an address for him? I'd write telling him you will look at legal action. What a weirdo. Is he 12?!

No, I actually got really annoyed at this stage and said I am not his project manager! I wfh so I think he thinks we are just sat around all day doing nothing. I sadly don't have his address... he isn't 12, but a 50 year old man. I am writing an email now but very convenient for him to take a step back from his own building project... sadly we don't have that luxury. He will be moving in when it is done so I am worried it is going to he super awkward now.

He ought to be worrying about his relationship with you if he intends to live there. Workmen not using water to keep concrete dust down when cutting concrete when it's so bad it's getting into your property are being irresponsible and anti-social. If they aren't wearing masks, they're being stupid as well. We've had workmen doiing jobs that involved cutting- they all used water to keep down the dust and keep the discs cool.

They’re being very rude.
Our neighbours did some very minor building work recently and the man knocked on our door to apologise for any dust (we hadn’t noticed any) and to offer to pay for a window cleaning service if it had made our windows dusty

Thanks for the advice. The builders today have attached a hose to the grinder and there is no noticeable dust at all! Quite why this wasn't done yesterday I have no idea. It is a shame I had to contact environment health before they would do this.

If it's any consolation to you, any builders who knew what they're doing would have done this yesterday. I'm sure they won't know what they are doing in other areas of the project to, and hopefully they'll leave him with a sub-par job. You'll be smiling when he has to pay to redo bits of the work in a few years time.

Spend 5 mins hosing it down. It’s just a bit of dust.

If it's so quick and simple, why don't the builders do it as they're the ones who caused it.

Why should I clean it up? I have enough of my own stuff to deal with without cleaning up unnecessary mess from incompetent builders! Thanks for the helpful advice though. The owner's wife actually emailed to say she will arrange some cleaning to be done ASAP so seems we have resolved the issues for now.

If you're going to spam, you could at least write a post which makes sense...