Neighbours and noise during building work

[lilcreed]

Myself and partner bought a house 2 months ago that needs renovation. We both work full time so choose to do the quiet jobs in the evening (out of respect for our neighbours) and do the noisy jobs at the weekend as that is the only option we have.

Our neighbours are an older couple who were really friendly and supportive when we moved in, but have been a bit off with us lately. I keep catching them climbing the fence to look over into our garden and they have been really quiet.

Today we were doing noisy work and our front door was open. The neighbour marched in and said that enough was enough. Where do we stand on this?

We never work past 6pm and weekends are the only time when we can do things. We are a young couple and need to move on quite soon as my partners mum is downsizing. Thanks.

Someone beat me to it

Jabbercocky is apt.

From thier perspective most of the summer has been disturbed by your DIY.

Not sure how you get around it, but our summer is only a few shirt weeks and 8 weeks of noise is a big chunk of summer.

I'm seething at bring forced to sit indoors on my first day off in 20 days becauss my neighbour is jackhammering an old concrete base in their garden today.

Actually Jabberwocky’s post is an excellent summary of what’s wrong with so many things.

This in particular struck me “ I effectively put money in other peoples’ pockets and the price they pay for it is a bit of temporary disruption. I don’t expect any thanks but similarly I do t expect any criticism either”

What if the people aren’t going to move? And shock horror, what about people who arent fussed about the money if they do sell up?

RosaWaiting or indeed renters who suffer the disruption Jabercocky causes and if property prices really rise see their rent rise and are penalised financially as well as having a reduced quality of life rather than any theoretical tangential benefit.

For which Jabercocky generously doesn't expect thanks

What kind of noise are you actually doing? Out local council restricts some building work noise to 8-6 min-fri and 8-1 on sat. We did a lot of work to our house when we first bought it, my ex is quite good at diy etc and did a lot himself. But building work, knocking a wall down and putting steel support in was done midweek (ex took time off as he laboured to reduce cost). Kitchen and bathrooms were fitted mid week too. Then honestly I can't think of anything else that was really that noisy, or if it was it was short term, so a bit of drilling but not for hours or anything.
We also went around before any big jobs and let our neighbours know, what we were doing and approx how long it would be. Plus my ex offered to do their hedges and clean their guttering when he did ours.
Plus side we have a very good relationship with out next door neighbours, they're lovely.

We have completely been considerate.
You haven't been completely considerate of you've not been following your council noise restrictions @lilcreed.
That's the first thing you should have looked into when you started renovating a house.
Another poster posted theirs and it states that more 2 weeks of work is classed as construction not diy. You really need to check your council policy.

nothing I doubt renters exist in Jabercocky’s mind
Also clear what they think of elderly people.

I hope you told them to not ever walk into your house like that again.

Wow, there must be some truly inconsiderate people live around my way reading other people's comments on noise restrictions!!

Yesterday someone was repairing his flat roof and sawing (electric), hammering, drilling from around 9 am on a Sunday till gone 6 pm.

Today someone else started early.

It's never any different. Throw in screaming children repeating themselves endlessly at 500 decibels, loud music, stimmers and mowers etc. etc..... I tend to ignore it all though. That's part and parcel of life in a terraced row with very little privacy, but personally I would never do any major work on a Sunday unless absolutely essential. Most people seem to have forgotten the old sanctity of the day though.

Not all councils have the same restrictions, it's better that you look at the website for your local council.

Mine details the working hours for the professional building trade, but doesn't specify hours for DIY, only that you should be considerate to neighbours.

I suspect a lot of these hours are only guidelines, unfortunately.

Plenty of ill-informed idiots on here as usual, ready to jump on a poster with all the weight of their own prejudices, so let me clear up some of the points:

1. How do I know my renovations make money for the neighbours? Well because estate agents bring prospective clients to MY property to show them what can be achieved on similar properties on the street that come up for sale and price those properties accordingly - there is a “potential premium” that gets charged and I demonstrate that. The works I do consistently break the local ceiling on sale prices - three separate estate agents in 3 very different areas tell me so and the sale data is transparent enough to know it’s true.

2. Why should they be grateful? Because they like living in a nice area and people like me come in, spend a lot of money and keep it nice by taking long neglected properties and getting them up to scratch. If it weren’t for people like me, then the pleasant little conservation enclaves these neighbours love so much would fall into disrepair. The price paid for keeping areas nice is constant maintenance and cyclical renovation- and the cost is short term disruption. End of.

3. Here’s an example of why they should be grateful: Current project I bought from a famous musician. Neighbours falling all over themselves to tell me how wonderful they were and how they were never any trouble. During the build it became apparent that the previous owners had performed electrical works described by the local building inspector as “a fire waiting to happen” - on a terraced property, that’s not just my problem, that’s other peoples’ as well. I’ve come in and put that right at my expense. I’ve done the neighbours a favour they didn’t even know they needed doing.
   Next, the Victorian lateral drain had partial collapsed under the house - again my problem until you consider that should it have been allowed to fully collapse, the whole street would have had to deal with my family’s effluent backing up out of the backyard manhole covers. I rebuilt it....along with the drain that sat outside the front of my house that several of the other properties shared. I didn’t ask for a contribution even though it wasn’t solely my problem - I solved it for the sake of speed, less aggravation and because I had the people on site to just get it done without having to speak to anyone.

4. The previous owners allowed the guttering to fall into disrepair so that it drained rainwater down into a small cavity between a neighbour’s kitchen and their extension, causing a damp problem they had yet to recognise. I fixed that. No charge to them and no thanks from them.

5. The neighbours on the other side benefitted from me replacing the flashings in my roof that created damp in their loft on the party wall. Again, no expense to them and no thanks coming my way.

So when these same neighbours tell me how great the previous ‘famous owner’ was (basically because she didn’t create any noise and they liked telling people they lived next to so-and-so) I like to remind them that she never spent a dollar on her property and that ultimately impinged on them whereas me - “nuisance noisy neighbour” - has come along and sorted all that out for them - I’m just sadly not famous. Do I get a thanks? Of course not. But I don’t care - I just don’t want to hear their whining.

Jabbercocky I suspect your neighbours bang on about how great the previous owner was because they find you insufferably smug and condescending as a replacement. Jesus, the tone of what you've written. If you were any more up yourself you'd need scaffolding.

I’m glad you brought the subject of scaffolding up. I let the neighbour use mine for gratis so he could fix a satellite dish issue he couldn’t reach with a ladder. Saved him several hundred quid. Didn’t stop him complaining about noise later on mind you.

And btw - it’s not smug when you’re just plain right.

And whilst we’re at it. It was me that contacted the council to have the swastika graffiti on the lamp posts removed (and I’m not even Jewish) - none the locals could be bothered to do that. Maybe because because they’re not Jewish either and thought “ah who cares”.

Yeah, I’m a real sh!t of a neighbour.

So, jabbercocky, YOUR property had issues (drains/guttering/flashing), that would be potentially problematic for the neighbours and you expect thanks for sorting them out? You took those issues on when you bought the property (knowingly, if you had a proper survey conducted), so you can hardly sneer at the neighbours for being unaware that YOUR property was a risk to them.

Jabber cocky has to be a man...

You don't get a fucking medal for taking the required steps to stop your property seriously damaging other people's.

it's unfortunate for your neighbours but its just one of those things! we did a loft conversion last year and we didn't have anywhere else to stay with our 3 young children and 2 dogs so lived amongst the mess/noise....we paid for the 'shell' but did alot ourselves inc the insulation,plasterboarding and painting and decorating. It was bloody tough on us never mind our neighbours who luckily had their own renovations just before and when speaking we had prewarned what we were planning etc...that neighbour has since down sized (nothing to do with us lol) we now have new neighbours and they have had new kitchen fitted etc....doesn't bother us at all and although we are noise conscious we still have 3 noisy children and another on the way so will never be a quiet household 😂

Correct. MY property and mostly MY responsibility (bar the shared sewer that happened to be within my boundary) - but had the “wonderful pop star” stayed these issues would not have been fixed (she had create them through neglect and cowboy electricians) and they would have impinged upon the day-to-day enjoyment of the rest of the street. Whereas I come along with the will and the means to put that right and these people benefit from it. They could have had a new owner rather than me who wouldn’t have felt so inclined or perhaps able to rectify those issues. Regarding the electrics, unless they had started a major renovation they wouldn’t even have known about it until someone was dialling 999 on their behalf.

Interesting that you skit over the other details around free scaffolding and graffiti removal though. Obviously I score no points for those - or indeed to getting the damaged cobbles of the kerbs repaired by the council or the pollarding of a diseased elm tree that was growing in the road (nimbys complained that I was trying to have the trees on the street removed without checking to see if I’d asked for a mature replacement - (I had done but apparent there is a waiting list for such things) - and as I said I DO NOT expect thanks- but for mitigating several mutualised risks at my own expense - I don’t expect criticism either.

as I said I DO NOT expect thanks
And yet, here you are, blowing your own trumpet!

Not at all. Go back to the OP. It’s all about the unseen and often unacknowledged benefit neighbours accrue from having to put up with property improvements. I am commenting on my experience with people who only see the cost and none of the benefits.

What you've done sounds admirable, Jabbercocky, particularly with the graffiti, but your smug tone is something else. I'm sorry your new neighbours haven't put up a plaque in your honour, how remiss of them.

I don’t want a plaque. I want their petty mindedness out of my business.

Well, as the OP didn't specify what home improvements she and her partner are carrying out, we have no way of knowing how the neighbour might benefit.
I was vaguely aware this afternoon (from my deckchair) of a distant neighbour, over the back and maybe half a dozen (quite large) gardens away, buzzing away with what sounded to me like a floor-sander. I fail to see how that is going to benefit me directly, or even indirectly, but my main thought was sympathy for anyone sweating away doing that sort of task in today's temperatures.
Are you suggesting I should have gone and thanked whoever it was?

Oh, and as it seems you're in need of validation from strangers on the internet, well done for reporting graffiti. And the cobbled kerb or whatever.