Building work driving us insane!

sophie131

Ok, not technically moneysaving, I suppose i'd be moneysaving if I didn't have to buy a new house due to this horrible building work! Ok, this is a long one:
We used to live in beautiful countryside until they decided to build an estate around us. We're talkung 6 new schools, a train station, you get the picture. The builders and the work is an utter disgrace. My dad can barely get his van off the drive to work as we now only have half a road with a metal fence across it. They change the road layout daily with no signs as to where we should go. The most annoying thing at the moment for me is the noise. They have had a machine for a few weeks in the field across the road which makes THE most hurrendous noise. As my room is at the front of the house it's awful. I cannot hear my laptop or tv even when turned up to full volume. To give you an idea of it, it has cracked my neighbours house from the vibrations. The whole place is a tip there are so many other things gone wrong but I simply don't want to bore you all with them as the noise and vibrations are the main problem for me at the moment.
It has taken 6 weeks to get someone to come and see us, they are coming in 2 weeks. But everytime environmental health and the boss come the machine magically turns off for that hour. Surprise surprise.
What can we do, I am absolutely desperate here!
Oh and it starts at 7.20 am and carries on until 6pm.

Paparika

Welcome to my world.

for the past 3 1/2 years we have had the disastrous Cabot circus being built around us.

http://www.cabotcircus.com/template01.asp?pageid=115

take a good look at the photos, we live in there somewhere.

Legally they can make noise from 7.30am - 7.30 pm 7 days a week.

but we've had it 24/7 for 3 1/2 years.

Keep a diary of anything you think is wrong, ie starting at 7.20am is a no no.
we are in the process of doing a diary and even the smallest thing that we think is wrong we write it down.

belfastgirl23

We are just beside a major (£10m) building project and have had virtually no hassle with it at all apart from once when they had to dig up the road and left metal plates over it - cars driving over it at speed sounded like gunfire! We complained, they agreed it was unworkable and filled it in every night before they left. I even managed to sleep while they took down a large prefab building about 100 metres away from my bedroom window! They are signed up to the responsible building scheme. Just letting you know that measures can be put in place to minimise disruption - our site has a designated site entrance away from the residential area and workers are fined if they ignore this.

I'd say if they tone everything down when environ health are there then it's worth videotaping a typical day...

Good luck, it must be really horrible.

tomstickland

You could make video with a digital camera and post it on the web along with prominent keywords for the construction companies involved.
Buy a db meter and measure the noise nuisance.

If the company involved fail to responsd to your problems seriously then
look up the company details on companies house and cold call their directors.
Hire some noisey equipement and call round their house early in the morning.

daveyjp

Get copies of the planning decision notices - most are available on line now and check the conditions attached to it. A small development now has at least 20!, so a large development could have pages. Go through them and if they are breaking any of the clauses get onto planning enforcement.