Neighbour changes use of garage and then complains about noise

googler

martinthebandit wrote: »

I would be pricing up the cost and asking my neighbours if they would like to contribute.

I would be asking the neighbours to do ALL the legwork, including 'pricing it up'. No reason the OP should be put out to accommodate the neighbour's whim

Each side of the garage will be the same size, the contractor can measure the neighbour's side, and the OP's will be a mirror image.

tunnel

martinthebandit wrote: »

Of course he can make as much noise as he wants, but he could also chose to be a kind and considerate neighbour.

Just because the people he lives next door to are ejits, it does not mean he has to be.

I would be pricing up the cost and asking my neighbours if they would like to contribute.

Why not just roll over and let him rub your belly? Everything was fine and dandy until the neighbour changed his garage over. Did he price up and ask his neighbour to contribute...er no...obviously

I'm all for being a nice neighbour and being considerate, but certainly not after the fact and sure as hell at my time AND expense.

anselld

Why on earth should the OP soundproof their side anyway when the neighbour can apply the same sound proofing their side?

vivatifosi

pimento wrote: »

I'd be amenable to the neighbour paying to soundproof my garage wall to my specifications just to keep a quiet life. Why make your life more difficult than it needs to be?

I'd be worried about making a rod for my own back doing that. I don't know about the OP's garage, but the average garage is narrow enough as it is. Put battens up and soundproofing in, a car wouldn't fit. This is all very well if it is being used as a workshop, but it is also setting a precedent that could come back and bite them if they came to sell. Houses with garages sell at a premium. Why make a garage too narrow for someone to want to buy it?

BobQ

AdrianC wrote: »

How thick are the battens you're using? That acoustic plasterboard is 12.5mm. Could just dot'n'dab it to the wall, but let's go OTT and use CLS for the battens. 38mm thick, so half your 100mm guesstimate in total. You could even stuff some other insulation in there. Or route wiring behind it. And a lined garage looks neater and is a selling plus point when you come to move on.

CLS a tenner.
Acoustic plasterboard, £50.
Moral highground the next time the neighbour moans? Priceless...

If you just want to do a cheap job and stick plasterboard to the wall (albeit one with a little more density) of course you can do this and get some relief.

The OP was asking about transmission of sound generated by power tools. If you want to do a proper job this would require greater thickness and the use of more absorbent materials like mineral fibre.

It may also need floor and ceiling insulation to do it properly.

Obviously you get what you pay for.

pimento

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'd be worried about making a rod for my own back doing that. I don't know about the OP's garage, but the average garage is narrow enough as it is. Put battens up and soundproofing in, a car wouldn't fit. This is all very well if it is being used as a workshop, but it is also setting a precedent that could come back and bite them if they came to sell. Houses with garages sell at a premium. Why make a garage too narrow for someone to want to buy it?

I take your point but most garages these days are so small that even if you can drive your car into it, you have to exit through the sunroof so I think your point is moot.

vivatifosi

pimento wrote: »

I take your point but most garages these days are so small that even if you can drive your car into it, you have to exit through the sunroof so I think your point is moot.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

We bought this house, which has a small garage, having measured it to make sure one of our cars fits in it. The car is kept in it. I would not have bought the house if it did not have a garage.

Though why anyone would want to turn theirs into a lounge is beyond me. It would be a bit narrow, especially when they've fitted all the necessary materials to get it up to building regs.

pimento

vivatifosi wrote: »

Though why anyone would want to turn theirs into a lounge is beyond me. It would be a bit narrow, especially when they've fitted all the necessary materials to get it up to building regs.

This I agree with.

moneyistooshorttomention

BobQ wrote: »

If they have chosen not to take any measures to address the fact that their room shares a wall with a workshop they deserve little sympathy. It may also indicate they have not taken other precautions they are required to take.

.

Errrm....but isn't this the whole crux of the matter though. That is, the neighbours have converted a garage that adjoins a "garage". The OP is the one that was first on the scene regarding using a garage as something other than a garage. The OP isn't using his garage as a garage. Instead, he is using it as a workshop.

A garage is a brick-built room in which a car is stored. It is NOT a workshop.

Personally, I don't think OP has any right to complain in those circumstances, ie that he isn't using his own garage AS a garage.

I can only ever recall encountering one garage that was used as a workshop, instead of being used as a garage. All other garages I know of are either used as garages (ie for parking a car in ONLY) or have been converted into extra rooms in the adjacent house.

My sympathies are with the neighbour here. They may well have bought the house intending from the outset to turn their garage into an extra room and were probably unaware that next door (ie the OP) had converted his garage into a workroom and decided not to let that fact change their plans and to just "wait it out" for OP to stop using it as a workroom/move/etc and then OP's garage would revert to being a garage.

When I was viewing houses recently, I looked at some with garages joined onto neighbours garages. The thought never crossed my mind that the neighbour might be using one as a workshop. My only concern was "If I decide to convert the garage in that house into a room, will the next door neighbour copy me and turn theirs into a room". That concern was in case a garage converted into a room then resulted in noise coming into MY garage converted into a room. I was hoping they would keep their garage unconverted, because then I knew it would be totally quiet (with just the car stored in it or possibly they might be using it as a boxroom for storage only).

Dan-Dan

Oh money........................