New neighbour's DIY going on SEVEN MONTHS!!!!

fortunefortune

Hello,


I hope the forum can give me some perspective on a problem I have with my neighbour. He moved in to the flat above 7 months ago. The previous neighbours had tried (badly) to 'do up' the flat for months beforehand, so we had already been stressed by ongoing DIY noise. Not his fault, but he is pernickety to a fault, and has basically redone everything including ripping out walls, floor, kitchen, bathroom and totally new gas system. There was a lot more work than he had expected, so poor him, however we have had DIY about 4/5 day/evenings a week including weekends that went on for 6 months.


I work from home, so have been driven to distraction, and my stress levels are out of hand - I feel I have completely lost it and have no 0 to 10 levels of stress - I am constantly on 10 ready to flip at any time. This has caused issues between myself and partner, and I have found myself screaming at him which has added to my problems as I am now shamed and humiliated as the other neighbours will have heard. The obvious suggestion is to speak to neighbour, but he is not the nice guy he made himself out to be when he moved in. He had to get our agreement for the external gas box to go on the joint wall, we agreed where, filled in forms for him and even did a diagram at his suggestion, then while he thought we were out at work, the men started to do the work In a totally different place on the wall at our end. He was in but not answering his door even to the workmen, and when he finally came down, said the forms had been 'lost'.


He could talk for hours about the whole project and expected up to show great interest in full details of every little step including photos on his phone every time we stepped outside, and if it seemed like you had to be somewhere else, he went kind of weird and aggro like we had a problem. We mentioned to him early on that it was incredibly noisy when there were temporarily no carpets above, he used to take his shoes off on the carpets, but now has bare floorboards and heavy tiling, and walks about in shoes all the time. He also slams his front door really loudly and puts his noisy washing machine on Friday nights when you are trying to relax in front of the telly. We spoke to him about the gas issue, but have not complained once about the DIY noise in all 7 months. The noise tailed off at the 6 month mark, and we thought it might be over, but it has started up again and you wonder WHAT ON EARTH IS BEING DONE NOW? - IT IS A ONE BEDROOM FLAT!!!!! We never know when it will start up again as there is no logic to it, and he is very nifty as he has made a huge effort to show what a great chatty guy he is to the other neighbours, whereas we are pretty quiet and are more friendly but just 'hi, how are you, bye' folk. I am at my wit's end, but am worried that he will bad mouth us to the neighbours and do extra stuff to get back at us.


Sorry for ramble, I am stressed to the limit. Am I being fair/fussy/over-sensitive/a mug... how to deal please without more aggro.

Hedgehog99

Oh you poor things! I too have been amazed at how long and how noisy work on a one- or two-bed property can be. The biggest problem other than him is your need to work at home - any chance you can work somewhere else (I know that kind of defeats the object, but... just temporarily)? At a friend or relative's house when they are out at work?

I really hope the work comes to an end soon and you can have your life back. I had a neighbour who did constant DIY when he had a year off sick from work - hmmm... too sick to work, but well enough to DIY. On a small property, he did run out of sensible things to do, so I used to joke to others about what'd be next.

Wishing you strength and resilience to get through this!

phoenix_w

Been there. We had a diy obsessed neighbour who thought nothing of starting at 7am every weekend morning and working past 9pm. Polite requests to do his stuff at reasonable times at first met with nonsensical excuses such as "I consider Saturday mornings to be work days" and ended up being "p*ss off".

In just 3 years he'd fitted two sets of windows, did his own diy extension (slowly, loudly and seemed proud that he could wake up the baby first thing in the morning and keep her from going to bed at night), redid the same rooms god knows how many times over. So many other projects we wondered if any of the bricks in his house didn't have drill holes in them...

There is no right answer on what to do. You can keep a diary, take it to the council and have a dispute to declare when you sell, or you can suck it up as we did and sell up when you're able.

The only things I'd recommend are...

- keep the lines of communication open. Noise is a lot more tolerable if you know when to expect it. Ask him to tell you when he's doing work. I know that of my ex neighbour told me that he needed to do his hammering on the party wall at 9.30pm I would have been annoyed, but at least I could have kept baby awake and known when to put her to sleep

- don't give a stuff about what the neighbours think. If they can't see what's really going on then they're not people you want to associate with

- remove yourself from the situation and enjoy the sunshine. It's easy to feel trapped, but you're not - there's an ice cream with your name on it

pendragon_arther

I really sympathise. You could have a word with your local council as noise is considered a pollutant nowadays. I believe there are times when noisy work has to start and stop and for example no power tools on a Sunday.

rum1

Had the same problem with a neighbor and we contacted the local environment office who issued a warning to them as this was going on 7 days a week. it didnt stop the noise but at least they kept to the hours allowed.

Disturbance from DIY building and decorating can be minimised by keeping noisy activities such as hammering, drilling and using power tools to reasonable hours.

It is recommended that noisier activities are restricted to 8am-6pm on weekdays, 9am-1pm on Saturday and not at all on Sundays.

ispookie666

rum1 wrote: »

Had the same problem with a neighbor and we contacted the local environment office who issued a warning to them as this was going on 7 days a week. it didnt stop the noise but at least they kept to the hours allowed.

Disturbance from DIY building and decorating can be minimised by keeping noisy activities such as hammering, drilling and using power tools to reasonable hours.

It is recommended that noisier activities are restricted to 8am-6pm on weekdays, 9am-1pm on Saturday and not at all on Sundays.

That's pretty much A full stop for diy

roneik

Put the radio on and have that as background sound to distract yourself from the noise.
Chill out , I was a shift worker with noisy neighbors and learned to sleep through it all.
The more you wind yourself up about it the more it will affect you.Failing that put some amplified AC DC on full blast each time they finish drilling. It worked for me. Fight fire with kittens I say lol

roneik

Forgot to mention that I recommend the track Highway to hell played on a loop. If it doesn't help then it may well send you deaf. Problem solved.

Sooki

roneik wrote: »

Forgot to mention that I recommend the track Highway to hell played on a loop. If it doesn't help then it may well send you deaf. Problem solved.

I learnt that trick from my mother and on the occasions I have needed to use it it has worked to great effect, other songs are available, pick your moment and go out shopping :A

roneik

Nah that band playing that track means one thing , time for a brandy possibly several .
Then some Ozzie Ozbourne tracks . Then the final track Thunderstruck AC DC
Never forget the final track

roneik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2AC41dglnM