Neighbours complained about noise

qtlc

Got home from work last night at 9:20 to find my girlfriend in tears as our next door neighbour had been round to complain about the noise while we've been decorating our bedroom.
Apparently his wife has problems with her nerves and the noise has been driving her mad. He came round at 6:30pm.
We live in a semi detached bungalow built in the 50s. Despite us being 28 we're probably the youngest in the street, it's made up mainly of over 35's which we love because it is so quiet. Our neighbours joined to us are retired, and as such never seem to leave the house except to garden. They have never mentioned anything about the noise before.
We went to them in February when we floored our loft to apologise for any noise that we had been making. Their response was something like "can't make an omlette without breaking any eggs but thank you for taking the time to speak to us". I also said when we first moved in that I hope we weren't noisy moving in and please let us know if we were...
The couple we bought the house from bodged the house up to look nice to sell (they were in 12 months) and typically you notice all the problems after buying such as very thick poor paint with huge lumps all over the woodwork and walls generally in a terrible state hidden by wallpaper. Because of this we want to redecorate and make it nice. It is our home.
My girlfriend went round later to apologise and say that we'd finished painting the adjoining wall and she hoped that it wouldn't be a problem from then on.
The husband said to her that we'd been in for 14 months now (which was incorrect, we got the keys 3rd August) and we'd been working everyday for weeks including late nights (We got our bedroom replastered on the 14th May and NO work was done at all until the 27th to give it time to dry out. It was my birthday last Sunday, we didn't work Fri or Sun and the ceiling was replastered on Sat 7th taking about 3 hours).
We have worked one "late" night (Fri 13th) where our bedroom ceiling was rollered to finish it, other days finish around 4 to give time to clean up. The late night finished around 8pm (their living room light was on, not bedroom) when everything was cleaned in the kitchen (other side of the house to them).
I work shifts 4 days on, 2 off from 1-9 and my girlfriend 9-5. Her Dad has been helping us out. This is a godsend as if we were doing it by ourselves we'd be getting nothing done (or they'd be very annoyed at work starting at 9pm and every weekend...). He arrives around 8.20am and leaves around 16.30-45. No work is started until at least 9.15, often later if we go out to go and get things. Apart from the last 2 Saturdays and Friday the 13th her Dad has been there Mon-Thurs with no work being done Fri, Sat, Sun...
What more can we do?We have tried to be considerate and quiet with what we've been doing throughout. I don't think we've been excessively noisey, certainly much less than if we'd paid for people to do it. We haven't had power tools going non-stop (used very, very rarely) or radio blaring, it's been me and Mike talking or for a lot of it him working on his own.
Are we being totally unreasonable trying to decorate our house and make it nice? I don't understand what they want us to do.
I'm trying to be reasonable and do the right thing but how can we do the work when they never leave the house?
The thing is, I feel almost as if we're asking permission to decorate our home and don't feel that we should have to.
What happens when we want to redo our living room? Do we have to ask if they have any holidays planned???
Argh, it's frustrating, I don't want to think it's causing them problems but likewise they should understand people have work they want to do.
Sorry for the vent. Can anyone suggest what to do next?
I thought about going round tonight and saying that I hoped that there hadn't been any noise today (skirting boards were painted) and that we were hoping to build the furniture tomorrow and would try to be as quiet as possible and to let us know if it's too noisy. I can make the small things in the garage and carry them in, the wardrobes I can't. I've put the old carpet back into the room so we're not building wardrobe carcasses on top of bare floorboards to try and help the noise. Don't know what else to do and don't want this to turn into a big issue. Have we been unreasonable do you think?
Help.

amcluesent

>or they'd be very annoyed at work starting at 9pm and every weekend...<

Councils would generally take up a noise complaint for regular use of power tools after 5pm Mon-Fri and any time on Sundays.

>Have we been unreasonable do you think?<

As you say, it (has been) a quiet area... People get sensitised to noise, especially if they don't when it'll start and how long it'll go on for. How long have you been at this DIY process - quite a while I should say? I'd meet with your neighbours and give them a rough timetable of which days you'll be working and commit to stop by 5pm and not be bashing about at weekends. Then they can choose to go out. Also, you could ask to be in their house when work it going on and hear for yourself how much noise is transmitted and maybe plan to reduce that as part of the refurb.

If you let things escalate your neighbours could get the Council involved, then when you come to sell you'd need to notify that there was a neighbour dispute which wouldn't help the sales value...

Why not pop this sticker in your window with pride!

adaze

"The working hours imposed on building sites would not normally be applicable to home DIY jobs. This is because people can often only undertake DIY work in the evenings and at weekends. It is not unreasonable for people to undertake DIY works unless they are occurring late at night or early in the morning (i.e. after 9.00 p.m. or before 8.00 a.m.). Should noisy works (e.g. hammering, using power tools) occur outside of these times, the resulting noise may constitute a statutory nuisance." - from the local council website.

What people often fail to think about when complaining about noise is that there could be a valid reason. No-one would expect you to live in a messy unfinished house, and it sounds like your neighbours are being unreasonable. Even if your neighbour is sensitive to noise, the work still needs to be done and it sounds as if you have been more than considerate with your working times and noise that you have made. Everyone will have times when the HAVE to make noise and however annoying neighbours find it, at the end of the day its just TOUGH LUCK, you are going to do your work so you can have somewhere nice to live. I wouldn't worry too much, carry on how you have been, to be you have been more than courteous with your working.

dmg24

Why was she in tears about it?

qtlc

"As you say, it (has been) a quiet area... People get sensitised to noise, especially if they don't when it'll start and how long it'll go on for. How long have you been at this DIY process - quite a while I should say?"

Hi thanks for the reply.
We moved into the house on 3rd August. We decorated our spare bedroom during October (other side of house to them) then didn't do any work until 6th February when we started flooring and lining the loft. This took about a month working 3-4 days each week.
We started our bedroom 30th April and have been working as I said above, generally mon-thurs between 9.15 and 4.30. We also had from the 14th - 27th May with no work being done at all while the room dried out.
Do you think it's too much too soon or taking too long? I thought we'd been more than considerate not going from one job to the next like others might.

I can't see the picture, works blocks it. I'll have a look when I get home.

qtlc

"What people often fail to think about when complaining about noise is that there could be a valid reason. No-one would expect you to live in a messy unfinished house, and it sounds like your neighbours are being unreasonable. Even if your neighbour is sensitive to noise, the work still needs to be done and it sounds as if you have been more than considerate with your working times and noise that you have made. Everyone will have times when the HAVE to make noise and however annoying neighbours find it, at the end of the day its just TOUGH LUCK, you are going to do your work so you can have somewhere nice to live. I wouldn't worry too much, carry on how you have been, to be you have been more than courteous with your working."

Thank you for that. I do think we've been considerate which makes the whole situation worse. I'd be interested to see how they would cope with some of the neighbours I lived with as a student. But hey ho. Hopefully we can finish it either tomorrow or Tuesday.

qtlc

"Why was she in tears about it?"

Just the whole situation. She didn't want to feel like we'd been causing them problems but also that we'd been more than considerate. She feels like we can't decorate our own house as they never go out and feels like she's walking round on eggshells now.

qtlc

"Also, you could ask to be in their house when work it going on and hear for yourself how much noise is transmitted and maybe plan to reduce that as part of the refurb."

I'd like to see exactly how much noise does travel between our houses. We never hear anything from their side apart from I heard their dog bark once so either they sit quietly and don't move ever or you can't hear much through the walls.

I also worry that now they've complained about the noise everytime we do anything they'll be bothered. It's amazing how you don't notice something until you do and then you notice everytime, like a clock ticking...

timnicebutdim_2

Sounds like they are a bit hyper sensitive (and perhaps need to get out a bit more), i suppose if you stayed in your house all day, everyday you would notice noises and little things that would eventually drive you crazy. It sounds like you have been more than considerate, it's not like you've been sanding the floors or gutting the place (which your perfectly entitled to do anyway). You could have always bought a dog or played loud music but you haven't. They could try complaining but that won't go anywhere unless it's like really excessive, so personally i'd just carry on with whatever you want to do showing some (reasonable) consideration. Sounds like they will complain whatever you do.

UK007BullDog

How can painting a skirting board be noisy? How can rollering a wall or ceiling be noisy? Or are you using electric painting gear?

tomstickland

Such a situation requires reasonableness and I think the OP has demonstrated reasonable behaviour. ie: explaining what is happening, warning neighbours etc.
Personally, if my neighbour was making lots of noise but I saw that decorating was going on then I'd not be bothered. I'd much rather live next door to someone who was refurbishing their house rather than someone who thought that demonstrating their home cinema was the priority every evening.

I think the only thing the OP can do is explain to the neighbours in more detail what they are doing and how long it will last.