Neighbours complained about noise

maninthestreet

UK007BullDog wrote: »

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

My thoughts exactly.

flea72

painting and plastering are not noisy jobs, so i cant see how they can complain about noise.

however, you must have a massive loft, as it took about a month to board out? if someone was hammering boards down in a loft for that length of time, i think i would have been a bit peed off at the noise, enough so, that any slight noise from you in future, would set me off, thinking how long it was gonna go on for this time!

my biggest concern though, is the time the previous owners were in the house. Are you sure they didnt leave due to the grumpy neighbours?

Flea

vwjo

Hi qtlc - I understand your situation entirely, and hope somebody shoots me if I ever get 'bad nerves'... but.......
Just for your own sakes, and in the interest of a quiet (!) life, would you consider taking round a bunch of flowers or suchlike as an 'apology', and asking what they would like you to do? (ie, what times would be acceptable?)
Get them involved, and usually when you put someone in the situation of deciding what action they want you to take, they actually start to see your point of view....
You don't owe these people this, but it might make life much easier for you in the long run....

Good Luck!

G-G_4

I'd ignore them, they are obviously being fussy for the sake of it.

Be polite and appologise if there is too much noise, but if you want to decorate then do it, just stay polite to them and let them moan..

How old are your neighbours?

advent1122

It is just me or do you think we are not getting the whole story?
NOBODY compalins about painting. I mean - you cant hear someone painting, unless you have been sanding down the woodwork non stop for weeks.

Kavanne

I was worried about the noise I made when painting but only because we had bare floorboards and I was shifting the ladder around a lot as I couldn't reach the picture rail without it... But that's the only way I made any noise....

m_13

We had elderly retired neighbours in our last but one house. They went out one day a week to do their shopping and that was it. It was a semi and they had got used to living next to an empty house whilst probate went through.

At first the man came round to help us with DIY and insisted on taking over every job as he knew best, but his wife soon put a stop to that. They said how lovely it was to have neighbours again and were forever giving us fresh eggs from their chickens and fruit and veg from their garden. Then one day after we had put up a blind in the bathroom (clear window and no window covering) which needed us to use a hammer drill to get the fixings in he came round shouting and threatening us.

From then on even the smallest amount of work would have him around. We tried going around or calling him and warning him when we were doing work, asked him to call if the noise became too much and stopped when he called but he became more and more restrictive about what we could do. We even had to stop sanding the floor because he came round shouting saying that he couldn't hear Neighbours. We didn't dare put on the sander again because he had a heart problem and his wife said we were going to kill him (he's still going strong).

No amount of reasoning would work and in the end he stormed home shouting that we were terrible neighbours and now he was going to be a terrible neighbour back. He then started having fires next to our fence and even made a huge pile of logs and chainsawed them directly next to the fence by our dining room window. If we put washing out, he'd have a fire. In the end we just completely ignored him. We were in tears so many times worrying about what he was up to. At one point he threatened to arrange for a council swap with a rowdy family so we wouldn't be able to sell our house! When they went out shopping once a week they locked their barking dog into their only downstairs room that adjoined our house.

I think you are being more than reasonable. There are benefits and downsides to living in an area where you are the youngest. We live in a block of flats now where our immediate neighbours are all over 80! However they have been lovely and so long as we warn about the noise they are absolutely fine. They are all doing our DIY vicariously and want to know all about it.

All you can do is continue as you are. However, don't be bullied. If you are being reasonable then no complaint will be upheld. If you keep restricting what you can do because your neighbours are unreasonable then eventually you'll be tiptoing around the house worrying about dropping a book like we were.

(What happened to us? We sold our house to a woman who was desperate to move to our road. She was a cash buyer who did no survey and knew our neighbours of old. She did the bare minimum of legal work, paid the asking price and had an old snappy dog who was so vicious the postman refused to call at her old house. I sometimes dream that it jumps the fence into next door's garden and chases them .... )

Mojisola

vwjo wrote: »

Just for your own sakes, and in the interest of a quiet (!) life, would you consider taking round a bunch of flowers or suchlike as an 'apology', and asking what they would like you to do? (ie, what times would be acceptable?)
Get them involved, and usually when you put someone in the situation of deciding what action they want you to take, they actually start to see your point of view....

I would be wary of this - they may take you up on it and start dictating exactly what you can do and when!

Loopy_Girl

dmg24 wrote: »

Why was she in tears about it?

Is that really releveant to the query? I would imagine she was upset and a little shocked and people tend to cry when they are like that:rolleyes:

To OP, you are doing everything you can. You have to make your house a home for heavens sake and it's not like you are giving it hammer and tongs at all hours. I would continue as you are doing and perhaps keep a note of any comments etc that are made just in case they go to the council and complain. You are doing nothing wrong. Like you, I purposefully bought a house in a predominately older environment (I'm 33) as I had shocking neigbours in my last place and whilst I live my life, I do take into consideration the people I am around which is exactly what you are doing.

Don't be bullied and made to feel bad from these people. As someone else says they have probably been used to complete silence so it's a shock to the system. If they moan again, politely point out that you have the right to do small DIY jobs to your home and you are doing it in an appropriate time as per the environmental health.

Good luck

dander

Just a thought - you mention bare floorboards. If you've got rooms that are all stripped out with no flooring, no curtains, no furniture etc, there's nothing to absorb the noise, so they tend to be a bit rattly and echoey - perhaps that makes the noise transfer through more to your neighbours house. Perhaps you could get some proper fabric dust sheets and get them all over the floors to try and help absorb the noises.

Although how they can hear a roller is anyone's guess!