Noise Noise Noise!

I prefer to stay on good terms with my neighbours, so I would have a chat, and find out when it's least inconvenient for them.

A dialogue will generally calm things down and promote goodwill.

A start would be to ask if there was a better day/time if any noise had to be made.

Also think about batching noisy tasks. If you have to cut 20 things, get them all ready and cut them in one go. Don't cut one thing every 5 minutes for 2 hours, because that's infuriating if you're trying to sleep or concentrate on something.

Theo (who has a neighbour who likes using his circular saw in his unsoundproofed shed)

What would you want them to do if the situation was reversed? I would invite them round for a meal and show them what you're doing, explain how much longer it will take and ask if there's any time you should avoid making a noise. Communicating and "being reasonable" is invariably the best approach

In message <seuhu3$1fh9$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org>, Chris Bacon snipped-for-privacy@maildrop.cc writes

Keep a diary of when you are doing noisy work.

That sort of mirrors the advice you see given to people complaining about noisy neighbours (keep a note of when they are noisy), so if there is any follow up on it, you can point out that it's only been (say) 10 hours a month, and always during "normal" working hours.

Adrian

I heartily endorse this statement! I too have a neighbour like that.

I suffer this too here. It is very annoying if you aare sitting out in the garden and want peace and birdsong to be what you hear, but increasingly the noise is everywhere. You have to realise its probably not just you. Lots of others are making the most of the weather when its dry. Angle grinder, hammer driller and strimmer man or woman seems to be breeding!

Short of buying all your neighbours ear defenders and a cd of birdsong, I see no answer until we can make equipment which is silent. A tall order when you consider, most of the time, its the material you are working on which is the noise source. Brian

I have a neighbour who spends an incomprehensible amount of time running a circular saw in his shed.

I'd ask him but I think I have that face that looks like it's complaining rather than enquiring, I often seem to piss people off unintentionally.

Some people are just unreasonable. I had an elderly neighbour used to be forever moaning at me but seemingly oblivious to the racket she made playing her organ. She was better than her replacement though, whose* son sells crack and stabs people.

I don't mind noise if it's constructive and as such necessary, or social, and at a reasonable time.

Our neighbourhood is currently plagued by faulty or poorly managed alarms and bored dogs. That I can do without.

On the topic of noise, I have a neighbour with wind chimes, I can't decide if you should take those in with you like you would a radio :)

Ignore her. Carry on doing what you were doing when you want to do it. You are as entitled to make a noise as she is to complain about it. And if she can't be arsed to say anything to you directly she doesn't deserve any consideration from you. (In my previous house, a semi, I had neighbours who started banging on the wall when I had my hifi on, which I ignored. When he eventually came round to complain in person, when it was on, I invited him in to listen. He apologised, agreeing that it wasn't loud at all. I pointed out that it worked both ways and I could hear noise that they made. I didn't tell him that I could also hear her when he was having sex with her. After that I decided that I wouldn't live in a semi again, although I understand that new ones have to have proper sound insullation in the party wall.)

The bowls green clubhouse at the bottom of my garden was bad for the former, I found the mobile number of their club secretary, and whenever the alarm went off at 3am, I'd "notify" him by SMS

The latter was improved when next door's dog died, thankfully they haven't replaced it.